Ecclesiastes 31:14

Nova Vulgata

HE. Facta est quasi navis institoris de longe portans panem suum.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Ego autem in te speravi, Domine ; dixi : Deus meus es tu ;

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Facta est quasi navis institoris,
de longe portans panem suum.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 31:24, 1 Kings 9:26-28, 2 Chronicles 9:10, Ezekiel 27:3-36

Gill's Notes on the Bible

She is like the merchant ships,.... Not like a single one, but like a navy of them, that cross the seas, go to foreign parts, and come back laden with rich goods: so the church of Christ, and her true members, like ships of burden, trade to heaven, by prayer and other religious exercises, and return with the riches of grace and mercy, to help them in time of need; and though they have often difficult and dangerous passages, are tossed with tempests, and covered with billows; yet, Christ being their pilot, faith their sail, and hope their anchor, they weather the seas, ride out all storms, and come safe home with their merchandise;

she bringeth her food from afar: from a far country, from Egypt particularly, from whence corn for bread, as the word here used signifies, was fetched and carried in ships to divers parts of the world p; to which the allusion may be: in a spiritual sense, it may mean that the church brings her food or bread from heaven, the good land afar off; where God her father, Christ her husband, and her friends the angels are; with whom she carries on a correspondence, and from hence she has her food for her family; not from below, on earth; not dust, the serpent's food; nor ashes, on which a deceitful heart feeds; nor husks, which swine eat; but the corn of heaven, angels' food, the hidden and heavenly manna; the bread of life, which comes down from heaven; the Gospel of the grace of God, the good news from a far country.

p Bacchylides spud Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 2. c. 3. p. 39.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The comparison points to the enlarged commerce of the Israelites consequent on their contact with the Phoenicians under David and Solomon; compare Proverbs 31:24.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 31:14. She is like the merchants' ships —

3. She acts like merchants. If she buy any thing for her household, she sells sufficient of her own manufactures to pay for it; if she imports, she exports: and she sends articles of her own manufacturing or produce to distant countries; she traffics with the neighbouring tribes.