The “Strange Woman,” “Lady Folly,” and Waltke’s Interpretation of “Lady Wisdom” in Proverbs 1-9

In Proverbs 1-9, a figure scholars refer to as ‘Lady Wisdom,’ and her negative foil, ‘Lady Folly,’ are found. In the introduction to his commentary, Waltke discusses the identity of Lady Wisdom (83-87) and of a “unified figure” said to stand over against Lady Wisdom (119-120). Surprisingly, Waltke conflates Lady Folly of Prov 9:13-18 in his comment on that passage (443) with the “strange woman” - the woman who is not one’s own - elsewhere in Proverbs. He rightly does not do so in his introduction (119-125). There Lady Folly of Prov 9:13-18 is conspicuous by her absence in Waltke’s discussion of the “strange woman.”

It is in fact misleading to suggest that, outside of 9:1-18, a negative foil of a persona “stands over against Woman Wisdom” (120). The “strange woman” is a desired and desiring figure of entrapment in 2:16-22; 5:1-23; 6:20-35; and 7:1-27. But Lady Wisdom is not developed in these passages as a positive counterpart to her.

As Michael Fox argues (262), the positive counterpart to the “strange woman” is one’s own wife, not “Lady Wisdom.” At a higher level of abstraction, the strange woman forms a pair with Lady Folly, if only subliminally, as one’s own wife with Lady Wisdom does.

Bibliography

Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB18A; New York: Doubleday, 2000); Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs 1-15 (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).

Comments

[ElShaddai Edwards]

I always laugh when I read the NEB's rendering of Proverbs 9.13:

"The Lady Stupidity is a flighty creature..."

[JohnFH]

That is funny.

Really, though, the Hebrew does not imply flightiness. The adjective references boisterous, loud behavior.

[Micah Smith]

Hope you do not mind me posting on an old post:

There is some significant similarity of the strange woman and the foolish woman: 5:5-6 and 9:18 - they are certainly connected in that sense.

And I see 7:4 as very much as displaying the contrasting persona to the display of the strange woman which follows. And as Lady Wisdom is a personification of Wisdom, taking chapter as a single poem, it is Wisdom that saves a person from the strange woman.

My question I am working on is this: If Lady Wisdom is a metaphor, or personification of what wisdom and knowledge grounded in the fear of the Lord is, do these other woman figures unified or not stand for more than simply immoral sexuality, and rather, stand for and represent false wisdom? Just as Israel is often described as a bride, pure or adulterous, is sexual immorality here being used to help us identify more bad wisdom than simply staying with Wife #1?

Thanks for your post, and others I have had the pleasure to read an engage with.