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What's New
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July 2026
New article: “The Book of Revelation” (Revelation).
New article: “The Letters to the Seven Churches” (Revelation).
New article: “The Liturgy of Heaven” (Revelation).
New article: “The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb” (Revelation).
New article: “Babylon and the Judgment” (Revelation).
New article: “The New Jerusalem” (Revelation).
New article: “The Catholic Letters” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of James” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of Peter” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of John” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of Jude” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Book of Acts” (Acts).
New article: “Pentecost” (Acts).
New article: “The Church of the First Days” (Acts).
New article: “The Gospel to the Nations” (Acts).
New article: “To the Ends of the Earth” (Acts).
New article: “The Book of Hosea” (Hosea).
New article: “The Book of Micah” (Micah).
New article: “The Book of Jonah” (Jonah).
New article: “The Book of Habakkuk” (Habakkuk).
New article: “The Book of Zephaniah” (Zephaniah).
New article: “The Book of Malachi” (Malachi).
New article: “The Book of Daniel” (Daniel).
New article: “Faith in the Trial” (Daniel).
New article: “The Kingdoms That Pass” (Daniel).
New article: “The Son of Man and the Resurrection” (Daniel).
New article: “Susanna and the Wisdom of God” (Daniel).
New article: “The Book of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Jeremiah, the Tested Prophet” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The New Covenant” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Fall of Jerusalem and the Lamentations” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Baruch and the Hope of Exile” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Song of Songs” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Movement of Love” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Garden of Symbols” (Song of Songs).
New article: “Love Strong as Death” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Senses of the Song” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Book of Job” (Job).
New article: “The Prologue and the Trial” (Job).
New article: “Job and His Friends” (Job).
New article: “God’s Answer” (Job).
New article: “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Job).
New article: “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Quest for Happiness” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “A Time for Everything” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Joy That Is God’s Gift” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “Remember Your Creator” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Book of Wisdom” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Righteous, the Wicked, and Immortality” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, the Breath of God” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, Guide of History” (Wisdom).
New article: “Knowing God and the Folly of Idols” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Book of Sirach” (Sirach).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord, Source of Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “Wisdom and the Law” (Sirach).
New article: “The Choice of Life and Everyday Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “The Praise of the Ancestors” (Sirach).
New article: “The Book of Proverbs” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord and the Two Ways” (Proverbs).
New article: “Personified Wisdom” (Proverbs).
New article: “Wisdom for Daily Life” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Valiant Woman” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Psalter, Prayer of Israel” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Supplication and Trust” (Psalms).
New article: “The Royal and Messianic Psalms” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Ascents and Wisdom” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms on the Lips of Christ” (Psalms).
New article: “The Crisis and the Profanation of the Temple” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Eleazar and the Seven Brothers” (2 Maccabees).
New article: “Judas Maccabeus and the Dedication of the Temple” (1-2 Maccabees).
New article: “Jewish Independence” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Tobit” (Tobit).
New article: “Judith” (Judith).
New article: “Esther” (Esther).
New article: “The Return and the House of God” (Ezra).
New article: “Ezra and the Return to the Law” (Ezra, Nehemiah).
New article: “Nehemiah and the Rebuilt City” (Nehemiah).
New article: “Samuel and the Rise of Kingship” (1-2 Samuel).
New article: “Saul and the Rise of David” (1 Samuel).
New article: “David, the Covenant, and the Promise” (2 Samuel).
New article: “Solomon and the Temple” (1 Kings).
New article: “The Schism and the Northern Kingdom” (1-2 Kings).
New article: “Judah until the Exile” (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles).
New article: “The Entry into the Promised Land” (Joshua).
New article: “The Division of the Land and the Covenant at Shechem” (Joshua).
New article: “The Time of the Judges” (Judges).
New article: “In Those Days There Was No King” (Judges).
New article: “Ruth the Moabite” (Ruth).
New article: “Abraham, Father of Believers” (Genesis).
New article: “Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis).
New article: “Joseph” (Genesis).
New article: “The Creation and the Rest” (Genesis).
New article: “The Garden and the Fall” (Genesis).
New article: “From Cain to Babel” (Genesis).
New article: “Personal Responsibility” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Ministry of the New Covenant” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Collection for the Saints” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “Strength in Weakness” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Decalogue.”
New article: “The Law of the Neighbor.”
New article: “The Law of Worship and Holiness.”
New article: “The Law and Christ.”
New article: “The Law, Gift of the Covenant.”
New article: “Freedom and idols” (1 Corinthians 8-10).
New article: “The charisms and the assembly” (1 Corinthians 12 and 14).
New article: “The Cardinal Virtues”.
New article: “Prudence”.
New article: “Temperance”.
The French Bible of the site is now the Chérubin translation, with section headings in the reader.
New article: “Resentment and Forgiveness”.
New article: “Judging One’s Neighbour”.
New article: “The New Temple and the River of Life” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Restoration of Israel” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Oracles Against the Nations” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Symbolic Actions and the Judgment of Jerusalem”.
New article: “Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Exile”.
New article: “Anger and Meekness”.
New article: “Love”.
New article: “The Desire to Feel the Spirit”.
New article: “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
June 2026
New article: “Consolation and Desolation”.
New article: “Discerning the Movements of the Heart”.
New article: “The Fall of Nineveh”.
New article: “The God Who Judges and Who Saves”.
New article: “Nahum and the Assyrian Empire”.
New article: “Justice, the Day of the Lord, and Hope”.
New article: “The Visions and the Rejected Worship”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and of Israel”.
New article: “Amos, the Shepherd Prophet”.
New article: “The Glory of the Second Temple”.
New article: “The Four Oracles”.
New article: “Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple”.
New article: “The Expansion of Christianity”.
New article: “All Under Sin”.
New article: “The Epistle to the Romans”.
New article: “Sinai and the covenant”.
New article: “The deliverance”.
New article: “The bondage and the call”.
New article: “The oracles against the nations”.
New article: “Sadness”.
New article: “Fear”.
New article: “The finger of God”.
New article: “The baptism of Christ”.
New article: “The Resurrection and the Glorification”.
New article: “Holy Week”.
New article: “The third year: the opposition”.
New article: “The second year: popularity”.
New article: “The first year: the inauguration”.
New article: “The preparation for the ministry”.
New article: “The prologues and the coming of Christ”.
New: the “Memorise” tool.
New article: “The Real Presence.”
New article: “The four Servant Songs”.
New article: “Trito-Isaiah”.
New article: “Deutero-Isaiah”.
New article: “Proto-Isaiah”.
New article: “Predestination”.
New article: “The Angel of the Lord”.
New article: “Wars of Extermination in the Bible”.
New article: “Slavery in the Bible”.
New article: “The Nature of God”.
New article: “The Age of the Martyrs”.
New article: “The Abode of the Dead”.
New article: “The Canon and the Deuterocanonical Books”.
New article: “The Deacon”.
New article: “The Priest”.
New article: “Sola Scriptura”.
New article: “The Angels”.
New article: “Sola Fide”.
New article: “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
New article: “Elijah at Horeb”.
New article: “Turning the Other Cheek”.
New article: “Buy a Sword”.
New article: “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead”.
New article: “Jesus before Pilate”.
New article: “Jesus and Nicodemus”.
New article: “Invincible Ignorance”.
New article: “The Prophet and His Time”.
New article: “The Eight Night Visions”.
New article: “Joshua, the Branch and the Crown”.
New article: “Fasting and Restoration”.
New article: “First Oracle: The King Who Comes”.
New article: “The Book of Obadiah”.
New article: “Second Oracle: The Pierced One”.
New article: “The Day of the Lord”.
New article: “The Plague and the Day of the Lord”.
New article: “Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion”.
New article: “The Three Ways of the Interior Life”.
New article: “Freedom and Responsibility”.
New article: “The Moral Conscience”.
New article: “Doubt and the Moral Systems”.
New article: “Doing Evil for a Good”.
New article: “Adoration and Praise”.
New article: “Why God Asks for Adoration”.
New article: “Faith and Science”.
New article: “The Theory of Evolution”.
New article: “The Woes of Isaiah”.
New article: “The Dwelling, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices”.
New article: “The Forty Years in the Desert”.
New article: "The Discourses of Moses".
New article: "The Death of Moses".
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The Valiant Woman

