It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
Parallel translations
- WEB It is not for kings, Lemuel; it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes to say, ‘Where is strong drink?’
- BSB It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to crave strong drink,
- NKJV It is not for kings, O Lemuel, It is not for kings to drink wine, Nor for princes intoxicating drink;
- NASB It is not for kings, Lemuel, It is not for kings to drink wine, Or for rulers to desire intoxicating drink,
- NLT It is not for kings, O Lemuel, to guzzle wine. Rulers should not crave alcohol.
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
It is not fitting for kings to crave wine and strong drink.
Overview
The mother warns that those who govern must keep clear heads, for intoxication is unbecoming and dangerous in a ruler. Leadership carries responsibility that drunkenness compromises. The principle commends sobriety and self-mastery for all in authority, reflecting the watchfulness and clear-eyed devotion to which God calls His servants.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Prov 20:1Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
- Isa 5:22Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
- Eccl 10:17Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
- Hos 4:11–12Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
- Hab 2:5Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:
- 1 Kgs 20:16–20And they went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty and two kings that helped him.
- Dan 5:2–4Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
- Isa 28:7–8But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
- Mark 6:21–28And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;
- Lev 10:9–10Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:
- Esth 3:15The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed.
- Hos 7:3–5They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
- 1 Kgs 20:12And it came to pass, when Ben-hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings in the pavilions, that he said unto his servants, Set yourselves in array. And they set themselves in array against the city.
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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 31:4 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.