Beyond Riches and Rubies: A Study of Proverbs 31:10–31 and Servant Leadership

This paper determines enhancements to servant leadership theory by comparing it to the Old Testament poem about a noble woman (Proverbs 31:10). Through intertexture analysis, an exegesis of Proverbs 31:10–31 revealed a very simple approach to servant leadership, whereby one’s character and actions for others, out of their fear of the Lord resulted in spiritual riches. When compared with scholarly research on servant leadership, the Proverbs 31 example of servant leadership enhances the theory by adding two components: an emphasis on action as behavior and servant leader growth as an outcome. It seeks to strengthen not only the research on servant leadership but to encourage today’s female leaders with a worthy model.