Proverbs 31:1

The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. THE WORDS OF KING LEMUEL - a figurative name for an ideal model king. It means 'Devoted to God.' Hitzig fancifully makes Lemuel eider brother to Agur, and king of an Arab tribe in Manna, on the borders of Palestine; and both descended from the Simeonites, who drove out the Amalekites from Mount Seir, under Hezekiah (; ) - Lemuel being an older form of Nemuel, or Jemuel, Simeon's oldest son. HIS MOTHER TAUGHT HIM - as Lois and Eunice taught Timothy (; 2 Timothy 3:15)....

CHAPTER XXXI _The words and prophecy of King Lemuel, and what his mother_ _taught him_, 1, 2. _Debauchery and much wine to be avoided_, 3-7. _How kings should administer justice_, 8, 9. _The praise of a virtuous woman and good housewife, in her_ _economy, prudence, watchfulness, and assiduity in labour_, 10-29. _Frailty of beauty_, 30, 31. NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI Verse Proverbs 31:1. _THE WORDS OF KING LEMUEL_] דברי למואל מכך _dibrey lemuel_ _melech_, "The words to Mue

THAT HIS MOTHER TAUGHT HIM - Compare Proverbs 1:8; Proverbs 6:20. If we refer the chapter to Israelite authorship, we may remember the honor paid to the wisdom of Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah; if it was the honor paid to an Edomite or an Arabian, we may think of the Queen of Sheba, whose love of Wisdom led her to sit at the feet of the son of David....

EXPOSITION PROVERBS 31:1 PART VIII. SECOND APPENDIX TO THE SECOND COLLECTION, containing "the words of Lemuel" on the subjects of impurity and intemperance. PROVERBS 31:1 _The_ _superscription. _THE WORDS OF KING LEMUEL, THE PROPHECY WHICH HIS MOTHER TAUGHT HIM. Who is intended by "Lemuel king" is much disputed. Those who connect the following word _massa _("oracle") with the preceding _melek _("king"), translate "King of Massa," as Proverbs 30:1 (where see note). Of the country, or the ki

THE WORDS OF KING LEMUEL,.... Not what were spoken by him, but what were spoken to him; or declaring what his mother said, as what follows shows; of this king we have no account elsewhere under this name. Grotius thinks that King Hezekiah, whose mother Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, whom he supposes to be a wise man, from whom she had learned much, instructed her son in the following manner; but gives no other reason for this conjecture but that this chapter follows the collection of proverbs made by the men of Hezekiah; but they are expressly said to be Solomon's, and the words of Agur more immediately follow them; and besides Hezekiah does not appear ever to be addicted to the vices this prince was; much more probable is the conjecture of Bishop Patrick, that he was a prince of another country, perhaps in Chaldea, since a Chaldee word is three times used in his mother's address to...

VII. THE WORDS OF KING LEMUEL TAUGHT HIM BY HIS MOTHER CHAPTER 31 The Virtuous Woman “The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him”; this is the superscription of this chapter. Who is King Lemuel? No king by that name is known. We do not hesitate in saying that it is Solomon. It means “unto God” one who is devoted to the Lord. In all probability Solomon's mother called her boy by this name, and here is the record therefore of the instruction given by Solomon's mother. The warning is once more, and that very earnestly (shown by the thrice asked “what?” What shall I say unto you?) against licentiousness, against wine and strong drink. The brief words of the mother's exhortation end with a request to act righteously as king, to stand up for those who are appointed to destruction, to plead the cause of the poor and needy. The final portion of the book of Proverbs is a...

SECOND DIVISION. SAYINGS OF LEMUEL. A manual of directions for kings. Proverbs 31:1. The title is uncertain. RV is not grammatically correct. Read _mg._ MASSA (_mg.),_ rendered oracle in Proverbs 31:30, and here by RV, is the regular word for the oracles of the earlier prophets, but is strange in this connexion. There is a Mas-' a mentioned in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser IV along with Teima in N. Arabia. This was one of the traditional seats of wisdom, like Edom, and possibly the name was adopted in view of this. But of Massa, both here and in Proverbs 30:1, is conjectural (_cf._ Genesis 10:30;...

THE WORDS, &C. The Hebrew _dibrey_ has no governing noun; so one must be understood thus. "[An unnamed one's] words [addressed] to king Lemuel:. burden which his mother [repeatedly] taught him". KING LEMUEL. to El and for El,. king. Compare Jedidiah. beloved of Jah (2 Samuel 12:25). Solomon was the royal seed in the line of Him Who is King of kings and Lord of lords. The Talmud says (_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan,_ c. 39): "Solomon was called by six names: Solomon, Jedidiah, Koheleth, Son of Jakeh, Agur, and Lemuel". PROPHECY. oracle, oracular utterance, or burden. HIS MOTHER. Compare the Structure, (p. 864)....

_The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy_&c. Like Agur (Proverbs 30:1) Lemuel is some unknown king, whose _oracle or prophecy_is here preserved for us among the "words of the Wise." The rendering of R.V. marg. _King of Massa_, is arrived at by neglecting the accents, and taking the word _massa, oracle_, as a proper name. Professor Sayce (_The Higher Criticism and the Monuments_, pp. 478 80), who adopts this rendering, calls attention to the fact that Massa is "mentioned in Genesis 25:14 among the sons of Ishmael, and is there associated with the Nabathæans, the Kedarites, and the people of Dumah andTeman"; and that "in Genesis 10:23 Mash is along with Uz one of the four sons of Aram....

THE WORDS OF KING LEMUEL— This chapter, say the generality of commentators, contains Bathsheba's words to Solomon, and his commendation of her. Some, however, have doubted whether _Lemuel_ was not a different person. "I know," says Dr. Delaney, "that some modern critics, contrary to the unanimous judgment and tradition of all antiquity, have raised some scruples upon this head, as if _Lemuel_ were not Solomon, but some other king, they know not who. I have examined them with all the care and candour I am capable of, and conclude upon the whole that their objections were such as my readers of best understandings would be little obliged to me either for retailing, or refuting. I shall barely mention that of greatest weight; it is this, That his mother, thrice in this chapter, when the calls him her _son,_ makes use of the word בר _bar,_ to express it by: a word no where used throughout the...