Welp I have been on this quest to find Bible commentaries and studies and dictionaries with greek and hebrew definitions and all that so I can get deeper within the word and study more and I found this AMAZING program called e-sword and its just so awesome! Like there are so many tools to help study and there is a Strongs dictionary which is Greek and Hebrew translations of just about EVERY word in the bible lol. So I was SUPER excited to download it for FREE! BUTTTT... theres a catch for me at least. Since I own a Macbook and its obviously not Windows I can only use the program for 13 days :( ... its sort of a long story but pretty much the makers of e-sword do not have a compatible download for Mac users and Apple products ; there's only a download for the windows program :( WAHHHHH. So anyways that might be very irrelevant to your life but I just though I would explain because I have been going crazy using it and I am like anxious because 13 days will go by SO quickly lol! But I would STRONGLYYYY ENCOURAGE those who are interested in something like that to download it. It is free but they kind of get you when it comes to downloading other versions of the bible. It comes with Kings James Version and other ones but like NIV & NLT are not free :( But its kind of okay because KJV is like the original version after greek and hebrew of course so its like good raw version to study from! & you can always just read your own NIV and compare which is what I did using NLT!
ALRIGHT so the point of this was obviously NOT to tell you about all that but to just talk about Proverbs 31. The ultimate guide to being a wonderful wife & woman! And im not going to lie, Ive gotten so frustrated lately with all the girls who are like obsessing over the 31:30 verse "Charm is deceitful...blah blah blah" lol. DO NOT get me wrong, like I think it is such a wonderful verse for us females to carry with us and im sure it has helped many girls become better and forget about their looks so much. But I guess I was just frustrated at the fact that MOST girls are ONLY looking at that verse and disregarding the depth of the whole chapter! Like I get frustrated about stuff like that a lot. Please dont get offended. Im just the type of person who likes to look at the FULL context and meaning of the Bible & scripture. I hate when the Bible isn't presented as what it is supposed to be for and when people use it for their own intentions and comfortability... soooo pardon me! lol
Okay so lets get into this!!!
Well when I first started to study Proverbs 31, I tried to get my mind off of everything I have ever known or heard or read about it lol. I wanted to dig in with a fresh mind, and I think I somewhat accomplished that lol.
So yeah King Lemuel (technically) wrote this proverb and there are some interesting facts on him!
- He is a King... and his name means "devoted to God" or as the hebrew text says "belonging TO God" The first part of his name literally means a 'prolonged meaning' of the word "to" and "for". So this guys name was SERIOUS. It was meant that he was FOR God. All or nothing type of deal! Pretty cool!
- Next. He was a mommas boy! lol jk... But he was a King who received a lot of teachings and prophecy from his own mother & thats really all that theologians know about him, which is cool if you think of it, he was remembered by the teachings of his MOTHER ;) ! (Wise brotha ;) ) And pretty much everything from Prov.31 is from her. Pretty cool also.
- From the commentary of my handy dandy e-sword it says that From verse 10 & on, Prov 31 is an alphabetical poem of an admirable picture of a good wife! I found that so interesting! We are that special we get a whole poem! lol jk. But obviously we cant see it as an alpha poem because the english texts we read it in almost every verse begins with "She". But in hebrew each verse begins consecutively with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet! Thats so cool right?! I thought so! I wish I could read Hebrew *sigh* one dayyyyy! lol
Alright so the first part of this proverb is my man Lemuel's mother telling him how to act right! BOOM! I picture like a mother getting her son ready for like prom or something and fixing his collar & tie and pointing her finger nagging him like "do this & do that!" ahah but yeah we know this by the second verse saying "...O son of my womb, O son of my promises...". Anyways I love the third verse she's given him some GOOD wisdom! It says "do not waste your strength on women,on those who ruin kings" and so i looked up the meaning of a few words here.
Well in the KJV it says "Give not thy strength unto women nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings" and here in the hebrew it says give means to "use with great latitude of application" in other words 'to apply'. And strength means 'force' or other resources of a man like 'valor, wealth,virtue or strength'. Then ways means 'a mode of action' or a 'road' . And the word destroy interestingly means to "stroke or rub"in order to erase something... This made me think that his mom was talking about some kind of adulteress or seductor... a woman who is sort of a temptress and deceitful with her touch and uses it o abolish or wipe away something (touch, wipe and abolish were all apart of the definition also)
I guess the moral of this story is that his mother was really just warning him to not trade in all of his wealth and value and strength for woman who's only road and action in life is to ruin and destroy that which is good and royal (the meaning of king). This is a good for us women to know also. Its not wise for a man to go after a girl like that! Thats not the type of person we should be or strive to be. I guess just another thing to put on our "not to do list". His mom was smart in laying out whats not good first. Then she gets into what we as woman SHOULD be!
But before she actually gets into that verses 4-9 are more of her instructions to Lemuel as a king. Which I also find to be very wise and which is pretty much opposite of a lot of rulers or even husbands and heads of the home today. She tells him as a King not to get drunk or as KJV says "strong drink" which in Hebrew (shêkâr) is an intoxicant that makes someone become tipsy! (it actually says tipsy! lol). She tells him it is not a Rulers job to get drunk but the sick and poor (which obviously was tradition in that time). And she ends with verses 8 & 9 that say as a King he should speak for the speechless and give a voice to those who are suffering from injustice! Good word woman! I wish I could meet his momma! I love her already and she's only talking about kings! ahah
But yeah so thats the gist of the first 9 verses of Proverbs 31 ya'll! And obviously... OBVIOUSLY I am no theologian or whatever so its not like i think you should quote me and this isn't even really that deep of an explanation of verses, im probably barely getting beneath the surface since i dont have King Lemuel's mother sitting next to me explaining it lol. But i know my resources are valid and my interpretation isn't too far from what the Bible is actually saying. But im excited to get into the poem part (verses 10 & on) of this proverb.
But before she actually gets into that verses 4-9 are more of her instructions to Lemuel as a king. Which I also find to be very wise and which is pretty much opposite of a lot of rulers or even husbands and heads of the home today. She tells him as a King not to get drunk or as KJV says "strong drink" which in Hebrew (shêkâr) is an intoxicant that makes someone become tipsy! (it actually says tipsy! lol). She tells him it is not a Rulers job to get drunk but the sick and poor (which obviously was tradition in that time). And she ends with verses 8 & 9 that say as a King he should speak for the speechless and give a voice to those who are suffering from injustice! Good word woman! I wish I could meet his momma! I love her already and she's only talking about kings! ahah
But yeah so thats the gist of the first 9 verses of Proverbs 31 ya'll! And obviously... OBVIOUSLY I am no theologian or whatever so its not like i think you should quote me and this isn't even really that deep of an explanation of verses, im probably barely getting beneath the surface since i dont have King Lemuel's mother sitting next to me explaining it lol. But i know my resources are valid and my interpretation isn't too far from what the Bible is actually saying. But im excited to get into the poem part (verses 10 & on) of this proverb.
Sooooo stay tuned folks this post is "To be continued..."
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