It is not for kings, O Lemuel, to guzzle wine. Rulers should not crave alcohol.
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?’
- KJV It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes 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,
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, and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
- Isa 5:22Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
- Eccl 10:17Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
- Hos 4:11–12Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
- Hab 2:5Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. A haughty man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples.
- 1 Kgs 20:16–20They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him.
- Dan 5:2–4Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them.
- Isa 28:7–8They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
- Mark 6:21–28Then a convenient day came, that Herod on his birthday made a supper for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee.
- Lev 10:9–10“You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
- Esth 3:15The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.
- Hos 7:3–5They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
- 1 Kgs 20:12When Ben Hadad heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the pavilions, he said to his servants, “Prepare to attack!” They prepared to attack the city.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.