The Woman Who Builds a House (Proverbs 14)
- Yoriko Sakasegawa
- 2 hours ago
- 1 min read
“The wise woman builds her house” — בָּנְתָה (bāntāh)
Root: בָּנָה (bānāh)
Meaning: to build, to establish, to raise up, to build a household, to establish a family line.
“But the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands” — תֶהֶרְסֶנּוּ (tehersennū)
Root: הָרַס (hāras)
Meaning: to tear down, to demolish, to destroy, to break apart.
(Proverbs 14:1)
What is striking is that this is not a passage about being good or bad at housework.
Neither can it be contained within the simple advice, “Be a good wife.”
Scripture places before us a much stronger contrast:
בָּנָה (bānāh) — to build
and
הָרַס (hāras) — to tear down.
Even more striking, the text says that the foolish woman tears it down
“with her own hands,” emphasizing
that she herself is the agent of destruction.
There is another interesting detail.
The verb בָּנָה (bānāh), “to build,” is also an important verb in Genesis.
For example:
“And the LORD God made the rib, which he had taken from man, into a woman,
and brought her unto the man.”
(Genesis 2:22, KJV)
The word translated “made” is וַיִּבֶן (vayyiven), from the root בָּנָה (bānāh) — to build.
As we walk through Proverbs 14, a small path appears that leads back to Genesis.
In Genesis, God builds the woman.
In Proverbs 14:1, the wise woman builds her house.
The same verb quietly joins Genesis and Proverbs together.
The one who was built now appears, standing as one who builds.
Today,
Are you building something?
Or,
Are you tearing something down?
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