What Does Proverbs 31:22 Mean in the King James?
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew מַרְבָּדִים (marvadim, “coverings”) appears again for the bed covering in Proverbs 7:16, so the text makes a covering’s meaning turn on who makes it and what it serves.
THE MEANING
A woman makes coverings for herself, and her clothing is silk and purple. Skilled work and visible beauty share one life here: what covers and adorns her is something she creates.
THE ROOT
מַרְבָּדִים
marvadim
GROWS FROM
רבד
To spread out or lay over.
English “coverings” can sound like a generic layer, but מַרְבָּדִים (marvadim, “coverings”) is a rare textile word, used again for the bed covering in Proverbs 7:16. Here she makes those coverings for herself, bringing attention to the maker and purpose as well as the fabric.
ALSO GROWS
rābad: The root’s basic action is spreading something across a surface.
רָבַד
It gives the covering the sense of a laid-out textile, something shaped to cover a surface.
marbād: A woven covering laid over a bed or surface.
מַרְבָּד
Its plural, מַרְבָּדִים (marvadim, “coverings”), is the same word used in Proverbs 7:16, linking the two passages through the covering itself.
THE PATTERN
What skilled hands make can become a visible covering for oneself or another.
I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen.Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.THE THREAD
I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.מַרְבָּדִים (marvadim, “coverings”) appears in both verses, making the connection unusually concrete. Proverbs 7 places them on a bed prepared to entice; Proverbs 31 places them among what the woman makes for herself, so the same covering takes its meaning from its maker and use.
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