Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Odious woman - One in whom there is nothing loveable. Marriage, which to most women is the state in which they find scope for their highest qualities, becomes to her only a sphere in which to make herself and others miserable.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For an odious woman, when she is married,.... Odious for her person, her ugliness, and the deformity of her body; or rather for the ill qualities of her mind, which, while single, she endeavours to conceal, but, being married, hides them no longer; but becomes imperious, proud, scornful, and malicious, and behaves in an ill natured way to her husband and all about her, to such a degree, that there is no bearing the place where she is;

and an handmaid, that is heir to her mistress; that has got so much into her affections that she leaves all she has to her when she dies, which makes her insufferably proud and vain; or she marries her master after the death of her mistress, and so coming into her place enjoys all she had, but only her wisdom and humility; which being wanting, she behaves in such a manner as to make the whole family uneasy. This might be exemplified in the case of Hagar, the bondmaid of Sarah, a type of those that are under the law of works, and seek the inheritance by it; and who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others, Genesis 16:4.

Geneva Study Bible

(m) Who is married to her master after the death of her mistress.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

An odious — Proud, and perverse.

Married — For then she displays all those ill humours, which before, she concealed.

Is heir — Which great and sudden change transports her beside herself, and makes her insufferably proud and scornful.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Proverbs 30:23 For an odious [woman] when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

Ver. 23. For an odious woman when she is married.] Such a one was Peninnah, who vexed good Hannah, "to make her to thunder," as the original hath it. (a) Such was Jezebel, Herodias, Messalina, wife to the Emperor Claudias, who was her agent to effect her sinful purposes, and her patient to sustain her lewd conditions. She compelled also other Roman ladies to be as lewd as herself, and those that would not she hated, and banished them from the court. (b)

And an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.] That succeeds her in the marriage bed; her good and her blood will rise together, as we see in Hagar. Hence that counsel of the Greek poet:

“ Mηποτε δουλευσασα γυνη δεσποινα γενοιτο”

“Never make thy maid thy mistress.”

Such hens will be apt to crow, such wives to breed disturbance in the family.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Odious; proud, and perverse, and full of hateful and offensive qualities.

When she is married; for then she displayeth and exerciseth all those ill humours, which before for her own ends she concealed; then she is puffed up, and imperious, and becomes intolerable to her own family, and to her relations and neighbours.

That is heir to her mistress; that possesseth her estate, either by the gift of her mistress, into whose favour she had insinuated herself by her cunning and officious carriage; or rather by the marriage of her master, which great and sudden change transports her beside herself, and makes her insufferably proud, and scornful, and injurious to all that converse with her.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Mistress, and is married to her master. She will generally prove insolent; like slaves on the throne, Regnabit sanguine multo ad regnum quisquis venit ab exilio. (Suetonius, Tib. 59.) (Calmet)

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

is heirto = has dispossessed, or become heiress to.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

For an odious (woman) when she is married - for by her bad temper and ways she makes herself unbearable to her husband, her domestics, and her neighbours. Cartwright and Maurer explain: when a man had two wives, the one beloved, the other comparatively hated (cf. Deuteronomy 21:15), if the latter be made by her husband the beloved wife, she is sure to behave imperiously, because of the former contumely she bare. I prefer the English version.

And an handmaid ... heir to her mistress - the lower sunk in grade she was before the more insolent she will be when she has gotten a fortune. Gesenius, after the Septuagint, translates, 'an handmaid, when she has expelled; i:e. succeeded into the place of her mistress.' So the Syriac. But the Vulgate and Chaldaic support the English version.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) For an odious woman when she is married.—She pays off, with interest, the slights which she had formerly to endure from her married friends.

An handmaid that is heir to her mistress, and who is nervously anxious to preserve her newly-acquired dignity.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

an odious

19:13; 21:9,19; 27:15

an handmaid

29:21