- 6 days ago
Proverbs 31 is often attributed to King Solomon, but there are clues in the text that point at a later king of Israel. The first section, the words of King Lemuel that his mother taught him, contains instruction for a king, but it's good advice for all men: guard your heart and mind against a man's most common enemies.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
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From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
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LearningTranscript
00:00All right, we are here to talk about Proverbs 31, final chapter in Proverbs, the wise king and the virtuous wife.
00:07There are two sections in this chapter.
00:10The first section is introduced by, these are the words of King Lemuel, the stuff that his mother told him, and there's some admonitions for kings.
00:19And then it starts an acrostic poem where, you know, an acrostic poem is where each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet.
00:27So obviously this is Hebrew, so it starts with Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, He, and so on to the end of the alphabet.
00:36And it's not just that the chapter is divided into two.
00:40You know, most people attribute this entire chapter to King Lemuel.
00:44I kind of doubt that Lemuel wrote the second half.
00:48Or if he did, it's not intended to be part of the same text.
00:52That the first part, the first nine verses, the admonition to kings, that's one proverb.
00:58And then the rest, verse 10 through the end, is a second proverb.
01:02And whether it's by the same author or not, I don't really know.
01:05But the first part, the admonition to kings, has some linguistic oddities to it.
01:12And there are several Aramaic words that aren't normally used in scripture.
01:18You know, they're used in Daniel and, you know, Jeremiah has a lot of Aramaic content.
01:23And there's an Aramaic ending, I think, in verse 8.
01:28So there's obviously some foreign influence there.
01:32So it seems unlikely to me that King Lemuel is Solomon.
01:37Traditionally, we identify Lemuel with Solomon.
01:40And his mother who gave him this oracle is Bathsheba.
01:44I kind of doubt that because of the language.
01:46Or if it is Solomon, then we're receiving it after it was transmitted orally through many generations.
01:53And then written down after it.
01:56Judah had some significant Aramaic influences.
01:58You know, Jeremiah wrote at the time that Judah was falling.
02:04You know, he lived through the fall of Jerusalem in the Babylonian exile.
02:09So at that point, there was a lot of commerce going on between Babylon, which is the home of the Aramaic language, and Israel and Judah.
02:18And so it seems more likely to me that this King Lemuel was either one of the later kings of Judah or it was a king from some neighboring country.
02:26But there's no really way to know.
02:30Nobody knows who it was.
02:32And that's just a guess based on the scattering of Aramaic words in the text.
02:38But the last half of the chapter, as far as I can tell, I mean, I can't read it well enough to tell you what's Aramaic and what's Hebrew.
02:44But looking at commentaries, the part about the virtuous wife, that doesn't have those Aramaic traces like the first part does, which is why I think that they're either not the same author or they were written separately and then combined and tacked on to the end of Proverbs later.
03:02There is a ton of really great stuff to talk about in this proverb.
03:08It's probably the most read and the most taught chapter in Proverbs in all of history.
03:14And, you know, not only because it's talking about the ideal wife, which is something that every man is concerned about at some point or most of his life, but it's also it's also beautiful poetry.
03:29I mean, it is.
03:31It's written in style and it's written to be beautiful, and I think it achieves that.
03:38So let's start with the words of King Lemuel, an oracle that his mother taught him.
03:45Lemuel, it means for God, and it's traditionally associated with King Solomon, but there's nothing in the text that actually says that.
03:56It's kind of an assumption.
03:59There are, like I said.
03:59What is the word oracle?
04:01What does oracle mean in this?
04:02It means a prophecy or like King James says prophecy, but the word is Massah, and it literally means a burden.
04:15See what Brown Driver Briggs says.
04:18Load bearing tribute, an utterance, an oracle, or a son of Ishmael.
04:24Apparently there's some guy named Massah.
04:26Now, King James mostly translates it as burden, and this is the only verse where it's translated prophecy.
04:35So I'm not exactly sure why it's translated oracle, but considering what she's saying here, he's warning him against bad decisions, especially things that indulgences in the flesh.
04:51And a king would, I mean, anybody would see this as a burden.
04:56Like, you're not allowed to have fun.
04:59You have to be sober-minded.
05:01You have to be in, your mind has to be sharp at all times so that you can make decisions on the spur of the moment so that you never forget who you are or make foolish decisions.
05:11And, you know, if King Lemuel was young and his mother told him this, he would certainly see that as a burden.
05:21And I'll bet Solomon, if Solomon wrote this, I bet he wished that he had listened to his mom.
