Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 31:7 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 7. 7Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 31:6–7
Proverbs 31:6–7 is the required frame for Proverbs 31:7. Here the saying contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more”; its collection setting controls whether the words describe a pattern, warning, invitation, or bounded command.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The unit needs this line's exact work: it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more”. That placement develops generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power while leaving exceptional cases visible.
Follow the Context
- Opening (31:6): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts”.
- Development (31:6–7): adjacent lines test generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (31:7): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more”, creating the next supported pause.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery...”
In plain language: wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more”.
Why it matters: This wording carries interpretive, pastoral, or misuse risk requiring the full unit and explicit limits.
How certain? strongWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The saying does not promise prosperity, blame sufferers or poor people, excuse predatory lending, or make wealth proof of divine approval.
What Remains True
Proverbs treats resources as morally consequential but never reduces wealth to virtue or poverty to personal failure. In Proverbs 31:7, that bounded truth is expressed through “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Examine how money was obtained, who bears the cost, whether basic needs are met, and how resources can serve justice and durable care. For Proverbs 31:7, preserve the sequence: verse role (contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 31:6–7 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 31:7's exact role in Proverbs 31:6–7. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “Let him drink, and forget his poverty,...,” 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 31:6–7 — The suffering and ancient palliative comparisonSources 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 31:6–7, 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 31:6-31:7
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 31:6–7
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 31:6–7 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 31:6–7
Open source ↗