v1: Lemuel is another name for Solomon.
Note that Solomon's mother told him the wisdom recorded in this chapter. God doesn't belittle wives or women in any way.
Prophecy doesn't just mean foretelling the future: it also has to do with teaching.
v2: King Solomon's mom wants him to listen to what she has to say.
v4-7: This passage is not condemning the drinking of alcohol: merely giving guidance for it's consumption and use.
One should not drink on the job.
When a dying person drinks or takes hard drugs, from what I've heard, they don't really get high because they're in so much pain.
v8-9: Christians truly are to be a voice for the voiceless and pursue justice in society. However, Biblical social justice and modern social justice are markedly different.
v10: A virtuous woman is worth more than rubies, i.e. rare. Boy, Solomon's mother wasn't kidding!
v11: The noble wife is trustworthy, not flaky.
v12: She seeks good for her husband (and others) instead of evil. In other words, she is not malicious.
v13: She doesn't begrudge performing her household duties.
v14: She provides food (and other necessary items) for her family. This is where that feamale gathering instinct comes in, only it didn't come about as a result of evolution and emerge back when we were cave dwellers; it was placed in Eve, the mother of all living, when God created her from Adam's rib.
v15: She isn't lazy. She also treats those who work for her well.
v16: This would seem to fly in the face of the modern evangelical teaching that women can't run businesses outside the home.
v17: Most importantly, she strengthens herself with the truth of Jesus Christ.
v19: A re-iteration of her industriousness.
v20: She is generous, thinks of others and is not greedy or stingy.
v21: She prepares for the future.
v22: The woman who clothes herself with these virtuous characteristics makes herself a queen, clothed with the righteousness of Christ and part of His royal priesthood.
v23: Her husband is respectable and his opinion carries weight. He is not an idiot man-child. Keep in mind this chapter is being told to a son.
v24: She is enterprising.
v25: She is given the Lord's strength and the honour comes because she has a relationship with God. When Jesus returns, she will be eternally rewarded.
v26: She isn't a silly girl who just pops out with whatever stupid or thoughtless thing comes into her head.
v27: She is industrious because she cares and she cares because she has had her heart of stone replaced by a heart of flesh under God's new covenant.
v28-29: As opposed to insulting her and complaining about her.
v30: Be this type of woman, girls. Jesus Christ is the only thing that matters; everything else is going to be destroyed by fire in the end.
v31: She receives credit for her accomplishments, instead of the credit going to her husband.
Here is a poem that talks about the men's role in the life of such a woman and how God's people relate to their Heavenly Father.
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