What is the meaning of Proverbs 11:22 - “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman who is without discretion.”

“As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman who is without discretion.” Proverbs 11:22.

Christ teaches us to read the Scriptures (Old Testament) through the lens of Grace (Christ Himself) and His finished work of our salvation - What's the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament? Proverbs 11:22 is all about Jesus Christ and our utter need for His salvation from sin and death.

From the verse, we see that this gold ring (person) who is so lacking in moral character is under the control of a pig (something unclean.) It is subject to whatever the pig does. The gold ring cannot save itself from its situation. It is subject to every whim of the unclean pig. In fact, getting itself attached to the pig's snout in the first place is beyond the ring's power. The vagaries of Time and Chance put it there and it probably hates itself for being in such a horrible position where all it can do is wallow in the mud of sins, even if it is an occasional hatred.

What the helpless gold ring needs is not mockery, derision or delusional displays of (self)righteousness hiding behind lectures on morality from other gold rings who are cleaned and cherished in some pricey jewel box. These ones who put themselves on a false and wobbly pedestal of morality are unaware that they were carefully selected and would be in the same “pig snout” situation had they not been shielded from the vagaries of Time and Chance. What the helpless, pig-controlled gold ring needs is Salvation. And that is what Jesus (Yeshua is Salvation in Hebrew) came to do- Matthew 1:21-

“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Also see Titus 2:14- “He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Romans 5:6 says of our Saviour Jesus Christ-

"For when the time was right, the Anointed One came and died to demonstrate His love for sinners who were entirely helpless, weak, and powerless to save themselves.”

Notice that Christ came to save those who are "entirely helpless, weak, and powerless to save themselves."

Entirely helpless - like the gold ring (beautiful woman) in a pig's snout (held captive by sins.) In reality, this is the default mode of everyone descended from Adam. God created man and He saw that His creation was very good/very beautiful - like the gold ring. But man became a slave of sin (aka controlled by the unclean pig) through Adam's disobedience-

“By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.

Of ourselves, there is no good in anyone of us. But like Peter who boasted in his uprightness before his eyes were opened to his “pig snout" situation by his copious denial of Christ after Satan sifted him like wheat, many are yet to realise man's default sinful nature and think that some sins are beneath them.

Only through the blood of Jesus are we redeemed from imprisonment from the pig's snout (sin) and made righteous in God's sight:

“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Christ is Saviour. He saves from the cancer of sin and the death that follows. For all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ- having Him as our righteousness and strength andputting no confidence whatsoever in what we think we can do to gain freedom from the pig snout of slavery to sin- the Righteous Judge sees us as righteous, "even though we are guilty of many sins." See Romans 5:16-

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.”

This mirrors how the gold ring might still have some dirt on it after being rescued from the pig's snout but it now has a new Master- Jesus Christ. It is not so that we should continue to wallow in sins as antichrists love to imply. How can one be rescued from the pig's snout (sin) and still continue to be controlled to wallow in sins by the same snout that he has been rescued from, more so rescued by Christ Himself? And in Him, we who utterly trust in Him for salvation from the pig snout of sin never remain the same. Our path gets brighter and brighter like the morning sun, never darker. We get to live in triumph over immorality and death-

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17.

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What is often missed where Proverbs 11:22 is considered is that the beautiful woman isn't likened to the pig or its snout. She is likened to the gold ring. What can the ring do to save itself from the snout of the pig?

Also, we imagine that a woman without “discretion” is one who is promiscuous or has a decolletage that goes down all the way to her knees. Not so. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance describes “Discretion” (from the Hebrew word “ta'am") thus:

“properly, a taste, i.e. (figuratively) perception; by implication, intelligence; transitively, a mandate:-- advice, behaviour, decree, discretion, judgment, reason, taste, understanding.”

In essence, a woman without discretion is a woman who lacks Understanding. And how does one get understanding? We see this in Proverbs 9:10-

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

The beautiful woman who lacks discretion is simply a human being that has no knowledge of the Holy One: Jesus Christ. See what is written of Him in 2 Peter 1:

“Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Once Christ is being known by the helpless gold ring (sinner) on the snout of a pig (sin,) his lack of discretion/understanding will disappear. Discretion will watch over him.

Finally, for any who thinks that this verse refers to (promiscuous) women alone, the word “woman" is translated from the Hebrew word “ish-shaw" which connotes any of the following:

“(adulter)ess, each, every, female, many, none, one, together, wife, woman.”

Recall Proverbs 1 where we find the purpose of the Book of Proverbs-

“A wise man will hear and increase learning,

And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,

6 To understand a proverb and an enigma,

The words of the wise and their riddles.”

A man of understanding is one who has Christ as his Saviour to the uttermost.

Personally, I believe that Proverbs 11:22 is a riddle concerning both males and females (including churchgoers) who should be members of the body of Christ (the bride of Christ) but are still slaves of sin who cannot but do the bidding of their sin nature that holds them captive- like a gold ring in the snout of the unclean pig. Such are yet to believe Christ or experience His salvation. Churchgoers in this category might profess to be married to Christ (Grace-personified) by whose obedience we are made righteous but they trust their ability to keep the law to make them godly, right with God or be deserving of heaven. This part-Law/part-Grace mixture is the “neither cold nor hot" that Christ speaks of in Revelation 3: neither under law nor under grace aka claiming to be made right with God through Christ (Mr. Grace) yet having relationship with Mr. Law in order to bear the children (fruit) of godliness. As if Grace is not sufficient to cause us to bear the fruit of morality. Romans 7 describes this position as Adultery.

Recall the word “woman" in Proverbs 11:22 is translated from the Hebrew word “ish-shaw" which connotes any of the following:

“(adulter)ess, each, every, female, many, none, one, together, wife, woman.”

Right believing always produces right living.