lemuel Summary and Overview

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.

(dedicated to God), the name of an unknown king to whom his mother addressed the prudential maxims contained in #Pr 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 Israel, and elder brother of Agur, whose name stands at the head of #Pr 30:1|

LEM'UEL (dedicated to God), the name of the king to whom the counsels, contained in Prov 31:2-9 are addressed by his mother. The Rabbins identify Lemuel with Solomon; others consider the name a mere personification; nothing is known with certainty.

"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 Israel, 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.