3. Don't spend all your energy on sex and all your money on women; they have destroyed kings.
4. Listen, Lemuel. Kings should not drink wine or have a craving for alcohol.
5. When they drink, they forget the laws and ignore the rights of people in need.
6. Alcohol is for people who are dying, for those who are in misery.
7. Let them drink and forget their poverty and unhappiness.
8. “Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless.
9. Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and needy.”
10. How hard it is to find a capable wife! She is worth far more than jewels!
11. Her husband puts his confidence in her, and he will never be poor.
12. As long as she lives, she does him good and never harm.
13. She keeps herself busy making wool and linen cloth.
14. She brings home food from out-of-the-way places, as merchant ships do.
15. She gets up before daylight to prepare food for her family and to tell her servant women what to do.