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PROVERBS CHAPTER 31
Lemuel’s lesson concerning chastity and temperance, Pro_31:1-5. The proper use of wine, Pro_31:6,7. An exhortation to righteous judgment, Pro_31:8,9. A description of a virtuous wife, Pro_31:10, with her husband’s confidence in her, Pro_31:11. Her work and careful provision for her household, Pro_31:12-20. Their furniture and clothing, Pro_31:21,22. The properties and praise of a good wife, Pro_31:23-29. The vanity of beauty; the good are to be praised, Pro_31:30,31.
Of king Lemuel, i.e. of Solomon, by the general consent both of Jewish and Christian writers; to whom this name doth very fitly agree, for it signifies one of or from God, or belonging to God; and such a one was Solomon eminently, being given by God to David and Bathsheba, as a pledge of his reconciliation to them after their repentance; of whom it is expressly said that the Lord loved him, 2Sa_12:24, and who was by God himself appointed to succeed David in the kingdom. Possibly his mother gave this name to mind him of his great obligations to God, and of the justice and necessity of his devoting himself unto God’s service and glory.
The prophecy; so called, either,
1. More especially, because she did either by natural sagacity, or by Divine inspiration, foresee Solomon’s danger, and what sins he was most likely to be either inclined or tempted to commit; and therefore thought fit to give him these precautions, Or,
2. More generally, as all godly discourses or counsels are called prophecies; of which see on Pro_30:1, and elsewhere.
His mother, Bathsheba, who having truly repented of her adultery, did not only avoid it in herself for the future, but seriously endeavoured to prevent that and such-like sins in others, and especially in Solomon, whom the remembrance of her sin might possibly provoke to an imitation of her example. But when she gave him these instructions is but matter of conjecture. Probably it was either,
1. When she first discerned his inclinations to those sins of which she here warns him, to which she saw he was like to have many and strong provocations. Or,
2. After he was made king, and had more plainly discovered his proneness to these excesses, although he had not yet broken forth into those scandalous enormities into which he afterwards fell.