Ironic portrayals?

In Proverbs, and in other biblical texts, Wisdom is portrayed as a woman.

Based in part on the polytheistic background of the ancient Near East, which attributed aspects of human culture and the natural world to deities, wisdom was sometimes the domain of a particular deity.

In Babylonian culture, for example, Ea was the god of wisdom.

Within that larger context, it would not be surprising to see Israelite scribes attribute a deified status to wisdom. Doing that would be in line with the sociological tendency of communities to deify the most cherished values and desires, as well as natural forces of destruction that threaten those cherished values, which are often aspects of a desired social-political stability.

Note the irony. Wisdom is portrayed as a woman, but in Genesis it was the woman who pursued knowledge that resulted eventually in the man and woman being kicked out of the Garden of Eden.

Hmmmm.