The book of Proverbs closes on a famous poem, the praise of the valiant woman. In twenty-two verses arranged by the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, it paints a strong, active, and kind woman, whose whole beauty holds in one thing: the fear of the Lord. This portrait sums up the whole book, and tradition has read in it far more than a model wife.

The Praise of the Strong Woman

The book ends with an acrostic poem, twenty-two verses each beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order, in praise of the valiant woman. Her worth opens the poem. "A woman of worth, who can find? She is worth far more than pearls." Proverbs 31:10 She is in no way an idle or merely decorative figure: she chooses wool and flax and works with her hands with eagerness, she rises while it is still night to give food to her household, she considers a field and buys it, plants a vineyard from the fruit of her labor, trades and sees that her gain is good, stretches out her hand to the distaff and sells what she has woven. Her lamp does not go out at night; she is girded with strength and dignity, and laughs at the days to come without dreading them; when winter comes, she has no fear for her household, for all her house is clothed in double garments. Her husband is known and esteemed at the city gates, among the elders, and her husband and her children lean on her without fear. It is a portrait of wisdom no longer taught in sayings, but embodied in an active, far-seeing, and fruitful life, where every virtue of the book has taken flesh.

Her True Beauty, the Fear of the Lord

Her greatness, however, is neither in her beauty nor in her charm, which pass, but in her reverence for God. She opens her hand to the poor and stretches out her arms to the needy; she opens her mouth with wisdom, and a teaching of kindness is on her tongue; her children rise up to call her blessed, and her husband praises her. Then the poem crowns her with the very word that had opened the whole book. "Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the Lord is the one to be praised." Proverbs 31:30 So the book that had opened on the fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom, ends with a woman who is its living portrait: wisdom is not an idea, but a life, embodied in one who fears God and spends herself in love and labor. The circle is closed, and the reader understands that all the wisdom of the book was aiming at this, an upright and given existence, where the fear of God becomes strength, kindness, and fruitfulness.

A Figure of the Church and of Mary

Tradition has read in this valiant woman far more than a model wife. She is first a figure of Wisdom herself, whom the first chapters had personified, now embodied in a faithful and fruitful life: the book that opened on Lady Wisdom closes on her human face. She has also been read as a figure of the Church, the bride of Christ, who watches over her household, feeds the poor, weaves the garment of her own, and adorns herself for her Lord; and as a figure of the Virgin Mary, the woman full of grace whose whole beauty is her fear of God and her fidelity, and whom the Church honors as the throne of Wisdom, because the Wisdom of God, the Word, took flesh in her. So the book of practical sayings closes on a poem that gathers all its wisdom into a person, and that points, beyond every human wife, toward the Church and toward Mary, in whom the wisdom of God takes flesh and face.

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