Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
DIS'TAFF, a staff around which the tow is wound for spinning. Prov 31:19. The spindle is mentioned in connection with the distaff as an instrument of employment on the part of the virtuous woman. In early ages, spinning (hence, the law-term "spinster" for an unmarried female) was a part of the household duties of women, even in rich and distinguished families; and it was a maxim that a young woman should never be married until she had spun herself a set of body-, bed-, and table-linen.
At the present day the Egyptian women spend their leisure hours in working with the needle, particularly in embroidering veils, handkerchiefs, etc., with colored silk and gold, in which they carry on a sort of traffic through the channel of a female broker. In ancient Egypt the yarn seems all to have been spun with the hand, and the spindle is seen in all the pictures representing the manufacture of cloth, as well as both men and women employed in the manufacture. See Spindle.