Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
This verse comes from a poem in Proverbs 31 that was taught by a mother to her son Lemuel, who was a king. It is a rare instance in the Bible of a woman's wisdom being recorded, honored, and passed down in scripture. Just before this verse, she warns her son not to let destructive habits cloud his judgment as a ruler. Then she makes a striking pivot: she tells him to show compassion to those who are suffering so deeply that their pain has become unbearable. In the ancient world, strong drink was sometimes given as a form of mercy to people who were dying or in acute distress — the closest available relief from overwhelming pain. This verse is not an endorsement of numbing one's problems, but a charge to people in positions of power: do not look away from those whose misery has consumed them. Notice them. Give them something that actually helps.
God, I do not want to keep stepping around the people near me whose misery I have learned to overlook. Open my eyes to what someone in my life actually needs today — not what is easy to offer, but what would matter. Make me practical in my mercy. Amen.
There is something quietly radical about this verse. It does not meet poverty with a pep talk. It does not hand the suffering person a theological explanation for why hard things happen. It says their misery is real and present, and what they need right now is relief — and giving them that is not weakness or enabling, it is compassion. A mother is teaching her son how to lead a nation, and this is part of the curriculum: learn to see the people whose pain is so heavy they have forgotten what it felt like before it arrived. Think about the people in your life carrying weight you cannot fully see. The friend who keeps showing up, keeps functioning, but sends you messages at midnight that reveal how much they are actually holding. The neighbor who never asks for anything. This verse asks a harder question than whether you prayed for them. It asks: did you do something today that actually eased their load? You do not have to fix someone's whole situation to matter to them. Sometimes love looks like a meal, a phone call, showing up and staying longer than is convenient. Do not spiritualize what this verse is asking. It is asking you to be practical in your mercy — and to start with whoever is already in front of you.
This advice comes from a mother to her son, a king. Why do you think the ability to see and respond to poverty and suffering was considered an essential part of wise leadership — not just kindness, but wisdom?
Who in your life right now is carrying a kind of misery they rarely talk about? What do you actually know about what would genuinely help them, and have you asked?
This verse does not spiritualize suffering — it addresses it practically and directly. Do you think people of faith sometimes use prayer or spiritual language as a way of avoiding concrete action? How do you guard against that in your own life?
How does the way you actually respond to people in poverty or acute pain reflect what you truly believe about human dignity and God's character — not what you say you believe, but what your actions show?
What is one specific, practical thing you could do this week for someone who is struggling — not a prayer alone, but an action that costs you something real, whether time, money, or comfort?
Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:
Job 11:16
Be not among winebibbers ; among riotous eaters of flesh:
Proverbs 23:20
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Ephesians 5:18
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
1 Timothy 5:23
Let him drink and forget his poverty And no longer remember his trouble.
AMP
let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.
ESV
Let him drink and forget his poverty And remember his trouble no more.
NASB
let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.
NIV
Let him drink and forget his poverty, And remember his misery no more.
NKJV
Let them drink to forget their poverty and remember their troubles no more.
NLT
Of the terminally ill, for whom life is a living death.
MSG