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.

Many preachers make the mistake of likening the woman to the pig- as if the fair woman is one who just loves to roll in the mud of sins such as promiscuity and exposing her privates; or as if she can do anything at all to save herself from her situation. Not so. God's word likens the fair woman to the gold ring. When you see a literal gold ring in the literal snout of a pig, what do you do? Do you shake your head at the ring in disgust, wonder why it would put itself there and give it moral lectures? Never! If you could, you would rescue the gold ring in order to put it to good use because it has a lot of value despite its situation. What the gold ring needs is salvation, not moral lectures from usually hypocrite plastic or GL rings that did nothing to achieve the status of being a decorative ornament on someone's finger. Without Christ, we can do nothing.

From the verse, we see that this gold ring (person) who is so lacking in discretion 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 gold ring's power. The vagaries of Time and Chance or a really wicked person put it there; the ring 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 assorted rings who are cleaned and cherished in some pricey jewel box. Those 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 and Satan's sifting:

"12 So beware if you think it could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall. 13 We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously." 1 Corinthians 10.

What the helpless, pig-controlled gold ring needs is Salvation. And that is what Jesus (Yeshua is Salvation in Hebrew) came to do according to 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 beautiful gold ring. Gold in the Bible is a picture of the divine nature of God: godliness. God created man in His likeness. 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.

Christ says—

“There is none good but God.”

Of ourselves, there is no good in anyone of us. But like Peter who boasted in his uprightness and ability to obey the law before his eyes were opened to his “pig snout" situation by his copious denial of Christ after Satan sifted him like wheat for the good that he claimed to be when Christ says differently, many are yet to realise man's default sinful nature and think that some sins are beneath them. That trust in self for the attainment of good (be like God) is the hallmark of having the sin nature. It has been Satan’s doctrine since he first used it to deceive Eve and consequently Adam in Eden. Just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the law/letter which many are trying to obey in order to be godly (be like God.) it kills and gives the same knowledge.

Only through the blood of Jesus Christ the Tree of Life are we redeemed from imprisonment from the pig's snout (sin nature) and made righteous in God's sight. See Romans 5:9—

“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 and putting no confidence whatsoever in what we think we can do to be godly (be good like God) or gain freedom from the pig snout of slavery to sin- God 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 verse mirrors how the gold ring might still have some dirt on it after being freed/rescued from the pig's snout but it now has a new Master: Jesus Christ whose work involves cleansing us and putting us to good use. 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."

Our being declared righteous in Him even though we are guilty of many sins is not so that we should continue to wallow in sins as antichrist church leaders 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 of whom Titus 2:14 says:

“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."

In Him, we who acknowledge our utter helplessness to lift a finger to obey even an atom of the law, utterly trust in Him for salvation from the pig snout of sin and for living a godly life after our rescue, we 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.

---

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 gold 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 décolletage that goes down all the way to her knees with all of her body parts spilling out of her dress. 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.”

Recall that the verse is a proverb— not to be taken at face value alone. The beautiful woman who lacks discretion is simply any human being who 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 known and received by the helpless gold ring (sinner) on the snout of a pig (sin,) his redemption from the pig's snout has taken place. His lack of discretion/understanding will disappear. Discretion (Christ Himself) watches over him. 

Finally, for anyone who thinks that this verse applies to women alone no matter their moral standing-- it is a PROVERB: 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.”

“ish-shaw" can refer to either male or female. Now, consider 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.”

Every proverb is a riddle. A man of understanding is one who knows and believes Christ as his Saviour to the uttermost- as his Righteousness and Strength. Also recall that 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.”

The church (bride of Christ CONSTITUTING BOTH MALE AND FEMALE) is always typified as a woman. From the purpose of the Book of Proverbs and the definitions of "woman" in Proverbs 11:22, we see that “woman” is not limited to females alone. The woman who lacks discretion is a riddle whose meaning points to 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 (controlled by the unclean pig): trying to be godly (be like God) or seeking their own righteousness from their ability to keep the law (knowledge of good and evil) and rejecting God’s gift of righteousness which Jesus Christ the Tree of Life died that we might freely have. Notice the parallel between this belief system and that religious lie which the unclean Satan sold to Adam and Eve in Eden? 

Such lack the righteousness nature that typifies all who are a new creation in Christ Jesus. Such cannot but do the bidding of their sin/old nature that holds them captive- like a beautiful gold ring in the snout of the unclean pig aka the sin nature. Such often very religious folk are yet to believe Jesus Christ or experience His salvation, even though they might attend church as well as look clean and religious on the outside, like the Pharisees whose entire life was hinged on trying to reach and be blessed by God via their futile attempts at being godly (be like God) by using the knowledge of good and evil (law); no wonder they hated and sought to kill Christ. Understand that the spirit of the antichrist is not necessarily or vocally anti-God. The word “antichrist” in the Bible is translated from two words from the original Greek text—

Anti — meaning “replace” or “in place of” and

Christos — meaning “Christ” = “Anointed”

“Antichrist” simply refers to anyone who tries to replace what CHRIST has done to make us righteous, free us from the imputation, guilt, condemnation and penalty of sin (death plus its symptoms of earthly ills,) to save us from our sins and to grant us eternal life in Himself with what MAN must do by his useless human effort aka the arm of flesh.

For instance, Christ shed His blood to make us righteous (be like God.) We are made righteous by His obedience, not ours (Romans 5:17.) He hung on the cross to redeem us from the generational and every other curse (Galatians 3:13.) But pulpit-manning antichrists whose lives seem to be the epitome of godliness — having a form of godliness but denying its power — such disagree with God’s word by promoting dependence on human effort at keeping the law which is the knowledge of good and evil in order to be godly or righteous (be like God), or fasting for 79 days and doing righteous deeds in order to escape the generational or other curse and God’s wrath/punishment. Their own form of godliness is attained by human striving according to the order of the same deceit which Satan sold to Eve in Eden.

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 (arm of flesh which is subject to the "pig snout" called Sin) to keep the law to make them godly (be like God) or deserving of God's freely-given blessings. That part-Law/part-Grace mixture is the “neither cold nor hot" that Christ speaks of in Revelation 3: neither under law nor under grace. It is claiming to be made right with God through Christ (Mr. Grace) yet having a relationship with Mr. Law in order to be made right with God and to bear the children (fruit) of godliness. As if Mr. Grace is not sufficient to cause us to bear the fruit of godliness and morality. Romans 7 describes this position as Adultery. Beloved of God, let's not be found on such ground. Grace is sufficient. Grace is enough.

Mr. Law demands perfection from those who are trying to keep it. It rejects and kills all who have anything to do with it, even just a kiss, for no one can meets His righteous requirements. The law condemns the best of us. But Mr. Grace who is Jesu Christ, He saves the worst of us.

Anyone who does not have Christ as his utter Source of Righteousness and Strength but is still striving to be godly (be like God) by human effort aka the arm of flesh, that one is the fair woman without discretion - as a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, a typology for being subject to the sin nature. Thank God that this no longer has to be a death sentence for the helpless sinner aka all of mankind by default. Rather, knowing that this is the default state of all of Adam's descendants no matter who we are and looking utterly to Christ for salvation from sin and death is the only qualification required for God’s salvation of His beautiful creation (fair woman) from the clutches of the pig of uncleanness/Sin. And with Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer, we never remain the same. This is right believing that produces right living.

Saviour from sin is His job description. 

None of self; all of Christ. This is the Good News.