Advice to a King

     The last chapter of Proverbs contains a poem about "a virtuous wife."

It begins: 

                  "The saying of King Lemuel -- an oracle (or prophecy) his mother taught him." 

     Commentators say a lot about this fictional king--perhaps he was a king of one of the surrounding nations; perhaps the elder brother of Agur, king of an Arab tribe in Manna; perhaps it is an older form of Nemuel, or Jemuel, Simeon's oldest son. OK...maybe. But I think not. When I looked up the meaning in Strongs it said,

                  "OT:3927 Lemuw'el (lem-oo-ale') or Lemow;el (lem-o-ale') from OT:3926 and OT:410, belonging to God."

I think it is a euphemism for Solomon. 

The advice from Lemuel's mother is:

                  "O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows,

                   do not spend your strength on women, 

                    your vigor on those who ruin kings." 

     The word "strength" in the original Hebrew is "chayil (khah'-yil)" and it means "a force whether of men, means or other resources; an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength." I like the word valor best as a translation of this word. One of the reasons I like it is that, as it turns out, the word 'chayil' is used other places in scripture in the phrase "men of valor," "man of valor" and "mighty man of valor" (ish chayil/gabowr ish chayil), often enough that it feels to me that it may have been a commonly used phrase that people understood not literally but idiomatically.  Just to name a few places: In the book of Joshua, when Joshua went to war with Ai, he took thirty thousand "mighty men of valor" with him. "Mighty men of valor" were with him again at Gilgal. In Judges 6, the Angel of the Lord called Gideon a "mighty man of valor." In 2 Kings 5, Naaman, the Syrian general whose leprosy was healed by Elisha, was called a "mighty man of valor." In 2 Chronicles 17, we are told that in the days of Jehoshaphat the "mighty men of valor" were in Jerusalem. * All of these references use the phrase "ish chayil, or gabowr ish chayil." 

     Hebrew poetry is interesting in that it does not rhyme sounds, it rhymes ideas and concepts. The rhyme for Lemuel's 'chayil' comes in verse 10. After this mother of a king has told him not to drink too much wine or beer and to be sure to speak up for those who have no voice and to judge fairly the rights of the poor and needy, she asks the rhetorical question: 

Proverbs 31:10

                  "A wife of noble character who can find?

     That phrase, "A wife of noble character" -- you guessed it: in the original Hebrew, it is  "Eeshet chayil! An appropriate translation could be "A woman of valor who can find?"  So she says, do not give up your chayil, but rather find a woman of chayil as a wife.  In other words, a king who is a man of valor needs a wife who is a woman of valor.
 
     Because this word, "chayil" is used idiomatically in a phrase that is applied almost exclusively to men, it seems no small thing that scripture uses it to describe women. There are only a couple places where the phrase is applied to women. Once is in Proverbs, and another is in the book of Ruth. In fact in Ruth you find both a man of valor and a woman of valor.

Ruth 2:1:

         "There was a relative of Naomi's husband, iysh gibowr chayil, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz." I have not found even one translation that renders that phrase "a mighty man of valor." OK, I get that the translators wanted to highlight Boaz's wealth, or his standing in the community. It is translated both ways: "a man of great wealth" NKJV, RSV and NASB, "a man of standing" NIV. Although they are not technically wrong, I think the translators missed it and weren't paying attention to how that phrase was used idiomatically in other books of scripture.

     I think they missed it because the phrase is used later in the book to describe Ruth. When in chapter 3, Boaz agrees to be Ruth's kinsman-redeemer, he tells her,
 
         "And now my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all that you ask. All my fellow         
          townsmen know that you are "eeshet chayil." 

It is translated differently by different translators: "a woman of noble character" NIV, "a virtuous woman" KJV, "a woman of excellence" NASB, "a woman of worth." Again all are technically correct, but none of them choose "a woman of valor." Again, I think they missed the idiomatic phrase, and I think they missed the poetic balance of a man of valor / a woman of valor. 

     I think that the book of Ruth is just that: a poetic love story where a man of valor finds a woman of valor. I think Solomon knew this story; it is the story, after all, of his great, great grand-parents. Maybe, just maybe, that is why "Lemuel's" mother knew he would understand her advice. 

* Also see: Deut 3:18, Joshua 1:12-15, 6:2, Judges 3:29, 18:2, 20:44, 1 Chron. 5:24, 7:2, 7:7, 7:40, 8:40, 12:8, 12:21, 13:30, 28:1, 2 Chron. 13:3, 14:8, 17:13-16, 26:12, Nehemiah 11:14, Daniel 3:20