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I wonder if anyone has any insight as to why they Bible refers to wisdom as a 'she'

The most basic reason is because the Hebrew and Greek words for 'wisdom' are feminine.

Well there must be more signifance than just that, especially when you read about the polar opposite of the wicked 'she' in Proverbs 9:18
"but he knoweth not that the dead are there: and that her guests are in the depths of hell"
it seems that Proverbs deal thoughout the whole book of Wisdom vs foolishness, and how the 'woman' may be the weaker vessel, but also the power of a woman.
think of Elijah, how powerful he was to face all the evil false prophets, yet he ran from Jezebel ~
one woman,

so I would have to assume that Wisdom is the opposite of Evil, and
maybe, just maybe,
because Adam chose to listen to his wife, ( who by the way was not given direct commands to not eat of tree, )
but nevertheless, he listened to his wife as opposed to his God and lives with this decision.

it is sometbing I need to look deeper into.

Upon considering the question, I thought of a mothers instruction to a son, her being represented by 'Wisdom', concerning the other form of female being represented in the Proverbs, referred to by many terms. Solomon being male, would be more able to get the instructions stuck into his own son's upbringing, and would have a better chance in doing so by portraying Wisdom in a motherly light and folly in light of the harlot.
I looked into a couple commentaries about the book, and found a familiar feeling, that the commentators thought along the same path. A boy would better remember what his mother told him;the death that came with associating with a harlot would also stick in his brain. Mothers taught the youngsters until the boy came of age and would spend less time under mother's wing, and more the father's. So, it would appear that Solomon was reinforcing the teachings of the boy's mother, which he was also taught by his mother.
However, I believe this was also influenced by the culture of the time, and or the fact that it would appear that Solomon was instructing his son for leadership. Also, every proverb could be applied to the opposite sex for todays time. Replace the references to the female tense with the male. Now it applies to each gender.

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well thatis interesting, but I am not too sure about it, most of all, changing the gender to teach to our young, and i find if iroic at best for Solomon's mother to teach about chaisty, seeing how his oldest sibling died as he/she did, not that she did not or could not have learned from her mistake, and I know she was only a woman, and Daivd was the king, but it is interesting to think about this. and I sure do love the response,

In terms of the original post, I wouldn't read too much into them calling wisdom "she" in general. Everything is either called he or she in Hebrew. Even the Spirit of God is called she (though it may... I'm not sure... but they may call it 'he' a couple of times. I know there is a tendency like this in some of the Targums). Interestingly, in Greek, "spirit" is neutral, so it should be called 'it', but they sometimes refer to it as 'he'. When something like that happens, you know the author is trying to do something.

However, in Proverbs, there is a feminine personification of wisdom. This is probably because much of the book seems to be addressed to young men just coming out into the world. The 'good wife' in Proverbs 31 is very close to being a personification of wisdom as described in chapters two and eight. Wisdom is heavily contrasted with the personification of folly as an adulteress. This kind of thing sexually charges the whole discussion, which accomplished a couple things. One, it probably makes young men more interested, and secondly, it highlights how central sexual ethics are to living a wise and godly life. The rise and fall of many men are determined by what women the become involved with, and then what they do with those women.

Women face a somewhat (but not altogether) different set of difficulties. I don't know what proverbs would have looked like if it was addressed more specifically to women (not that women can't learn a lot from it), but I'm sure many parts would look a lot different. Unfortunately, we don't have that book... or maybe we do...

"Do not stir up or awaken love until it desires..."

That does seem to put it's finger directly on the plight of young women, doesn't it?

[I have copied the portion of Aaron's post which is relevant to the Wisdom discussion back into this thread. - Gideon]

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