Proverbs Chapter 31 verse 4 Holy Bible
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes `to say', Where is strong drink?
read chapter 31 in ASV
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to take wine, or for rulers to say, Where is strong drink?
read chapter 31 in BBE
It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for rulers [to say], Where is the strong drink?
read chapter 31 in DARBY
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
read chapter 31 in KJV
read chapter 31 in WBT
It is not for kings, Lemuel; It is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes to say, 'Where is strong drink?'
read chapter 31 in WEB
Not for kings, O Lemuel, Not for kings, to drink wine, And for princes a desire of strong drink.
read chapter 31 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 4-7. - The second admonition. A warning against inebriety, and concerning a proper use of strong drink. Verse 4. - It is not for kings; or, as others read, far be it from kings. The injunction is repeated to indicate its vast importance. Nor for princes strong drink; literally, nor for princes (the word), Where is strong drink? (see on Proverbs 20:1; and comp. Job 15:23). The evils of intemperance, flagrant enough in the case of a private person, are greatly enhanced in the case of a king, whose misdeeds may affect a whole community, as the next verse intimates. St. Jerome reads differently, translating, "Because there is no secret where drunkenness reigns." This is in accordance with the proverb, "When wine goes in the secret comes out;" and, "Where drink enters, wisdom departs;" and again, "Quod latet in mente sobrii, hoc natat in ore ebrii." Septuagint, "The powerful are irascible, but let them not drink wine." "Drunkenness," says Jeremy Taylor ('Holy Living,' ch. 3, ยง 2), "opens all the sanctuaries of nature, and discovers the nakedness of the soul, all its weaknesses and follies; it multiplies sins and discovers them; it makes a man incapable of being a private friend or a public counsellor. It taketh a man's soul into slavery and imprisonment more than any vice whatsoever, because it disarms a man of all his reason and his wisdom, whereby he might be cured, and, therefore, commonly it grows upon him with age; a drunkard being still more a fool and less a man."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(4) It is not for kings to drink wine.--Another of the temptations of kings. (Comp. 1Kings 16:9; 1Kings 20:16; Ecclesiastes 10:17.) Perversion of justice as the result of revelry is also noted by Isaiah (Isaiah 5:22-23). Comp. St. Paul's advice to "use this world so as not abusing," or rather "using it to the full" (1Corinthians 7:31)
