Bible Study Seattle

Listen, my son! Listen, son of my womb!
    Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers!
Do not spend your strength on women,
    your vigor on those who ruin kings.

It is not for kings, Lemuel—
    it is not for kings to drink wine,
    not for rulers to crave beer,
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
    and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
Let beer be for those who are perishing,
    wine for those who are in anguish!
Let them drink and forget their poverty
    and remember their misery no more.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.”  Proverbs 31:1-9

It is possible that King Lemuel is Solomon and his mother would be Bathsheba.  She warns him against women – Solomon had 1,000 wives and Bathsheba would have seen the trouble this caused.  Plus, she had her own experience with David taking her and her husband dying.  The remaining verses of chapter 31 could be seen as a lament that a good wife is very hard to find.  Among Solomon’s 1,000, he found none good.  Solomon writes:

“while I was still searching but not finding— I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.”  Ecclesiastes 7:28   How sad!  Solomon didn’t find one upright woman among a thousand wives!