ABSTRACT
The poetic portrait of the capable or excellent wife, placed at the end of the biblical book of Proverbs, represents one of the most striking documents on women dating from Hebrew antiquity. Due to its brevity and the lack of similar biblical texts, scholars have made little use of the poem for understanding the organization and management of the household in biblical times. It has also escaped the attention of economic historians. The present essay argues that new light can be shed on the poem and its socio-economic background from comparative evidence. Much can be learned about the Hebrew wife when her position is compared to that of the Athenian wife as depicted in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus. Much insight can also be gained from the portrait of the Ottoman wife as it emerges from recent historical and anthropological study.
