LAMUEL (Hebr. Lēmū'el and Lēmō'el; Septuagint: ὑπὸ θεοῦ = lēmō'el). — King of Massa (cf. Greek, Targum, Syriac, according to the most common reading). The Masoretic punctuation has: “king. Oracle, etc.” (cf. Vulgate). Massa lies between the Jordan and the Arabian Desert; it was inhabited by Ishmaelites (Gen. 25:14; I Par. 1:30) and, from the time of Hezekiah, colonized by Israelites of the tribe of Simeon (I Par. 4:41 ff.). In Prov. 31:1–9 are preserved the counsels addressed to L. by the queen, his mother.
BIBL.: L. Bigot, Proverbes, in DThC, XIII, col. 911 ff.; J. Marie, Proverbes, in DB, V, cols. 786 ff.; A. Vaccari, De libris didactici, 2nd ed., Rome 1935, p. 51; H. Renard, Le livre des Proverbes (La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 6), Paris 1946, pp. 33, 183 ff. Francesco Spadafora