Rubies are the Bible’s word for something costly, and wisdom is set above them. Job says the price of wisdom “is above rubies,” Proverbs says the lips of knowledge are a more precious jewel than a multitude of them, and the closing poem of Proverbs says a virtuous woman’s price “is far above rubies.” Lamentations uses the stone another way, comparing the faces of Zion’s Nazarites in better days to rubies, ruddy and polished. Of all these verses, Proverbs 31:10 is the best known and a fine place to begin reading.
4 verses
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:
Matthew George Easton, 1897
(Heb. peninim), only in plural (Lam. 4:7). The ruby was one of the stones in the high priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28:17). A comparison is made between the value of wisdom and rubies (Job 28:18; Prov. 3:15; 8:11). The price of a virtuous woman is said to be “far above rubies” (Prov. 31:10). The exact meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain. Some render it “red coral;” others, “pearl” or “mother-of-pearl.”