Listen, my son! Listen, son of my womb! Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers! – Proverbs 31:2

Today's Scripture Reading (January 15, 2026): Proverbs 31

I noted in my analysis of Proverbs 31:1 that, although the text states that King Lemuel wrote this Proverb, we have no idea who King Lemuel might be. There is no King Lemuel in the traditions of either of the Kingdoms of Israel or Judah. And we have no record of a King Lemuel who was a foreign King of one of the nations with whom Israel or Judah had dealings. The identity of King Lemuel, which means "belonging to God," has been a real historical mystery. 

We have no evidence to support theories about who this King might be, but that hasn't stopped us from making a guess. Some argue that it was a pen name of King Solomon. There is a rich tradition of writers who have written under pseudonyms.  So, Michael Crichton, early in his career, wrote under the name John Lange, Eric Blair wrote under the pen name George Orwell, and Mary Ann Evans became George Eliot when she published her writings. Why would we struggle if King Solomon were identified as King Lemuel in some of his early writings?

However, another theory warrants consideration. This theory holds that King Lemuel is not Solomon's pen name but that of Solomon's mother, Bathsheba. Those who believe that a woman is uniquely unqualified to write even a chapter of the Bible will probably get mad at me, but that might also be a motive for a woman to hide her gender. That is precisely why Mary Ann Evans wrote under the male pen name of George Eliot.

However, there are good reasons to believe that this advice from King Lemuel may have originated with Bathsheba's counsel to Solomon. And one of them is present in this verse. King Lemuel makes a plea to the "son of my womb." That is not a mistranslation. The term used here literally denotes the womb, belly, or abdomen. If Lemuel really was a King as opposed to Queen Lemuel, as far as I know, men do not have wombs and have never given birth. Son of my womb seems to indicate that this advice originated as the words of a mother to her son.

It might be that this is advice that Solomon received from his mother. Possibly, this advice circulated independently until someone, likely a scribe, combined this advice of Bathsheba to her son as the concluding voice of Solomon's Proverbs. After all, much of the wisdom any of us possesses comes from Mom and Dad. We all need to thank them for the wisdom they have given to us.   

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Song of Songs 1