Proverbs 12:4: A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: But she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

The virtuous woman. The phrase “a virtuous woman” appears three times in Scripture: here, and in Proverbs 31:10 and Ruth 3:11. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the order of the books often serves an interpretive purpose. That is the case here. The Book of Ruth follows the Book of Proverbs, offering Ruth as an example of the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31:10-31.

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