Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 31:3 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 3. 3Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 31:1–3
Read Proverbs 31:3 with 31:1–3. Read alone, “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him”; by 31:3, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings”. Together the unit concentrates on practical discernment within the edited collection, family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility within “A mother's instruction to King Lemuel.”
Why This Verse Appears Here
Proverbs 31:1–3 appears here because its explicit heading or opening purpose begins “A mother's instruction to King Lemuel” and establishes the collection work that follows: The queen mother's oracle warns royal power against destructive appetite and intoxication and requires the king to speak and judge for people whose rights are easily ignored. Within that relationship, this verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings”.
Follow the Context
- Opening (31:1): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him”.
- Development (31:1–3): adjacent lines test practical discernment within the edited collection, family teaching, responsibility, and mutual care, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (31:3): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings”, creating the next supported pause.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Proverbs 31:3 does not allow “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which…” to become a universal promise, complete policy, diagnosis, insult, or authorization detached from Proverbs 31:1–3. The saying does not promise a financial return, compel giving under manipulation, erase prudent limits, or let charity substitute for justice.
What Remains True
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. In Proverbs 31:3, that bounded truth is expressed through “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which…,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Identify the concrete need, preserve the recipient's agency, give transparently, and combine immediate help with fair structures. Proverbs 31:3 names that responsibility through “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which…,” so the response must remain accountable to the person, action, comparison, or consequence in this line.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 31:3's exact role in Proverbs 31:1–3. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy…,” name one uncertainty, and explicitly reject one harmful use.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 31:1–3 — A queen mother warns King LemuelSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The verse belongs to a larger speech, instruction, prayer, number saying, or poem; its voice and complete literary movement control how strongly an isolated line may be stated.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 31:1–3, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 31:1-31:3
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1181-1182, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 31:1–3
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Proverbs
K. T. Aitken
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Exact location: Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 31:1–3 and the A mother's instruction to King Lemuel outline
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access journal article
The situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth in the Book of Proverbs
G. H. Wittenberg
Scriptura 21, 1987; open archive 2020
Supports: One historical-social account of poverty, wealth, interest, oppression, labor, and differing evaluations within the collection.
Exact location: Wittenberg, ‘Situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth,’ Scriptura 21, pp. 1-23, especially the sayings and redactional comparison relevant to Proverbs 31:1–3
Open source ↗