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Do not give your strength to the women,
    and your ways to destroy kings.
It is not for the kings, O Lemuel;
    drinking wine is not for the kings,
    nor is strong drink for rulers.
Or else he will drink and forget what has been decreed,
    and he will pervert the rights[a] of all the afflicted.[b]
Give strong drink to him who is perishing,
    and wine to those in bitter distress.[c]
He will drink and forget his poverty,
    and his misery he will not remember any more.
Open your mouth for the mute,
    for the rights[d] of all the needy.[e]
Open your mouth, judge righteousness,
    and defend the poor and needy.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 31:5 Hebrew “right”
  2. Proverbs 31:5 Literally “sons of affliction”
  3. Proverbs 31:6 Literally “to bitterness of soul”
  4. Proverbs 31:8 Hebrew “right”
  5. Proverbs 31:8 Literally “the sons of the needy”