The Words of King Lemuel,
the oracle which his mother taught him:

Proverbs 31:1

And so, we arrive at Proverbs chapter 31 so rich with things about women, wives, mothers, children and husbands and men! The rest of our 31 Days About Mothers will involve this chapter though we will not camp here by any means. We will use this chapter as a foundational God-breathed (Holy Spirit inspired) standard given here in this last chapter of Proverbs. I needed a lot more background to tackle this chapter so I turned to the multiple commentaries available to me through my go to online Bible resource, blueletterbible.org (Henry, Jamieson, Guzik and others)

First to note is that no one knows for a fact who was King Lemuel. So, as can be expected, there is disagreement. The good old standbys (and I type this with the greatest admiration to these men) believed Lemuel was Solomon and that the name given in verse one is a term of endearment given him by his mother Bathsheba, who would be, then, the mother giving her son these admonishments and advice. The newer commentaries dispel this belief based on items I couldn’t fully understand; some Arabic phrases verse Hebrew writing, etc… But the point is that the new guys believe that Lemuel was an Arabian king with a Jewish mother. 

Interestingly, the newer thoughts on who wrote Proverbs 31 have to give this king, whoever he was, a Jewish mother because Lemuel means “belonging to God” and the last 22 verses of this chapter, what used to be called “The Virtuous Woman,” are written as a Hebrew acrostic; meaning each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. A Gentile mother would not include such a Hebrew text in teaching her son and whether she actually wrote this acrostic herself or she knew of this Hebrew writing from her upbringing being in a similar form as several Psalms. 

We need to expel the tiresome arguments that this chapter is just a male driven attempt to keep women, especially wives, in their place! Nothing can be further from the truth! As we will see!

The main points about the content of this chapter are that these are the words of a mother to her son spoken in the most tender of terms and yet full of strength in her admonitions and basic principles. This isn’t a man’s idea of true womanhood. It is a Queen’s life-learned lessons and ideals driven by a mother’s heart!  A God-driven and Holy Spirit inspired mother to son conversation that we can take as Lesson 101 in womanhood taught by a Queen Mother! 

If we are wise, we will listen to Her Voice as respectfully recorded as God-breathed by her son the King!