Proverbs 31:3

3. Give not thy strength The first clause warns Lemuel against the excessive indulgence of the appetites, (Proverbs 31:3-4.) Youths of every class are in great danger from this cause; but particularly youthful princes, who have greater opportunities of indulgence than others. The same is true of all in the more elevated positions of affluence. They can more readily command the means of gratifying their unlawful desires. This has always been remarkably the case with the more wealthy and powerful in Asiatic countries, where polygamy and concubinage exist as ancient and accepted institutions, sanctioned by immemorial usage. Indeed, a large harem, or seraglio, is rather regarded as a part of the necessary state of a chief or ruler, and indispensable to the respectability of the throne. This thoughtful mother had seen the evils flowing from this fruitful source, and warned her beloved son against them. This was the rock on which Solomon himself was wrecked. “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was (or had been) beloved of his God, and God made (had made) him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish (foreign, strange) women cause to sin.” Nehemiah 13:26.