Who is King Lemuel? We don’t know, but scholars generally agree that the writer is most likely Solomon, and he is referring to himself by another name as he did in his introduction to Ecclesiastes.
Proverbs 31 is generally remembered for its description of the characteristics of a desirable wife, but there are other profound ideas in this chapter. For example, when he advises the reader to speak up for the mute, we don’t have to take that as someone who is literally mute, but can include anyone who is unheard because they are devalued as so insignificant as to have no voice. Do you know of someone like that on whose behalf you should speak?
A lot of what made the wife of Solomon’s day an asset to her husband is not valued by husbands today. But think about what each statement said about the woman of that day, and how that could meaningfully translate into the activities of modern women. For example, the image of merchant ships conveys that she is enterprising in finding sources for what she needs. Her household doesn’t go without because something it needs isn’t readily available; rather, she finds a way to provide and perhaps add value to the family finances in doing so. The image of a lamp that doesn’t go out at night doesn’t mean that she works all night. Rather, in a day when lights weren’t turned on with a switch, they needed a source of ignition for the oil they burned in their lamps if the lamp went out. The most efficient and effective way to take care of that need was to keep a small lamp burning as an ignition source. So the image conveys one who takes care of the needs of her areas of responsibility and isn’t negligent.
Ecclesiastes is a book that requires much care in understanding. These ideas are the musings of the best wisdom man has to offer – but it is still man’s wisdom. What does the best of man’s wisdom offer? Meaninglessness. If you isolate the ideas in this book from their context, you will likely misunderstand them. People who want to discredit Scripture often quote passages from Ecclesiastes out of context.
Solomon had the resources to live at the peak of human experience in virtually every pleasure in which man can indulge. He indulged himself to the extreme and yet found nothing in his indulgences to satisfy. If any man could possibly find meaning and true satisfaction in anything this world has to offer, it would be Solomon with his endless resources. Yet he found no meaning, for sin and its effects have robbed human experience of satisfaction. Messiah is all over this book by His very absence. Without His redeeming work, nothing in this life has meaning or lasting satisfaction because the ultimate effect of sin has robbed our every effort of lasting value. How desperate our need for a rescuer from death is demonstrated in the writings of this man who was in a position to know.