Proverbs 31:19
New International Version
In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

New Living Translation
Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber.

English Standard Version
She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

Berean Standard Bible
She stretches out her hands to the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

King James Bible
She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

New King James Version
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hand holds the spindle.

New American Standard Bible
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle.

NASB 1995
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle.

NASB 1977
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle.

Legacy Standard Bible
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands hold fast the spindle.

Amplified Bible
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands hold the spindle [as she spins wool into thread for clothing].

Christian Standard Bible
She extends her hands to the spinning staff, and her hands hold the spindle.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
She extends her hands to the spinning staff, and her hands hold the spindle.

American Standard Version
She layeth her hands to the distaff, And her hands hold the spindle.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
She stretched out her arms with diligence and her hands to the spindle.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
She reaches forth her arms to needful works, and applies her hands to the spindle.

Contemporary English Version
She spins her own cloth,

Douay-Rheims Bible
She hath put out her hand to strong things, and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle.

English Revised Version
She layeth her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"She puts her hands on the distaff, and her fingers hold a spindle.

Good News Translation
She spins her own thread and weaves her own cloth.

International Standard Version
She works with her own hands on her clothes — her hands work the sewing spindle.

JPS Tanakh 1917
She layeth her hands to the distaff, And her hands hold the spindle.

Literal Standard Version
She has sent forth her hands on a spindle, | And her hands have held a distaff.

Majority Standard Bible
She stretches out her hands to the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

New American Bible
She puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle.

NET Bible
Her hands take hold of the distaff, and her hands grasp the spindle.

New Revised Standard Version
She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

New Heart English Bible
She lays her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

Webster's Bible Translation
She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

World English Bible
She lays her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

Young's Literal Translation
Her hands she hath sent forth on a spindle, And her hands have held a distaff.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Virtues of a Noble Woman
18She sees that her gain is good, and her lamp is not extinguished at night. 19She stretches out her hands to the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 20She opens her arms to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.…

Cross References
2 Samuel 3:29
May it whirl over the heads of Joab and the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food."

Proverbs 31:18
She sees that her gain is good, and her lamp is not extinguished at night.

Proverbs 31:20
She opens her arms to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.


Treasury of Scripture

She lays her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

Exodus 35:25,26
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…

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Distaff Fingers Forth Grasp Grasps Hand Hands Held Hold Holds Lays Puts Putteth Rod Stretches Wheel
Proverbs 31
1. Lemuel's lesson of chastity and temperance
6. The afflicted are to be comforted and defended
10. The praise and properties of a good wife














Verse 19. - YODH. She layeth her hands to the spindle. כִּישׁור. (kishor, a word not occurring elsewhere) is probably not the spindle, but the distaff, i.e. the staff to which is tied the bunch of flax from which the spinning wheel draws the thread. To this she applies her hand; she deftly performs the work of spinning her flax into thread. Her hands hold the distsaff. פֶלֶך (pelek) is the spindle, the cylindrical wood (afterwards the wheel) on which the thread winds itself as it is spun. The hands could not be spared to hold the distaff as well as the spindle, so the first clause should run, "She stretches her hand towards the distaff." In the former clause kishor occasioned some difficulty to the early translators, who did not view the word as connected with the process of spinning. The Septuagint translates, "She stretches out her arms to useful works (ἐπὶ τὰ συμφέροντα);" Vulgate, Manum suam misit ad fortia. So Aquila and Symmachus, ἀνδρεῖα. This rather impedes the parallelism of the two clauses. There was nothing derogatory in women of high rank spinning among their maidens, just as in the Middle Ages noble ladies worked at tapestry with their attendants. We remember how Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, was found sitting in the midst of her handmaids, carding wool and spinning (Livy, 1:57). Catullus, in his 'Epithal. Pel. et Thet.,' 312, describes the process of spinning ?

"Laeva colum molli lana retinebat amictum;
Dextera tum leviter deducens fila supinis
Formabat digitis; tum prono in pollice torquens
Libratum tereti versabat turbine fusum."

(Carm.,' 64.)

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
She stretches
שִׁלְּחָ֣ה (šil·lə·ḥāh)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7971: To send away, for, out

out her hands
יָ֭דֶיהָ (yā·ḏe·hā)
Noun - fdc | third person feminine singular
Strong's 3027: A hand

to the distaff
בַכִּישׁ֑וֹר (ḇak·kî·šō·wr)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 3601: A director, the spindle, shank of a, distaff, by which it is twirled

and grasps
תָּ֣מְכוּ (tā·mə·ḵū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 8551: To sustain, to obtain, keep fast, to help, follow close

the spindle
פָֽלֶךְ׃ (p̄ā·leḵ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6418: A circuit, a spindle, a crutch

with her fingers.
וְ֝כַפֶּ֗יהָ (wə·ḵap·pe·hā)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - fdc | third person feminine singular
Strong's 3709: Hollow or flat of the hand, palm, sole (of the foot), a pan


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 31:19 She lays her hands to the distaff (Prov. Pro Pr)
Proverbs 31:18
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