Teks -- Proverbs 30:1-33 (NET)

The Words of Agur

30:1 The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh; an oracle: This man says to Ithiel, to Ithiel and to Ukal: 30:2 Surely I am more brutish than any other human being, and I do not have human understanding; 30:3 I have not learned wisdom, nor do I have knowledge of the Holy One. 30:4 Who has ascended into heaven, and then descended? Who has gathered up the winds in his fists? Who has bound up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name?– if you know! 30:5 Every word of God is purified; he is like a shield for those who take refuge in him. 30:6 Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you, and prove you to be a liar. 30:7 Two things I ask from you; do not refuse me before I die: 30:8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me; do not give me poverty or riches, feed me with my allotted portion of bread, 30:9 lest I become satisfied and act deceptively and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I become poor and steal and demean the name of my God. 30:10 Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you are found guilty. 30:11 There is a generation who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers. 30:12 There is a generation who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not washed from their filthiness. 30:13 There is a generation whose eyes are so lofty, and whose eyelids are lifted up disdainfully. 30:14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose molars are like knives to devour the poor from the earth and the needy from among the human race. 30:15 The leech has two daughters: “Give! Give!” There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, “Enough”– 30:16 the grave, the barren womb, land that is not satisfied with water, and fire that never says, “Enough!” 30:17 The eye that mocks at a father and despises obeying a mother– the ravens of the valley will peck it out and the young vultures will eat it. 30:18 There are three things that are too wonderful for me, four that I do not understand: 30:19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a woman. 30:20 This is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I have not done wrong.” 30:21 Under three things the earth trembles, and under four things it cannot bear up: 30:22 under a servant who becomes king, under a fool who is stuffed with food, 30:23 under an unloved woman who is married, and under a female servant who dispossesses her mistress. 30:24 There are four things on earth that are small, but they are exceedingly wise: 30:25 ants are creatures with little strength, but they prepare their food in the summer; 30:26 rock badgers are creatures with little power, but they make their homes in the crags; 30:27 locusts have no king, but they all go forward by ranks; 30:28 a lizard you can catch with the hand, but it gets into the palaces of the king. 30:29 There are three things that are magnificent in their step, four things that move about magnificently: 30:30 a lion, mightiest of the beasts, who does not retreat from anything; 30:31 a strutting rooster, a male goat, and a king with his army around him. 30:32 If you have done foolishly by exalting yourself or if you have planned evil, put your hand over your mouth! 30:33 For as the churning of milk produces butter and as punching the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Pro 30:1 - Jakeh

Who lived either in Solomon's time, or rather afterwards, and was famous in his generation for wisdom and piety.

Wesley: Pro 30:1 - The prophecy

The prophetical instruction; for as the prophets were public preachers as well as foretellers of things to come, so their sermons, no less than their predictions, are commonly called their prophecies.

Wesley: Pro 30:1 - And Ucal

Two friends and co - temporaries of Agur, who desired his instructions.

Wesley: Pro 30:2 - Surely

This he utters from a modest and humble apprehension of his own ignorance.

Wesley: Pro 30:3 - I neither learned

I have not been taught in the schools of wisdom.

Wesley: Pro 30:3 - Of the holy

Of the holy prophets. I have not such Divine inspirations as prophets strictly so called have received.

Wesley: Pro 30:4 - Who

What mere man? None at all.

Wesley: Pro 30:4 - Ascended

To learn the mind of God who dwells there.

Wesley: Pro 30:4 - Descended

To teach men below what he had learned above. No man can fully know and teach us these things unless he hath been in heaven, and sent down from thence to the earth for that end.

Wesley: Pro 30:4 - In his fists

To hold them in, or let them out at his pleasure? And none but he who made and governs all creatures, can know and teach these things.

Wesley: Pro 30:4 - The waters

Those above the clouds, and those below, the sea which God keeps as it were within doors, and the water which he shuts up in the bowels of the earth.

Wesley: Pro 30:4 - The earth

The whole earth from one end to another, which God upholdeth in the air, by the word of his power.

Wesley: Pro 30:4 - If

If thou thinkest there be any man who can do these things, produce his name; or if he be dead, the name of any of his posterity.

