Lemuel

Scripture: Proverbs 31:1–31

The introduction (Proverbs 31:1), "The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, which his mother taught him." Lemuel (לְמוּאֵל) means "devoted to God" or "belonging to God." Massa is a place name that appears in Genesis 25:14 among the sons of Ishmael, suggesting that Lemuel may have been a non-Israelite king from the Arabian peninsula, and that his mother's wisdom was non-Israelite wisdom included in the Hebrew wisdom canon alongside Agur son of Jakeh in Proverbs 30. Some ancient interpreters identified Lemuel with Solomon (reading it as a throne-name), but the text gives no support to this reading and it is not the consensus position.

The mother's three questions (Proverbs 31:2), "What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows?" Three parallel questions, each intensifying the relationship: my son, son of my womb, son of my vows. The third, son of my vows, suggests she had vowed something in connection with his birth, perhaps as Hannah had with Samuel. Her counsel is the fulfillment of that maternal investment. This is one of the only passages in Proverbs where the counsel comes explicitly from a mother and is addressed to a king.

Counsel against women (Proverbs 31:3), "Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings." The counsel is not about women in general but about the pattern of kings whose political judgment was destroyed by entanglements, whether in foreign marriage alliances (as Solomon's case in 1 Kings 11) or in the distractions of the harem. The mother warns the king not to dissipate his governance in the way that destroyed royal houses.

Counsel against wine (Proverbs 31:4–7), "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more." Wine is not prohibited in general, the counsel recognizes it as appropriate relief for the suffering. But for the king, it impairs the very faculty of justice on which his reign depends.

Justice for the poor (Proverbs 31:8–9), "Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy." This is the positive counsel: the king's mouth is the instrument of justice for those who cannot speak for themselves. The mute here is the one without voice before the court, the destitute whose rights are trampled. The king's role is advocacy for exactly those whose cases could not otherwise be heard.

The Eshet Chayil (Proverbs 31:10–31), The remainder of the chapter is the famous acrostic poem, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, describing the woman of valor (אֵשֶׁת חַיִל, Eshet Chayil). The poem is attributed to Lemuel's mother's teaching in the superscription of the chapter, though some interpret it as a separate composition appended to her oracle. The woman of valor is merchant, farmer, manager of household and staff, weaver, vendor, giver to the poor, teacher of wisdom and kindness, and praised in the city gates. The poem closes the entire book of Proverbs: "A woman who fears the LORD is to be praised" (31:30).

Lemuel is the king whose mother's voice closes the book of Proverbs. He may be a king of Massa, a non-Israelite whose mother's wisdom was valuable enough to be included in the Hebrew canon. His mother calls him son of my vows and counsels him against the things that destroy kings, wine, entanglements, injustice, and then closes with the Eshet Chayil acrostic. The Sanctum holds Lemuel as the study in the king who is named in the teaching he received: his identity in the canon is his mother's oracle, and the wisdom that closes Proverbs is the wisdom she gave him to carry.