Do not give your strength to women,
your ways to those who destroy kings.
It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
it is not for kings to drink wine,
or for rulers to take strong drink,
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed
and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
Give strong drink to the one who is perishing,
and wine to those in bitter distress;
let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.
Open your mouth for the mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.Proverbs 31:3-9
Now comes the instruction, the exhortation. The RSV reads more clearly and accurately than the AV. In 3 and 4 a twofold danger for all kingliness is underlined, licentiousness and intemperance. This should be taken in the widest spiritual, as well as literal sense. It is true for royalty - they have responsibilities, and they must not jeopardise themselves, but it is also true that licentiousness and intemperance militate against true royal manliness. How salutary is this emphasis! As Kidner says, 'these verses take away the glamour from loose living'. We should also learn from these verses that some things permitted to other men are not permitted to those in the public eye. How false to suppose that such a position gives a man more freedom. Some think that 6 and 7 indicate the right use of strong drink, and quote Paul's exhortation to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23 - that is, a medicinal use. Others quote the practice in our Lord's day of providing medicated drink to criminals condemned to die by crucifixion, in order to deaden the pain. But it may well be that a note of irony is ringing in these verses, as if to say, 'Give it only to those who are beyond the pale, who are too far gone to be further damaged or harmed by it, 8 and 9 may be linked with 6 and 7: mouths should be opened, not to imbibe liquor but to speak on behalf of the poor and needy, and if so, this goes back also to 5, which underlines the danger of one’s judgment - and compassion and humanity - being blurred and perverted by habits of hard drinking. 'When you open your mouth, let it be to speak for the dumb those unable to get a fair hearing, fulfil your royal calling and responsibility to be the protector of the under-privileged, and all who are left desolate '. We should set this as a salutary corrective over against the bombardment of obscene advertisements about strong drink on our television screens and bill-hoardings.