Scholia on Proverbs

Those learning the words about her. She makes unserviceable wool and linen with her hands. The soul is a weaver of wool and linen, considering the nature of living and lifeless things, or examining the discourses concerning the practical and the natural. One said that the soul weaves wool and linen, drawing the contemplation of bodies and incorporeals toward it through the practical life.

The one who is the sun of justice finds the soul rising from the night, being watchful, and moreover praying, so that she might not fall into temptation; for she herself hastens to say, 'I awoke and became like a sparrow perching on a roof' (Psalm 84:3). She rose up and realized that it is good to work, and the lamp is not extinguished through the whole night. A pure mind is a lamp, filled with spiritual contemplation.

She stretches out her hands toward what is profitable; her shuttles she rests upon a loom. A pure mind is a loom, weaving virtue with virtue and doctrine with doctrine, or a spoken word drawing spiritual contemplation from the mind. Her husband does not care about those in the house whenever she is busy; for all those near her are being clothed. The mind would not proceed, nor would contemplation of the incorporeals occur, without first correcting the inner things; for the disturbance of the household is wont to turn it back toward those things from which it had departed. But having acquired apatheia, she will be busy in contemplation and will not care about those in the house; for the soul has clothed itself in practicalness and humility, and in desire, temperance and self-control.

She made two shuttles for her husband; garments of earth and sea from fine linen and purple. The discourses are garments of the rational soul from fine linen and...

A purple garment. Another says that the contemplation of events and the contemplation of the Holy Trinity is a garment of a pure mind made of the deep and purple.

He made linen and gave it, and girdles to the Canaanites (Proverbs 31:24). The linen shown on the roof was a symbol to Peter of the sensible world; for the various animals contained in it showed the diverse characters of men, having been purified by the cross of Christ. If one linen signified this world, may it not be that many linens contain the contemplation of various worlds, which the pure soul having contemplated, shared with others. And if the Canaanites are interpreted as the lowly, it is well that he did not give the linens to the lowly in mind, but to the pure the linens, and to the Canaanites the girdles, which are symbols of the practical life, the passionate part of the soul binding.

Narrow dwellings of the house (Proverbs 31:27). If the devil is 'king' of 'all those in the waters' and 'through waterless places he finds no rest', then it is rightly said that the narrow dwellings are the habits of the pure soul.

She was lazy and did not eat grain (Proverbs 31:27). They say that lazy grain is the evil.

For a wise woman is blessed; but the fear of the Lord let her praise (Proverbs 31:30). If 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom', then the soul which happens to find wisdom rightly praises the fear of the Lord, which has become to her a precursor of such knowledge.

He who does not conduct himself with his own house will inherit wind, and he will serve a fool despite being wise (Proverbs 11:29). This exhortation of the fool. Every worthless fool, every fool is a slave, therefore every worthless person is a slave.

Friends will hate poor friends, but many friends of the rich (Proverbs 14:20). For the holy angels love the holy because of their virtues; but they hate the sinners because of their poverty.