properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
Psalms 104:15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.
1 Samuel 1:10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.
1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his son…
2 Kings 4:27 And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God sai…
Job 3:20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
Job 29:13 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 31:1-9
Most interpreters are of opinion that Lemuel is Solomon; the name signifies one that is for God, or devoted to God; and so it agrees well enough with that honourable name which, by divine appointment, was given to Solomon (Sa2 12:25), Jedediah - beloved of the Lord. Lemuel is supposed to be a pretty, fond, endearing name, by which his mother used to call him; and so much did he value himself upon the interest he had in his mother's affections that he was not ashamed to call himself by it. One would the rather incline to think it is Solomon that here tells us what his mother taught him because he tells us (Pro 4:4) what his father taught him. But some think (and the conjecture is not improbab…
The proper use of such drinks is to restore tone to feeble bodies and depressed minds (compare Psa 104:15).
John Gill on Proverbs 31:6
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish,.... Thou, O Lemuel, and other kings and judges, rather than drink strong drink yourselves, least to excess; give it out of your great abundance and liberality to poor persons in starving circumstances, who must perish, unless relieved; it will do them good, moderately used; and should they drink too freely, which they ought not, yet it would not be attended with such bad consequences as if kings and princes should;
and wine to those that be of heavy heart; of melancholy dispositions, under gloomy apprehensions of things; pressed with the weight of their affliction and poverty: or, "bitter in soul" (i); such as God has dealt bitterly with,…
6 Give strong drink to him that is perishing,
And wine to those whose soul is in bitter woe;
7 Let him drink and forget his poverty,
And let him think of his misery no more.
The preparation of a potion for malefactors who were condemned to death was, on the ground of these words of the proverb, cared for by noble women in Jerusalem (נשׁים יקרות שׁבירושׁלים), Sanhedrin 43a; Jesus rejected it, because He wished, without becoming insensible to His sorrow, to pass away from the earthly life freely and in full consciousness, Mar 15:23. The transition from the plur. to the sing. of the subject is in Pro 31:7 less violent than in Pro 31:5, since in Pro 31:6 singular and plur. already interchange. W…
The Church Fathers
"Let people in distress have wine and those in pain strong drink," which shows that nothing can prove such a good remedy for depression as recourse to this, aside from the fact that in some cases intemperance undermines the benefit coming from it.
"Give strong drink to those who are in gloom and wine to those who are sad so that they may forget their poverty and be reminded no more of their grief." What [Solomon] means is this. To those filled with bitter regret and sadness over their earlier lives give abundantly the joy of spiritual knowledge like "a wine which gladdens the heart of a man." Warm them with the headiness of saving words lest they sink into gloom and deadly despair.
Moreover console each other with the following words; it is a good medicine that Solomon has for sorrow; for he bids wine be given to the sorrowful; saying this to us, the labourers in the vineyard: "Give," therefore, "your wine to those that are in sorrow," not that wine which produces drunkenness, plots against the senses, and destroys the body, but such as gladdens the heart, the wine which the Prophet recommends when he says: "Wine maketh glad the heart of man." Pledge each other in that liquor undiluted and with the unstinted goblets of the word, that thus our grief may be turned to joy and gladness, by the grace of the Only-begotten Son of God, through Whom be glory to God, even the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Cup — A wine-cup (Gen. 40:11, 21), various forms of which are found on Assyrian and Egyptian monuments. All Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold (1 Kings 10: 21). The cups mentioned in the New Testament…
Lemuel — Dedicated to God, a king whom his mother instructed (Prov. 31:1-9). Nothing is certainly known concerning him. The rabbis identified him with Solomon.
Wine — The common Hebrew word for wine is yayin, from a root meaning “to boil up,” “to be in a ferment.” Others derive it from a root meaning “to tread out,” and hence the juice of the grape trodden out.…
Drunkenness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Wine · Medicinal use of — Medicinal use of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Too much wine numbs the senses. A king needs his wits about him and should not overindulge in alcohol.
Rashi on Proverbs 31:6
to the one who is perishing To him who will ultimately perish—to the wicked.
to those of bitter soul Who suffer pain because of their poverty and their mourning. To give them pleasure in this world, so that they receive the reward for the precepts they kept, in this world, [leaving them with nothing in the hereafter.]
