16 A gracious woman gets honor,
and violent men get riches.
17 A man who is kind benefits himself,
but a cruel man hurts himself.
18 The wicked earns deceptive wages,
but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.
19 Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live,
but he who pursues evil will die.
20 Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord,
but those of blameless ways are his delight.
21 Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished,
but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.
22 Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout
is a beautiful woman without discretion.

via Passage: Proverbs 11 (ESV Bible Online).

I started this post thinking to only include the first three verses. But it suddenly looks to me like the second mention of a woman could count as the end of a thematic piece. Perhaps more on that later. Notice now how verse 16 contrasts a woman and a man. Both get stuff they want. Verse 17, however, informs us that kindness helps men as well as women. Cruelty hurts the practitioner.  Then verse 18 points out that the riches gained by violent men won’t actually profit them.

I thought of these three verses while listening to a news roundup on TV which brought up recent celebrities who have mistreated women. The consensus was that men are savages without the help of women to bring civilization. My first reaction was to reject this idea, and I do reject a lot of the Darwinian framework in which this claim is usually fit.

But it does seem like Solomon observes that some women learn wisdom by adapting to their lack of power and that men would be well-served to observe their ways and refuse to use the power they have to get what they want. There are better ways to get there, and the wise woman, the woman Wisdom, knows it.