Proverbs 30:1-33 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Proverbs 30. The Sayings of Agur. It is uncertain whether the title embraces the whole chapter or Proverbs 30:1-9, or Proverbs 30:1-4 only.

Proverbs 30:1. The title is extremely obscure, and has been much discussed. The VSS show a wide divergence in their interpretation. It is perhaps simplest to accept the title as referring to some sage of repute among the Wisdom circles in the Greek period.

Proverbs 30:1 b has been interpreted in many ways, the proper names being taken as significant words. The most interesting is that which represents the sage as saying (cf. mg.), I have wearied myself, O God, I have wearied myself and have not succeeded. This offers a striking connexion with Proverbs 30:2-4. But it is too hypothetical to be adopted, and, as in Proverbs 30:1 a, it seems best to retain the proper names, either as those of fellow-sages or pupils.

Proverbs 30:2-4. A passage reflecting the attitude of the author of Job and Psalms 73 towards the problem of God's real nature and His government of the world. The sage declares his ignorance; like Socrates, he has discovered the knowledge of his ignorance, and feels that this marks him off from those who think they know. For brutish cf. Psalms 73:22, with its passionate confession of failure to understand God. Our passage is, of course, only a fragment, and is therefore difficult to compare with Job or Psalms 73, but we do not find in it the passion and yearning for God which underlies the apparent scepticism of the author of Job or of Psalms 73.

Proverbs 30:4 seems to imply an acquaintance with Job 38, and helps to fix the date of the passage and of the collection. What is his name, etc., cannot refer to God. It is a sarcastic inquiry after the name of the man, or of his son, who has ascended up to heaven and returned with a knowledge of its secrets. Cf. the early Christian use of the idea in John 3:13; Ephesians 4:9 f.

Proverbs 30:5 f. It is not clear whether these two quotations form part of Agur's oracle. They are from Psalms 18:30 (cf. Psalms 12:6 also) and Deuteronomy 12:32 respectively. It is difficult to define the reference. The Sadducees regarded the Pharisees as innovators in doctrine, especially in their eschatological beliefs (cf. Exp., Oct. 1914, pp. 305f.).

Proverbs 30:7-33. Except Proverbs 30:10; Proverbs 30:17; Proverbs 30:32 f., this is a collection of numerical aphorisms, a literary form which appears quite early in Heb. literature (cf. Amos 1:3 to Amos 2:6).

Proverbs 30:7-9. A prayer for two things, sincerity and a modest competency.

Proverbs 30:11-14. Four evil generations despisers of parents, self-righteous, proud, and extortionate.

Proverbs 30:15 f. Four insatiable things.

Proverbs 30:15 a is apparently a fragment of a lost proverb. MT is unintelligible, and no satisfactory emendation can be offered. The remainder gives the regular form of tetrad. The four things are: Sheol, the barren womb (LXX has the love of woman), the earth never satisfied with water, and fire. Malan compares the Indian proverb from the Hitopadesa: Fire is not sated with wood, nor the ocean with the streams, nor death with all the living, nor women with men.

Proverbs 30:17. Possibly a fragment of a lost tetrad, or a gloss on Proverbs 30:11, just as Proverbs 30:20 is obviously a gloss on Proverbs 30:19 d. to obey: purely conjectural, and based on a cognate Ass. form. LXX old age is probably the true text.

Proverbs 30:18-20. Four inexplicable things. This tetrad, like the two in Proverbs 30:24-31, is derived from observation of nature. For the ship and the eagle cf. Wis_5:10 f.

Proverbs 30:21-23. Four intolerable things. Ironic observations on the vicissitudes of life.

Proverbs 30:23. odious: hardly the sense of the word in this connexion. It might almost be rendered in English idiom an old maid, a woman unsought in marriage.

Proverbs 30:24-28. Four little wise things.

Proverbs 30:25. cf. Proverbs 6:6.

Proverbs 30:26. conies is erroneous. Render, as in Leviticus 11:5 (mg.), the rock-badger. It is the hyrax, a small rock-dwelling animal, mentioned in Psalms 104:18; Leviticus 11:5, and Deuteronomy 14:7.

Proverbs 30:27. cf. the description of the locust armies in Joel 2.

Proverbs 30:28. Read mg.

Proverbs 30:29-31. Four majestic things.

Proverbs 30:31. Corrupt. The original cannot be recovered. RV greyhound is one of many guesses at the Heb. expression compressed as to the loins (cf. mg.). The LXX, with most VSS, reads cock. It gives a fuller form for the last three, which is probably exegetical paraphrase rather than faithful representation of the original. The fourth clause also is very uncertain.

Proverbs 30:32 f. An aphorism, apparently in six-line form, against haste in speech or action. The text is obscure and uncertain.

Related Commentaries of Proverbs 30:1

Proverbs 30:1-33

1 The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal,

2 Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.

3 I neither learned wisdom, nor havea the knowledge of the holy.

4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?

5 Every word of God is pure:b he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

7 Two things have I required of thee; denyc me them not before I die:

8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenientd for me:

9 Lest I be full, and denye thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

10 Accusef not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.

11 There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.

12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

13 There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.

14 There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

15 The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

16 The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.

17 The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valleyg shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midsth of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.

20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

21 For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear:

22 For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat;

23 For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

24 There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceedingi wise:

25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;

26 The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;

27 The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;

28 The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.

29 There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going:

30 A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any;

31 A greyhound;j an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.

32 If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.

33 Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.