05:27Well, actually, it's interesting, Jay, that you have the tie-in of the admonition of the mother towards the king, and then the second half is about a good woman.
05:43So you can, of course, tie in the mother's actions as that of a good woman.
05:49Yeah, they're also contrasting, saying this is a good king, this is a good queen.
05:56But notice that most of the things that she tells to the king, these are things you don't do.
06:03Don't do this, don't do that.
06:05And most of the things that this chapter says about the woman are things that she does do.
06:10She does buy a field, she does, you know, go out and get the dyes, and she does clothe her children, she does prepare all these things.
06:21And I'm not exactly sure what to make of that.
06:25Well, it's, the overall is discretion.
06:28It's, when you take it as a whole, don't do this so that you are, you are sharp, and then do this so that you are, you have stability.
06:46Both scenarios are trying to establish stability.
06:48I think it's interesting, too, to think about, like, her admonition to him is to be sober-minded, right?
06:58I mean, that's, like, overall, like, what's happening.
07:02But it's not like, it's not like we would think of it today, like, you can't be somebody who has a sense of humor.
07:09Like, it's not that sort of thing.
07:11And I think it's really pointing to the seriousness of his responsibility as a man.
07:21It's, like, who are you going to be kind of question.
07:26And it makes me think about Adam.
07:30Adam is, like, the king of the earth when he was created.
07:35It's, like, he gave away his strength.
07:38Like, he, like, he just gave away everything because he shirked his responsibility.
07:47For whatever reasons he did, it's, he lost everything.
07:52He lost everything for the entire creation of human beings.
07:57And I think there's a seriousness that she's trying to explain in terms of his role as a king.
08:06Yeah, I think the higher, the greater your authority, the further you have to get from these indulgences.
08:15And Adam had ultimate authority on earth.
08:17I mean, right beneath God.
08:19He was the only man.
08:21So he was the guy in charge.
08:23And by implication, he was the head of the human race.
08:28Because, you know, scripture talks about that, where he's the first Adam and Yeshua being the second Adam.
08:34And that they're both the head of the human race, just in different places.
08:38But, yeah, Adam should have known that every little mistake was going to reverberate throughout the rest of history.
08:46And so he had to be very careful with what he did and didn't do.
08:50And he wasn't careful enough.
08:52And it's, it's very probable that he let his emotions make a decision for him that, you know, Eve ate this fruit and said, hey, this is, this is good.
09:02You should try it.
09:03And he's like, he probably knew he understood the consequences.
09:08And it's like, you know, I can only speculate, of course, but thinking my wife is doomed.
09:15And either I go with her, or I don't know what's going to happen to her.
09:20And so he chose to go with her.
09:21Now, whether it was because he didn't want to offend her, or because he didn't want to abandon her, or what his motivation was, it was more about pleasing his wife than about pleasing God.
09:33And that was an emotional decision, and not a rational one based on the fear of God.
09:37Yeah, and it's interesting, because it seems like a noble, like, if he, if he actually did make that choice, to go with her, essentially, like, almost take care of her to make sure she was safe, whatever, you know, whatever the consequences were going to be, it seems really noble.
09:56But it aligns with the idea that, like, once sin happens, like, there aren't many good choices.
10:06Like, he, he.
10:07To, to not, to obey God in that moment would have left him in a bad situation.
10:14But then to choose to, to go with her in that was a bad situation.
10:19Yeah, no good options.
10:21Yeah, and so, like, the only good options were both of them to not sin, right?
10:27So it just, it just, it is, yeah, it's a huge responsibility.
10:30And I'm just seeing, like, as you're reading this, I was thinking, this really is, like, the level of responsibility and seriousness is what's being portrayed for him by his mother.
10:42And she's saying, like, you can't be like other people.
10:46And how many, you know, how many parents have said that to their kids?
10:52In this household, we do things this way.
10:54Yeah.
10:55You don't, you know, if your friends go jump off a bridge.
10:59My parents, I'm sure your parents have said this to you, right?
11:01Oh, yeah, I got that one, too.
11:02And my response was, well, if they're all doing it, it must be a good idea.
11:07Yeah.
11:08But you don't go jump off a bridge.
11:10That's not what we do.
11:12And so it is, like, I think we've all had those kinds of things said to us for whatever our station in life is.
11:19And then here we are with, like, a king listening to his mother.
11:24And she's like, you're not to be like everyone else.
11:28And we're told that as believers in Yeshua.
11:32You're not to be like everyone else.
