Proverbs 31:1 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The words of king Lemuel— This chapter, say the generality of commentators, contains Bathsheba's words to Solomon, and his commendation of her. Some, however, have doubted whether Lemuel was not a different person. "I know," says Dr. Delaney, "that some modern critics, contrary to the unanimous judgment and tradition of all antiquity, have raised some scruples upon this head, as if Lemuel were not Solomon, but some other king, they know not who. I have examined them with all the care and candour I am capable of, and conclude upon the whole that their objections were such as my readers of best understandings would be little obliged to me either for retailing, or refuting. I shall barely mention that of greatest weight; it is this, That his mother, thrice in this chapter, when the calls him her son, makes use of the word בר bar, to express it by: a word no where used throughout the whole Old Testament, except in the second psalm, at the 12th verse. This then is the strength of the objection; that Solomon cannot be Lemuel, because Lemuel's mother calls him son, by a word which no sacred writer ever made use of before, except Solomon's father upon a like occasion. Besides, the very name sufficiently shews Lemuel to be Solomon; for Lemuel signifies belonging to God; and to whom can this possibly be applied so properly, as to Solomon, to whom God expressly declared he would be a father." See Delaney's Life of David, book 4: chap. 21 and Calmet on the place. Grotius conjectures, that Hezekiah was the person here meant, and that these proverbs were collected by his mother Abiah, the daughter of Zechariah, a person illustrious for his wisdom; and taught him as the precepts of his father. Houbigant renders it, The words of Lemuel, king of Mesha, with which his mother instructed him. See Genesis 10:30.