Do not spend your strength on women or your vigor on those who ruin kings.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.
- KJV Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
- ESV Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.
- NKJV Do not give your strength to women, Nor your ways to that which destroys kings.
- NASB Do not give your strength to women, Or your ways to that which destroys kings.
- NLT do not waste your strength on women, on those who ruin kings.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
She warns her son not to squander his strength on women or on what destroys kings.
Overview
The mother cautions against sexual indulgence and entanglements that have ruined many rulers. Misdirected passion drains strength and clouds judgment, undoing leaders. Her counsel calls for self-control and disciplined devotion to one's calling, virtues that honor God and find their perfect model in the singular faithfulness of Christ the King.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Deut 17:17He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.
- Neh 13:26Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.
- Prov 7:26–27For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number.
- Prov 5:9–11lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
- 1 Kgs 11:1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
- Hos 4:11Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 31:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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