Wisdom incarnate?: Identity and role of אשׁת־חיל (“the valiant woman”) in proverbs 31:10-31

Understanding the identity of אשׁת־חיל (literally, “a woman of strength”) in Prov 31:10–31 presents various exegetical and interpretative issues. What is the rational way to look at the business woman’s characteristics? Should the life of the ancient successful woman which the Hebrew acrostic pragmatically portrays be recognised as speaking of social activities in ANE culture or should it be limited to religious virtues relevant to an Israelite community? Or perhaps, we can make an interpretive decision looking at it from both sides? Employing textual and literary approaches to find the persona of אשׁת־חיל (“woman of strength”), I argue that all the activities of the woman in the poem indicate the model of virtuous woman as well as of the mundane woman in a particular historical period and that אשׁת־חיל (“the valiant woman”) is used for a symbolic figure of personified Wisdom