She is like the merchant ships, she brings her food from afar.

Contrary to popular (and apparently, not very attentive) opinion, this verse has nothing to do with outside employment, for better or worse.  (Something about that “magic” word merchant seems to cause people to jump on this.)  The verse says that she is like the merchant ships, and it even tells us how she is like these ships: she brings her food from afar.

Now, I would guess that the commendable trait here is not that she drove ten miles instead of five, but that she either got her hands on hard-to-obtain goods or that she got them straight from the source (which would save her money because she cut out the middleman), or both.  (Either of these could involve obtaining the food “from afar.”)

These are skills we can acquire, as well.  When we shop at co-ops, locate harder-to-find whole foods, etc., we are “bringing our food from afar.”