English Standard Version
Proverbs 31:8
8Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Proverbs 31:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
- New International Version (NIV)Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.
Context of Proverbs 31:8
6Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; 7let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. 10An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
Read all of Proverbs 31Proverbs 31:8 word by word
פְּתַח־פִּ֥יךָ לְאִלֵּ֑ם אֶל־דִּ֝֗ין כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י חֲלֽוֹף׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Proverbs 31:8
- Proverbs 24:7Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth.
- 1 Samuel 19:4And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, "Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you.
- 1 Samuel 20:32Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"
- 1 Samuel 22:14Then Ahimelech answered the king, "And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house?
- Esther 4:13Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.
- Job 29:9the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth;
- Psalms 82:3Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
- Jeremiah 26:16Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God."
- Jeremiah 38:7When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate—
- John 7:51"Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?"
- Psalms 79:11Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
Commentaries on Proverbs 31:8
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 8Open thy mouth for the dumb - For such accused persons as have no counsellors, and cannot plead for themselves. Are appointed to destruction - חלוף בני beney chaloph, variously translated, children of passage - indigent travelers; children of desolation - those who have no possessions, or orphans. I believe it either signifies those who are strangers, and are travelling from place to place, or those who are ready to perish in consequence of want or…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8In contrast with the two besetting sins of Eastern monarchs stands their one great duty, to give help to those who had no other helper. Such as are appointed to destruction - literally, “children of bereavement,” with the sense, either, as in the text, of those “destined to be bereaved of life or goods,” or of “bereaved or fatherless children.”Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8-9Instead of drinking wine (Proverbs 31:4–7), the king should defend those who cannot protect themselves.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 3-93-9. Succinct but solemn warnings against vices to which kings are peculiarly tempted, as carnal pleasures and oppressive and unrighteous government are used to sustain sensual indulgence. strength--mental and bodily resources for health and comfort. thy ways--or course of life. to that ... kings--literally, "to the destroying of kings," avoid destructive pleasures (compare Pr 5:9; 7:22, 27; Ho 4:11).Read the comment
Topics related to Proverbs 31:8
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Proverbs 31
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries