Commentary: On Proverbs 31:10–31

Unusually, Yefet reads the poem that closes the book of Proverbs about the “woman of valor” as having been written by a woman, the mother of Lemuel (mentioned in Proverbs 31:1), who, Yefet suggests, is to be identified with Bathsheba, Solomon’s own mother. Yefet interprets this poem quite literally. He prefaces each verse with his Judeo-Arabic translation and then explains the meaning of each statement, as much as possible avoiding taking the words beyond their narrow meaning. The influence of Se‘adya Ga’on’s commentary has been detected in several passages.