Lemuel

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The author of Proverbs 31:1-31 . Some suppose it to be an enigmatical name for Solomon.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Proverbs 31:1-9

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

"devoted to God", or "created by God" (the long form of Loci, Numbers 3:24). Instead of "Lemuel .... the prophecy," some less probably translated "Lemuel, king of Massa" (Proverbs 31:1-9). An ideal model king. Not, as Hitzig guessed, elder brother to Agur, king of an Arab tribe in Massa, on the borders of Palestine, and both sprung from the Simeonites who drove out the Amalekites from Mount Seir under Hezekiah, as if Lemuel were an older form of Nemuel, or Jemuel, Simeon's oldest son. Taught by his mother, as Timothy by Lois and Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15-16). Her character was perhaps the model of the portrait of the "virtuous woman" (Proverbs 31:10-31). Abstemious; a pleader for and patron of those who cannot defend themselves, the widow and orphan.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Proverbs 31:1-9

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

LEMUEL. The name of a king, otherwise unknown, to whom Proverbs 31:1-9 is addressed by his mother. His identity has been much discussed; he has been identified (by the Rabbinical commentators) with Solomon, (by Grotius) with Hezekiah. Cf. also Massa . It is possible that the name is a fanciful title to represent any virtuous king, invented for the purpose of conveying certain maxims.

T. A. Moxon.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The name of a king, to whom was given, by his mother, the instruction recorded in Proverbs 31:1-9 . The name does not occur elsewhere, and is supposed by some to be a symbolical one, signifying 'godward,' or '(created) by God,' Gesenius.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Lem'uel. (dedicated to God). The name of an unknown king, to whom his mother addressed the prudential maxims contained in Proverbs 31:1-9. The rabbinical commentators identified Lemuel with Solomon. Others regard him as king or chief of an Arab tribe dwelling on the borders of Palestine, and elder brother of Agur, whose name stands at the head of Proverbs 30:1.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

See AGUR .

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

lem´ū́ - el ( למוּאל , lemū'el , or למואל , lemō'ēl ): A king whose words, an "oracle (taught him by his mother)," are given in Proverbs 31:1-9; and possibly the succeeding acrostic poem (31:10-31) is from the same source. Instead of translating the word after this name as "oracle" some propose to leave it as a proper name, translating "king of Massa," and referring for his kingdom to Massa (Genesis 25:14 ), one of the sons of Ishmael, supposedly head of a tribe or sheikh of a country. It is to be noted, however, that the words of Agur in the previous chapter are similarly called massā' , "oracle" with not so clear a reason for referring it to a country. See for a suggested reason for retaining the meaning "oracle" in both places, Proverbs , Book Of , II., 6.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Hebrew Lemnuel', לְמוּאֵל , Proverbs 31:1; Sept. ὑπὸ θεοῦ , Vulgate Lamuel; also Lemoë l, לְמוֹאֵל Proverbs 31:4; Sept. πάντα ποιεῖ , Vulgate Lamuel), an unknown prince, to whom the admonitory apothegms of Proverbs 31:2-9 were originally addressed by his mother. Most interpreters understand Solomon to be meant either symbolically (the name signifying to God, i.e. created by him) or by a pleasing epithet (see Rosenmü ller, Scholia acl Prov. p. 718). The Rabbinical commentators identify Lemuel with Solomon, and tell a strange tale that when he married the daughter of Pharaoh, on the day of the dedication of the Temple, he assembled musicians of all kinds, and passed the night awake. On the morrow he slept till the fourth hour, with the keys of the Temple beneath his pillow, when his mother entered, and upbraided him in the words of Proverbs 31:2-9. Others (e.g. Grotius) refer it to Hezekiah (by a precarious etymology), while still others (e.g. Gesenius) think that no Israelite is referred to, but some neighboring petty Arabian prince. On the other hand, according to Eichhorn (Einleitulq, v. 106), Lemuel is altogether an imaginary person (so Ewald; comp. Bertholdt, v. 2196 sq.). Prof. Stuart (Comment. on Prov. p. 403 sq.) renders the expression "Lemuel, the king of Massa," and regards him as the brother of Agur, whom he makes to have been likewise a son of the queen of Massa, in the neighborhood of Dumah. (See Agur); (See Ithiel).

In the reign of Hezekiah, a roving band of Simeonites drove out the Amalekites from Mount Seir and settled in their stead (1 Chronicles 4:38-43), and from these exiles of Israelitish origin Hitzig conjectures that Lemuel and Agur were descended, the former having been born in the land of Israel; and that the name Lemuel is an older form of Nemuel, the firstborn of Simeon (Die Sprü che Salomo's, p. 310-314). But this interpretation is far-fetched; and none is more likely than that which fixes the epithet upon Solomon. (See Proverbs).