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Proverbs 31 General Notes

Structure and formatting

Chapter 31 begins with 9 verses from King Lemuel. The last portion of this chapter is a poem about a godly wife. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/godly)

King Lemuel

This person is unknown in Scripture, other than here. It is important to recognize that the words in this chapter are words of his mother addressed to him. They are formed like advice of a mother to her son.

Special concepts in this chapter

An acrostic poem

Verse 10 through 31 is tightly formed as a poem in the original language. There are 22 lines in the Hebrew language that each begin with a successive letter of the alphabet. However, each language will have a different set of letters. Therefore, it is important to realize this was a single composition with a single theme of a noble or godly wife.

Themes

There are individual proverbs that run along common themes, often including contrasting elements: wise/foolish, money, lazy/diligent, truth telling, wicked/righteous, sluggard, pride/humility, integrity/crookedness. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/wise, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/foolish, rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/evil and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/kt/righteous)

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