11:34You have a responsibility.
11:36You have an authority.
11:37And with that goes responsibility.
11:41Yeah.
11:41I think the first two verses are fascinating.
11:47Because in verse two, she claims her motherhood three times.
11:53She calls him son, son, son.
11:56And then verse three, don't give you strength to women.
12:00So she's claiming a title and then basically undermining her sex or her gender, if you will, thereafter.
12:12So it's quite a juxtaposition.
12:16You know, I'm going to remind you, what you're doing, my son, what you're doing, son of my womb, what you were doing, son of my vows.
12:27So that's certainly a declaration of his relationship to her.
12:34Yeah.
12:34It's also an indication, another indication, I think, that this is not Solomon and Bathsheba.
12:39Because would he be a son of her vow?
12:44Yeah.
12:45Yeah.
12:45Yeah, I think this is, in this verse, it uses the Aramaic for son instead of Hebrew.
12:53So normally in Hebrew, it's bane.
12:55In Aramaic, it's bar, like Barabbas in the New Testament.
12:59And this really reads, I mean, I think, let me pull it up in Young's literal, what my son, and what son of my womb, and what son of my vows.
13:11I'm trying to think of a good analog in English, and I can't really think of one.
13:16But in Russian, there's a word, new.
13:21It means, it kind of means well, or what, or it's an expletive, but it's a benign expletive.
13:32You know, it's not like the F word.
13:34It's like saying, new, what, huh?
13:37Something like that.
13:39And this reads like some kind of idioms, like a common saying.
13:42Like, people would say, what, oh, son of mine?
13:47What were you thinking, kid?
13:49That kind of thing.
13:51That's what this looks like to me.
13:52And that's why I think that there's this bit of Aramaic in here, because they probably borrowed this idiom from some neighboring country, whether, you know, Babylon or, or, you know, one of the other, lots of, several of the countries around Judah spoke dialects of Aramaic.
14:09Because they had all been conquered by Babylon at some point.
14:13But that's what this sounds like, a borrowed idiom.
14:16I think going back to Scott mentioning the idea that, like, you know, she's, she's establishing her relationship, kind of making that clear to us.
14:28And then, and then it says, don't give your strength to women.
14:32I think it's also, that kind of contrast is also indicative of this idea that, like, with our way of thinking now, you know, in the West, it's like, it's kind of either or.
14:47But what I think is interesting is that it's like, she's a mother, she's a woman, she's a wife.
14:55And he's saying, don't give your strength to women.
14:57She's not trying to demean women.
14:59No.
15:01She's, which, like, we tend to see it as, like, good, bad kind of thing.
15:05But I think, I think what's interesting is that she's demonstrating, on one hand, the strength of women by, like, pointing out her position and role.
15:17And then she's also demonstrating a weakness of women by saying, don't give your strength to women.
15:25Mostly because they'll take it.
15:26And, you know, it's like, it's almost saying, hey, this is the proper application for women, whereas the other is an improper application almost.
15:38Yeah.
15:38Yeah.
15:39Really kind of focusing on the idea that we have different roles and responsibilities.
15:44Yeah.
15:44You're mentioning, I want to go back to the burden thing for a second.
15:48You know, the idea of kingship and having to restrain yourself from the pleasures that other people get to indulge in as a burden.
15:58Going back to Exodus, Exodus 28, starting in verse 9.
16:05Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth.
16:10Six names on one stone and the remaining six on the other.
16:12Engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal.
16:18Then mount the stones in a gold filigree setting.
16:22And fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as a memorial stones for the sons of Israel.
16:27Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord.
16:31There are, throughout scripture, there's, I think, a consistent picture of things on the shoulder being a sign of bearing authority or responsibility for something.
16:42So, like Elijah's mantle, he carries it on his shoulder as a sign of his office of the prophet.
16:50Aaron wears the names of the 12 tribes on his shoulders as a symbol of his responsibility to be their priest.
16:59You know, he has to keep himself pure.
17:01The high priest has all these extra rules that other people don't have.
17:04He's not allowed to prepare his wife for burial if she dies, because he might be called to the temple.
17:12There may be some service that he has to perform, and only the high priest can do it.
17:17So he has a responsibility to keep himself pure, even from things that aren't normally a problem.
17:22Like, it's not a sin to prepare your wife for burial.
17:26It's a good thing, but he's not allowed to do it.
17:29And this is a burden.
17:30It's a burden on the high priest.
17:33It was seen as an honor, of course, and, you know, Herod bought and, well, he didn't buy.