Wesley: Pro 30:5 - Pure

You must not expect the full knowledge of Divine mysteries from me, nor from any man, but from the word of God.

Wesley: Pro 30:8 - Vanity

All vanity of heart and life; a vain conversation, or a love of the vain things of this world.

Wesley: Pro 30:8 - Lies

All falsehood and deceit in my words and carriage.

Wesley: Pro 30:8 - Convenient

Moderate and suitable both to my natural necessities, and to that condition of life in which thou hast put me.

Wesley: Pro 30:9 - Deny thee

By trusting to riches, which is a denial of God, and by unthankfulness for, and abuse of his mercies.

Wesley: Pro 30:9 - Who is the Lord

That I should serve him.

Wesley: Pro 30:9 - Lest I take

Use false oaths either to vindicate myself when I am suspected, or to gratify others, as poor men frequently do.

Wesley: Pro 30:10 - Accuse not

Without sufficient cause: for otherwise, in some cases this may be a duty.

Wesley: Pro 30:10 - Curse thee

Desire God to punish thee.

Wesley: Pro 30:10 - Guilty

By God, who is ready to plead the cause of the afflicted.

Wesley: Pro 30:11 - A generation

A sort of men.

Wesley: Pro 30:12 - Not washed

Who imagine they are truly religious, when they live in a course of wickedness.

Wesley: Pro 30:14 - Devour

Extortioners, and cruel oppressors.

Wesley: Pro 30:15 - The horse

leach - An insatiable creature, sucking blood 'till it is ready to burst.

Wesley: Pro 30:15 - Two daughters

The following things resemble the horse - leach in its insatiableness; nothing being more ordinary than to call those persons or things the sons or daughters of those whose examples they imitate.

Wesley: Pro 30:15 - Three

Though he begins with two, yet he proceeds from thence to three, and four, all which are said to be the daughters of the horse - leach.

Wesley: Pro 30:17 - The eye

He that scorneth or derideth his parents, tho' it be but with a look or gesture, and much more when he breaks out into opprobrious words and actions.

Wesley: Pro 30:18 - Wonderful

The way whereof I cannot trace.

Wesley: Pro 30:20 - Such is

So secret and undiscernible.

Wesley: Pro 30:20 - Eateth

The bread of deceit in secret.

Wesley: Pro 30:21 - Four

Which are intolerable in human societies.

Wesley: Pro 30:22 - A servant

For such an one is commonly ignorant, and therefore commits many errors; he is poor, and therefore insatiable, he is proud and imperious, and usually injurious and cruel.

Wesley: Pro 30:22 - A fool

A conceited fool.

Wesley: Pro 30:22 - When

When he abounds in wealth.

Wesley: Pro 30:23 - An odious

Proud, and perverse.

Wesley: Pro 30:23 - Married

For then she displays all those ill humours, which before, she concealed.

Wesley: Pro 30:23 - Is heir

Which great and sudden change transports her beside herself, and makes her insufferably proud and scornful.

Wesley: Pro 30:27 - Bands

Several companies, in exact order.

Wesley: Pro 30:28 - Hands

With her legs, which he calls hands, because they serve her for the same use, to do her work, to weave her web, and to catch gnats or flies.

Wesley: Pro 30:28 - Palaces

Is not only in poor cottages, but many times in palaces also.

Wesley: Pro 30:31 - An he

goat - Which marches in the head of the flock in a grave and stately manner, conducting them with great courage and resolution, and being ready to fight for them, either with beasts or men that oppose him.

Wesley: Pro 30:31 - A king

Heb. a king and his people with him, a king when he hath the hearts and hands of his people going along with him in his undertakings.

Wesley: Pro 30:32 - Thought

Designed any injury against thy neighbour.

Wesley: Pro 30:32 - Lay thine hand

Do not open thy mouth to excuse it, but repent of it, and do so no more.

Wesley: Pro 30:33 - The forcing

The stirring up of wrath, either in a man's self towards others, by giving way to passion; or in others by reproaches, or any other provocations.

Wesley: Pro 30:33 - Bringeth forth

Is the cause of many quarrels.

