Spindle

The spindle appears once in scripture, as a tool of household textile work in the worthy-woman portrait of Proverbs 31.

A Tool of Spinning

In the acrostic that closes Proverbs, the worthy woman is shown at the labor of producing thread for cloth: "She lays her hands to the distaff, / And her hands hold the spindle" (Pr 31:19). The distaff and spindle pair together as the two halves of hand-spinning — the distaff holding the unspun fiber, the spindle drawing and twisting it into yarn. The image belongs to the broader picture of her productive industry running through the chapter.