Proverbs 31:8

Open your mouth ¹  on behalf of those unable to speak, ²  for the legal rights of all the dying. ³ 

biblegateway Pro 31:8

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.

biblegateway Pro 31:8

Open your mouth for the mute, For the rights of all the unfortunate.

biblegateway Pro 31:8

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those who are perishing.

biblegateway Pro 31:8

"Speak up for the people who have no voice, for the rights of all the down-and-outers.

SABDAweb Pro 31:8

Let your mouth be open for those who have no voice, in the cause of those who are ready for death.

bibleoremus Pro 31:8

Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.

biblegateway Pro 31:8

Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die.

biblegateway Pro 31:8

Open your mouth ¹  on behalf of those unable to speak, ²  for the legal rights of all the dying. ³ 

¹ sn The instruction to “open your mouth” is a metonymy of cause; it means “speak up for” (so NIV, TEV, NLT) or in this context “serve as an advocate in judgment” (cf. CEV “you must defend”).

² sn The instruction compares people who cannot defend themselves in court with those who are physically unable to speak (this is a figure of speech known as hypocatastasis, an implied comparison). The former can physically speak; but because they are the poor, the uneducated, the oppressed, they are unable to conduct a legal defense. They may as well be speechless.

³ tn Or “of all the defenseless.” The noun חֲלוֹף (khalof) means “passing away; vanishing” (properly an infinitive); in this construction “the sons of the passing away” means people who by nature are transitory, people who are dying – mortals. But in this context it would indicate people who are “defenseless” as opposed to those who are healthy and powerful.