Proverbs 31:6

“Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, etc.] Thou, O Lemuel, and other kings and judges, rather than drink strong drink yourselves, least to excess; give it out of your great abundance and liberality to poor persons in starving circumstances, who must perish, unless relieved; it will do them good, moderately used; and should they drink too freely, which they ought not, yet it would not be attended with such bad consequences as if kings and princes should; and wine to those that be of heavy heart; of melancholy dispositions, under gloomy apprehensions of things; pressed with the weight of their affliction and poverty: or, “bitter in soul”f925; such as God has dealt bitterly with,…”

“The proper use of such drinks is to restore tone to feeble bodies and depressed minds (compare Psa 104:15).”

“The true purpose of the power of wine over man’s mind and body, as a restorative and remedial agent. Compare the margin reference. The same thought showed itself in the Jewish practice of giving a cup of wine to mourners, and (as in the history of the crucifixion) to criminals at their execution. return to 'Top of Page'”

“To perish - To faint; for such need a cordial. Proverbs 31:8”

“strong: Psa 104:15; Ti1 5:23 of heavy hearts: Heb. bitter of soul, Sa1 1:10, Sa1 30:6; Kg2 4:27 \*marg. Proverbs 31:7”

“6 Give strong drink to him that is perishing, And wine to those whose soul is in bitter woe; 7 Let him drink and forget his poverty, And let him think of his misery no more. The preparation of a potion for malefactors who were condemned to death was, on the ground of these words of the proverb, cared for by noble women in Jerusalem (נשׁים יקרות שׁבירושׁלים), Sanhedrin 43a; Jesus rejected it, because He wished, without becoming insensible to His sorrow, to pass away from the earthly life freely and in full consciousness, Mar 15:23. The transition from the plur. to the sing. of the subject is in Pro 31:7 less violent than in Pro 31:5, since in Pro 31:6 singular and plur. already interchange.…”