Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words | It’s amazing how much the book of Proverbs has to say about wives. Of course when you think about who wrote the book, this really should be no surprise, for its author, King Solomon, had 700. Yes, 700 wives! In his book he shares what he learned from his experience.

Solomon wrote, “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord” (18:22). He pointed out that “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord” (19:14). He writes of rejoicing in the “wife of your youth” (5:18), expressing the pleasure of a good marriage even after youth is gone.

Solomon also must have known what it was like to have a nagging wife for he wrote that “a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping” (19:13). “Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife” (21:9). Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife” (21:19). “A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day” (27:15).

One more theme in the book of Proverbs is the wayward or immoral wife. He speaks of her seductive words (2:16) and her smooth tongue (6:24), and he warns of sleeping with another man’s wife (6:29). He says “A disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones” (12:4).

Then he closes his book of wisdom with that famous description of the ideal wife in Proverbs 31. If you haven’t read it recently, you must do it. He begins by saying, “A wife of noble character who can find?” Then one of the richest men in the world goes on to say, “She is worth far more than rubies” (31:10). What follows is a pattern for all of us who are wives.

Take it from Solomon, a man of experience. “A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown” (12:4).