Proverbs 31:2

THE WORDS OF LEMUEL

"What, my son? and what, O son of my womb?

And what, O son of my vows?

Give not thy strength unto women,

Nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine;

Nor for princes to say, Where is strong drink?

Lest they drink, and forget the law,

And pervert the justice that is due to any that are afflicted.

Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish,

And wine unto the bitter in soul:

Let him drink, and forget his poverty,

And remember his misery no more.

Open thy mouth for the dumb,

In the cause of all such that are left desolate.

Open thy mouth, judge righteously,

And minister justice to the poor and needy."

"O son of my vows" (Proverbs 31:2). This suggests that, He was given to his mother in response to her vows, as was Samuel (1 Samuel 1:11).

"Give not thy strength unto women" (Proverbs 31:3). The parallel line suggests that failure to heed this warning is indeed the "way that destroys kings."

"It is not for kings ... it is not for kings to drink wine" (Proverbs 31: 4). This is not a double warning against "excessive drinking" of wine, but against "drinking wine." Furthermore, the warning is just as valid for private citizens as it is for kings and for everyone else who is not "ready to perish."

Drinking alcoholic beverages, "Opens all the sanctuaries of nature, exposes all its weakness and follies, multiplies sins and uncovers the nakedness of both soul and body. It takes a man's soul into imprisonment more than any other vice, completely disarming a man of his reason and wisdom. More and more, those who thus indulge become less and less a man and more and more a fool!"[6]

"Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish" (Proverbs 31:6). The proper use of alcohol appears here. In the Bible, "Alcohol is considered to have its proper use, not as an intoxicating drink, but for medicinal and restorative purposes (1 Timothy 5:23)."[7]

Fritsch in the Interpreter's Bible wrote, "These words deprecate overindulgence";[8] but Harris wrote more wisely, "This is not an allowance of moderate drinking, as Fritsch suggests. It recommends alcohol as a drug."[9] "Upon the basis of this proverb, the noble women of Jerusalem gave a potion of strong drink to malefactors condemned to death, a potion which Jesus refused (Mark 15:23)."[10]

These nine verses taken as a whole are primarily concerned, on the part of Lemuel's mother, that her son should avoid the pitfalls of sex and liquor. After all, as Harris said, "Wine, women and song are the old debasing trio";[11] and if one wishes to stay innocent in this regard, it is not nearly enough to "quit singing"!

There follows next in this final chapter an acrostic, "An alphabetical poem on the Virtuous Woman; and the alphabet here is regular, unlike the acrostics in Lamentations and Psalms 119, where minor reversals of certain letters and a few other irregularities are found. The most important thing to remember about these alphabetical portions of the Bible, is that according to recently discovered Ugarit writings using this format during the fifteenth century B.C., alphabetical writings are no longer any evidence whatever of a late date."[12]