Trashing the House

God says a lot about women in the Bible. They have problems, they have powers. They can mature into distinguished and fruitful glory, they can destroy themselves and families and friendships. Women can trash their lives par excellence.

In the book of Proverbs, not only is wisdom personified as a lady, part of the king’s instruction to his son(s) is about recognizing and finding an excellent wife. That said, folly is also described as a female, and she ruins households from within and from without.

One succinct contrast comes in Proverbs 14:1.

The wisest of women builds her house,
but folly with her own hands tears it down.

This is more metaphorical than material; it’s not about laying bricks or removing load bearing walls. Her “house” is not the building, but she can build the household, the family, the relationships, the structure. She can also make everything a mess.

This assumes that women have power. We rightly observe that men do, too, and that they will use their strength either constructively or destructively. But Solomon credits women with similar capacity.

Don’t underestimate a woman because she’s not the “head” of the house.