Proverbs 31:8,9

A king should care about poor people. In fact, everyone should care about poor people. But a king has greater responsibility. King Lemuel was also a judge. So Lemuel’s mother advised him to help poor people in the court. Perhaps poor people cannot afford lawyers. Perhaps poor people do not speak well. So Lemuel should protect them, because nobody else would help them.

In Proverbs 30, Agur did not understand some important subjects. He did not realise that we need to confess our evil deeds to God. And he did not explain that God forgives.

In Proverbs 31:1-9, Lemuel’s mother did not realise some important subjects. She did not realise that rich people should be generous. She knew that Lemuel must protect poor people. She knew that the law must be fair. But she did not tell Lemuel to give any money or food to poor people. See Proverbs 31:20.

A Poem about a perfect wife

(Proverbs 31:10-31)

The Book of Proverbs ends with a special poem. Men did the most important public jobs when Solomon was alive. The officials were male (1 Kings 4:1-19). The soldiers and workmen were male (1 Kings 9:22-23).

But women were important in their families. Women were important in their towns and villages. And women were even important in the palaces (1 Kings 10:1-13; 1 Kings 9:16; 1 Kings 11:19). In fact, Solomon even describes wisdom as a woman (Proverbs 8). Solomon does not write about a man called Wisdom. But he does write about a woman called Wisdom.

So someone wrote this poem to describe the perfect wife. Perhaps Solomon did not write this poem. Solomon had many wives. And his wives caused trouble for him (1 Kings 11). So Solomon’s wives were not good wives.

The perfect wife in this poem was an important person. Everybody respected her. The people even respected her husband because of her. Women should copy this perfect wife. And men can learn things from her, too.

The original language of this poem is called Hebrew. This poem has a special structure because the poem uses the Hebrew alphabet. So, in Hebrew, verse 10 begins with the first letter of the alphabet. Verse 11 begins with the next letter. This structure continues until verse 31. Verse 31 begins with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

v10 You must search hard to obtain a good wife.

Her value is more than precious stones.

v11 Her husband always trusts her.

He has everything that he needs.