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Journey of a Passage

Proverbs 31:8–9

"Open thy mouth for the dumb"

Lemuel's mother tells her son: "Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." The witnesses agree in substance. A queen mother's charge defines a king's duty: to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The proverb as first composedCollections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Proverbs
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Collections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)

      The proverb as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Proverbs are two small Qumran fragments (4Q102, 4Q103, 1st century BC – 1st century AD, reported).

    2. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

      Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt. Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et pauperem.

      Latin position: Proverbs 31:8–9. Jerome translated Proverbs from Hebrew (c. AD 398).

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      פְּתַח־פִּ֥יךָ לְאִלֵּ֑ם אֶל־דִּ֝֗ין כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י חֲלֽוֹף׃ פְּתַח־פִּ֥יךָ שְׁפָט־צֶ֑דֶק וְ֝דִ֗ין עָנִ֥י וְאֶבְיֽוֹן׃

      Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are passing away; open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the poor and needy

      Hebrew position: Proverbs 31:8–9.

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

    5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Proverbs

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Ouvre la bouche à la parole de Dieu, et rends justice à tous. Ouvre la bouche et juge selon l’équité, et plaide la cause du pauvre et du faible.

      Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 31:8–9. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). In chapters 24–31 the Greek follows a different order of collections, which the digital file squeezes into Hebrew slots; the matching line was found by content. No Göttingen critical edition of Greek Proverbs is published; a C check needs Rahlfs–Hanhart and specialist studies.

    What changed, and why

    "The dumb" (illem) are those without a voice in court: the poor, widows, orphans, foreigners. "Such as are appointed to destruction" (benei chalof) may be "those passing away," the vulnerable or dying. The ideal of the king as protector of the weak runs through ancient Near Eastern royal ideology (Hammurabi's prologue: "that the strong might not oppress the weak") and the Psalms (72:4, 12–14).

    Queen mothers had real influence in Judah (the gevirah: Bathsheba in 1 Kings 2:19; Maacah in 15:13); several are named in Kings. This is the only teaching in the Bible attributed to a mother.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's witnesses agree on 31:8–9.
    • Independently documentedHammurabi's prologue states the aim that the strong not oppress the weak.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Proverbs 31: A Woman of Strength →Proverbs ends with two pieces taught by or about women. In 31:1–9 King Lemuel repeats "the prophecy that his mother taught him": do not spend your strength on women or on wine, which make kings forget the law and pervert justice; "Open thy mouth for the dumb… plead the cause of the poor and needy." In 31:10–31 an alphabetic poem, every verse beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, praises the eshet chayil, "a woman of strength": she trades, buys a field, plants a vineyard, weaves and sells cloth, provides for her household before dawn, opens her hand to the poor, speaks wisdom and kindness, and "feareth the LORD." The book that opened with "the fear of the LORD" (1:7) ends with it (31:30).