Proverbs 31:25
Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
Scribal Workshop (collective), Call her Blessed, Ink
Proverbs 31:28 in a French Gothic style, designed with a full vinework/acanthus border and a bold gothic hand. The designs are each drawn, inked with handmade iron gall ink, then gesso is laid down before gilding with 23+ karat gold and painted with egg tempera paint that is handmade with historic pigments all on goatskin parchment.
The Wisdom of King Lemuel
As with Agur in Proverbs 30, we don’t know anything about King Lemuel. He is not in any recorded list of the kings of Judah or Israel, so he was probably a pagan king who put his trust in Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, and through the fear of the Lord learned wisdom. The name Lemuel means, belonging to God. There was no king of Israel (or Judah) with this name, so either he was a foreign king, or it is a pen name for the author. Several older commentators and Jewish legends often say Lemuel, the one belonging to God, was Solomon himself and his mother was Bathsheba.
“Jewish legend identifies Lemuel as Solomon and the advice as from Bathsheba from a time when Solomon indulged in magic with his Egyptian wife and delayed the morning sacrifices…. But there is no evidence for this.” (Ross)
“There have been many conjectures as to who King Lemuel was, but nothing certainly can be said.” (Morgan)
“With a minor punctuation change, however, one may translate v. 1a as, ‘The sayings of Lemuel, king of Massa,’ instead of ‘The sayings of King Lemuel — an oracle.’ McKane notes that Massa may have been a north Arabian tribe (Genesis 25:14; 1 Chronicles 1:30) and that several Aramaisms appear in the text.” (Garrett)