Agur's Honest Questions and Life Patterns — Proverbs

Chapter 30 is the book's most unusual chapter and the only one attributed to a writer other than Solomon: "The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy." He addresses it to Ithiel and Ucal, names otherwise unknown.

Agur opens with a confession of radical ignorance: surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. This is unlike anything else in Proverbs, a teacher who begins by declaring he has nothing to teach from his own knowledge. He then asks four rhetorical questions that invoke divine mystery: who has ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if you can tell? Against this immensity, Agur lands on a simple conviction: every word of God is pure; he is a shield to those who trust in him. Add not to his words, lest he reprove you and you be found a liar.

Then Agur makes his two requests before death: remove vanity and lies far from him; and give him neither poverty nor riches, feed him with food convenient for him. The reason is precise: lest he be full and deny God and say, Who is the LORD? Or lest he be poor and steal, and take God's name in vain. This middle-way prayer is one of the most theologically careful passages in the book.

The chapter then passes through a series of four-part observations. Four generations that trouble the earth: those who curse their fathers, those who think themselves clean while filthy, the lofty-eyed, and those whose teeth are as swords devouring the poor. Four things never satisfied: the grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not filled with water, and fire. The eye that mocks its father, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the eagles shall eat it.

Four things too wonderful to understand: the way of an eagle in the air, a serpent on a rock, a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. Then the application: such is the way of an adulterous woman, she eats, wipes her mouth, and says, I have done no wickedness. The unknowable way, the vanishing track, applies also to the woman who hides her adultery.

Four things the earth cannot bear: a servant when he reigns, a fool when he is filled with food, an odious woman when she is married, and a handmaid who is heir to her mistress.

Four things that are small but exceedingly wise: ants who prepare food in summer, rock badgers who make their houses in the rocks, locusts who have no king yet march in bands, and the spider who takes hold with her hands and is found in kings' palaces.

Four things that go well: a lion who turns aside for no one, a greyhound, a he-goat, and a king against whom there is no rising up.

The chapter closes: if you have done foolishly in lifting yourself up, or if you have thought evil, lay your hand on your mouth. The churning of milk brings forth butter, and the wringing of the nose brings forth blood, so the forcing of wrath brings forth strife.