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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 31:4 - 31:4
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Hence there now follows a warning against drunkenness, not unmediated by the reading לְמֹחוֹת:
4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
Not for kings to drink wine,
Not for rulers to ask for intoxicating drink;
5 Lest he drink, and forget what is prescribed,
And pervert the right of all the children of want.
The usual translation of 4a is: non decet reges... (as e.g., also Mühlau); but in this אַל is not rightly rendered, which indeed is at times only an οὐ, spoken with close interest, but yet first of all, especially in such paraenetic connection as here, it is a dissuasive μή. But now לא למלכים שְׁתוֹת or לא למלכים לִשְׁתּוֹת, after 2Ch 26:18; Mic 3:1, signifies: it is not the part of kings, it does not become them to drink, which may also be turned into a dissuasive form: let it not be the part of kings to drink, let them not have any business therewith, as if it belonged to their calling; according to which Fleischer renders: Absit a regibus, Lemuel, absit a regibus potare vinum. The clearer expression למוֹאל, instead of למוּאל, is, after Böttcher, occasioned by this, that the name is here in the vocative; perhaps rather by this, that the meaning of the name: consecrated to God, belonging to God, must be placed in contrast to the descending to low, sensual lust. Both times we write אַל לַּֽמְלָכִים with the orthophonic Dagesh
(Note: Vid., Luth. Zeitschrift, 1863, p. 413. It is the rule, according to which, with Ben-Asher, it is to be written בִּן־נּוּן.)
in the ל following ל, and without the recompensative Dagesh, the want of which is in a certain measure covered by the Metheg (vid., Norzi). Regarding the inf. constr. שְׁתוֹ (cf. קנֹה, Pro 16:16), vid., Gesen. §75, Anm. 2; and regarding the sequence of accents here necessary, אַל לַּֽמְלָכִים שְׁתוֹ־יָיִן (not Mercha, Dechi, Athnach, for Dechi would be here contrary to rule), vid., Thorath Emeth, p. 22 §6, p. 43 §7.
In 4b nothing is to be gained from the Chethı̂b או. There is not a substantive אָו, desire, the constr. of which would here have to be read, not אוֹ (Umbreit, Gesenius), but אַו, after the form קַו (Maurer); and why did the author not write תַּאֲוַת שֵׁכָר? But the particle או does not here also fall in with the connection; for if אוֹ שֵׁכָר connect itself with יין (Hitzig, Ewald, and others), then it would drag disagreeably, and we would have here a spiritless classification of things unadvisable for kings. Böttcher therefore sees in this או the remains of the obliterated סְבוֹא; a corrector must then have transformed the וא which remained into או. But before one ventures on such conjectures, the Kerı̂ אֵי [where?] must be tried. Is it the abbreviated אֵין (Herzog's Real-Wörterbuch, xiv. 712)? Certainly not, because וּלְרֽוֹזְנִים אֵין שֵׁכָר would mean: and the princes, or rulers (vid., regarding רוזנים at Pro 8:15), have no mead, which is inconsistent. But אֵין does not abbreviate itself into אֵי, but into אִי. Not אֵי, but אִי, is in Heb., as well as in Ethiop., the word with which negative adjectives such as אִי נָקִי, not innocent, Job 22:30, and in later Heb. also, negative sentences, such as אִי אֶפְשָׁר: it is not possible, are formed.
(Note: The author of the Comm. עטרת זקנים to the ארח חיים, c. 6, Geiger and others would read אֵי, because אי is abbreviated from אֵין. But why not from אִין, 1Sa 21:9? The traditional expression is אִי; and Elias Levita in the Tishbi, as also Baer in the Siddur Abodath Jisrael, are right in defending it against that innovation.)
Therefore Mühlau vocalizes אִי, and thinks that the author used this word for אל, so as not to repeat this word for the third time. But how is that possible? אִי שׁכר signifies either: not mead, or: there is not mead; and both afford, for the passage before us, no meaning. Is, then, the Kerı̂ אֵי truly so unsuitable? Indeed, to explain: how came intoxicating drink to rulers! is inadmissible, since אֵי always means only ubi (e.g., Gen 4:9); not, like the Ethiop. aitê, also quomodo. But the question ubi temetum, as a question of desire, fits the connection, whether the sentence means: non decet principibus dicere (Ahron b. Josef supplies שׁיאמרו) ubi temetum, or: absit a principibus quaerere ubi temetum (Fleischer), which, from our view of 4a, we prefer. There is in reality nothing to be supplied; but as 4a says that the drinking of wine ought not to characterize kings, so 4b, that “Where is mead?” (i.e., this eager inquiry after mead) ought not to characterize rulers.
(Note: The translation of Jerome, quia nullum secretum est ubi regnat ebrietas (as if the words were לֵית רָזָא אֵי שֵׁכָר), corresponds to the proverb: נכנס יין יצא סוד :b, when the wine goes in the secret comes out; or, which is the same thing: if one adds יין (= 70), סוד (= 70) comes out.)
Why not? Pro 31:5 says. That the prince, being a slave to drink, may not forget the מְחֻקָּק, i.e., that which has been made and has become חֹק, thus that which is lawfully right, and may not alter the righteous cause of the miserable, who cry against their oppressors, i.e., may not handle falsely the facts of the case, and give judgment contrary to them.
שִׁנָּה דִין (Aquila, Theodotion, Quinta, ἀλλοιοῦν κρίσιν) is elsewhere equivalent to הִטָּה מִשְׁפָּט (עִוֵּת). בְּנֵי־עֹֽנִי are those who are, as it were, born to oppression and suffering. This mode of expression is a Semitism (Fleischer), but it here heightens the impression of the Arab. colouring. In כל (Venet. ὡντινοῦν) it is indicated that, not merely with reference to individual poor men, but in general to the whole class of the poorer people, suffering humanity, sympathy and a regard for truth on the part of a prince given to sensuality are easily thrown aside. Wine is better suited for those who are in a condition to be timeously helped over which, is a refreshment to them.