Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 31:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse uses two-part parallelism to place “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to…” beside “nor for princes strong drink”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 31:4–5
Read Proverbs 31:4 with 31:4–5. Read alone, “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: uses two-part parallelism to place “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to…” beside “nor for princes strong drink”; by 31:5, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted”. Together the unit concentrates on appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation within “A mother's instruction to King Lemuel.”
Why This Verse Appears Here
Proverbs 31:4–5 continues “A queen mother warns King Lemuel” by carrying “Intoxication threatens royal justice” within the same sustained discourse, admonition, numbered form, or poem. Within that relationship, this verse uses two-part parallelism to place “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to…” beside “nor for princes strong drink”.
Follow the Context
- Opening (31:4): the unit uses two-part parallelism to place “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to…” beside “nor for princes strong drink”.
- Development (31:4–5): adjacent lines test appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, justice, truthful judgment, and protection from exploitation through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (31:5): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted”, creating the next supported pause.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Proverbs 31:4 does not allow “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink…” to become a universal promise, complete policy, diagnosis, insult, or authorization detached from Proverbs 31:4–5. The saying does not diagnose addiction, shame bodies or appetite, guarantee control through willpower, or deny medical and community support.
What Remains True
Unexamined appetite can narrow judgment and make people, resources, and responsibilities easier to neglect. In Proverbs 31:4, that bounded truth is expressed through “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink…,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- A person responsible for others should not make safety, legal, financial, or caregiving decisions while intoxicated or otherwise impaired.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 31:4's exact role in Proverbs 31:4–5. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not…,” 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 31:4–5 — Intoxication threatens royal justiceSources 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 31:4–5, 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 31:4-31:5
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 31:4–5
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 31:4–5 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 31:4–5
Open source ↗