17:38He sold the role, the office of high priest.
17:41So people wanted it because it came with lots of prestige, and there was probably some wealth that came along with it, too, as a share of the offerings that were brought.
17:49But primarily, it was a burden.
17:53The crown on his head indicated his submission to an authority above him.
17:57The onyx stones on his shoulders was his submission to the burden that God had given him.
18:03He was carrying Israel in his office.
18:06And another, not to that, but to the don't give your strength to women, the obvious example there is Samson, who literally gave his strength to a woman.
18:17And it was because he was, he indulged in all these things.
18:22He was, he was a drunk.
18:24He was a womanizer.
18:25And because he was so attached to this one Philistine woman who was forbidden to him by Torah, but he wanted her anyways.
18:36And she seduced him into giving up the, his Nazirite vow, which took away all his strength.
18:44Well, that line also, um, I think helps to both, uh, boost her argument that it's not Bathsheba.
18:53Mm-hmm.
18:55Because David gave his strength to that woman.
18:58So I would not think she would, she would make that statement to her son.
19:03Unless she was just talking from experience.
19:06Like, remember what I did?
19:08Don't fall for that.
19:09Could be, but I doubt it.
19:11Yeah.
19:13Okay.
19:14Let's see.
19:15Do we need to talk about wine, strong drink?
19:19I think the point there seems pretty obvious.
19:21Yep.
19:22Mm-hmm.
19:23It's not a prohibition of drinking, uh, especially for normal people.
19:28And this is, uh, so here I am talking about it anyways, when I just said we don't need to talk about it.
19:34But it reminds me of Paul's advice to Titus and Timothy about selecting elders for the congregation.
19:40It's not a sin for them to drink.
19:42That's not the problem.
19:43The problem is, are they given to wine?
19:45So are they drunks or do they get drunk frequently?
19:50That's a problem because you've got responsibility.
19:52You have to, you have to be the example for everyone else to look at.
19:57And you don't want them looking at you when you're drunk.
20:01If they're looking, if they're looking to you and the, uh, and you are drunk, the way it's worded is that those that drink are to forget their poverty, um, to forget their misery.
20:15So if you are a drunk king, you're not really giving a good depiction of your kingdom, are you?
20:22Because it's sort of suggesting your kingdom is in poverty and in misery.
20:26Yeah.
20:28And sometimes Judah's kings were, I mean, if you think about right at the end of Judah, you know, those last kings who were taken captive, blinded, their sons were killed right in front of their eyes, taken off in chains.
20:41You can't save the alcohol for those guys because they don't have any responsibility anymore and they've got nothing left but misery.
20:51Well, here is something that a king is supposed to do in verse eight and nine.
20:57Open your mouth for the mute for the rights of all who are destitute.
21:01Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
21:05So this too is a burden for a king.
21:07And if, if, if you're soft hearted, if you are compassionate, then this sort of thing comes more naturally.
21:17But as a king, you also have a lot of power, a lot of wealth, and you have a lot of connections with powerful, wealthy people that you need to maintain.
21:27And so the poor people, I suspect, would tend to be forgotten because they're not in front of you all the time.
21:36And they're, they're not helping you establish your power.
21:39But here we have advice not to forget them.
21:43It's like the ultra wealthy.
21:45It's like, they don't, it's not like they're hanging out with the poor people all the time.
21:49So they can't relate.
21:52Yeah, some, but there are some who go out of their way to purposefully hang out with poor people.
21:59I mean, not necessarily to hang out, but to serve them.
22:03Yeah.
22:04Yeah.
22:05Yeah.
22:05How many classical literature stories are there of the, of a king that like King Arthur going in disguise to see what his people are encountering?
22:16Encountering, that's, it usually implies there to have been a disconnect and the king needs to be reminded of those that were needy.
22:27Yeah.
22:27You know, I, I mentioned before those series of books on the history of healing and miracles.
22:33I want to say the books are called Regeneration and they're in two volumes.
22:37Uh, but one of them, the first volume talks a lot about the history of healing through the middle ages.
22:43And I don't remember who the king was, but there was a king, at least according to legend, who he would hold audiences with the poor people.
22:54And he would go down the line and he would bless each one of them.
22:58And many of them would be healed by the king's blessing and touch.
23:01And it was, he would touch lepers.
23:05It didn't matter who it was.
23:06He was going to serve the poor people in his kingdom.
23:10And I think that is really unusual.
23:13That was one of the kings of England.
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