JFB: Pro 30:1

(Pro. 30:1-33)

This is the title of this chapter (see Introduction).

JFB: Pro 30:1 - the prophecy

Literally, "the burden" (compare Isa 13:1; Zec 9:1), used for any divine instruction; not necessarily a prediction, which was only a kind of prophecy (1Ch 15:27, "a song"). Prophets were inspired men, who spoke for God to man, or for man to God (Gen 20:7; Exo 7:14-16). Such, also, were the New Testament prophets. In a general sense, Gad, Nathan, and others were such, who were divine teachers, though we do not learn that they ever predicted.

JFB: Pro 30:1 - the man spake

Literally, "the saying of the man"; an expression used to denote any solemn and important announcement (compare 2Sa 23:1; Psa 36:1; Psa 110:1; Isa 1:24, &c.). Ithiel and Ucal were perhaps pupils.

JFB: Pro 30:2-4 - brutish

Stupid, a strong term to denote his lowly self-estimation; or he may speak of such as his natural condition, as contrasted with God's all-seeing comprehensive knowledge and almighty power. The questions of this clause emphatically deny the attributes mentioned to be those of any creature, thus impressively strengthening the implied reference of the former to God (compare Deu 30:12-14; Isa 40:12; Eph 4:8).

JFB: Pro 30:5

(Compare Psa 12:6; Psa 119:140).

JFB: Pro 30:6 - Add . . . words

Implying that his sole reliance was on God's all-sufficient teaching.

JFB: Pro 30:6 - reprove thee

Or, "convict thee"--and so the falsehood will appear.

JFB: Pro 30:7-9

A prayer for exemption from wickedness, and the extremes of poverty and riches, the two things mentioned. Contentment is implied as desired.

JFB: Pro 30:8 - vanity

All sorts of sinful acts (Job 11:11; Isa 5:18).

JFB: Pro 30:9 - be full . . . deny

That is, puffed up by the pride of prosperity.

JFB: Pro 30:9 - take the name . . . vain

This is not (Hebrew) the form (compare Exo 20:7), but "take" rather denotes laying violent hold on any thing; that is, lest I assail God's name or attributes, as justice, mercy, &c., which the poor are tempted to do.

JFB: Pro 30:10 - Accuse not

Slander not (Psa 10:7).

JFB: Pro 30:10 - curse . . . guilty

Lest, however lowly, he be exasperated to turn on thee, and your guilt be made to appear.

JFB: Pro 30:11-14 - Four kinds of hateful persons

(1) graceless children, (2) hypocrites, (3) the proud, (4) cruel oppressors (compare on Pro 30:14; Psa 14:4; Psa 52:2) --are now illustrated; (1) Pro 30:15-16, the insatiability of prodigal children and their fate; (2) Pro 30:17, hypocrisy, or the concealment of real character; (3 and 4) Pro 30:18-20, various examples of pride and oppression.

JFB: Pro 30:15-16 - horse leech

Supposed by some to be the vampire (a fabulous creature), as being literally insatiable; but the other subjects mentioned must be taken as this, comparatively insatiable. The use of a fabulous creature agreeably to popular notions is not inconsistent with inspiration.

JFB: Pro 30:15-16 - There are three . . . yea, four

(Compare Pro 6:16).

JFB: Pro 30:17 - The eye

For the person, with reference to the use of the organ to express mockery and contempt, and also as that by which punishment is received.

JFB: Pro 30:17 - the ravens . . . eagles . . . eat

Either as dying unnaturally, or being left unburied, or both.

JFB: Pro 30:18-20

Hypocrisy is illustrated by four examples of the concealment of all methods or traces of action, and a pertinent example of double dealing in actual vice is added, that is, the adulterous woman.

JFB: Pro 30:20 - she eateth . . . mouth

That is, she hides the evidences of her shame and professes innocence.

JFB: Pro 30:21-23

Pride and cruelty, the undue exaltation of those unfit to hold power, produce those vices which disquiet society (compare Pro 19:10; Pro 28:3).

JFB: Pro 30:23 - heir . . . mistress

That is, takes her place as a wife (Gen 16:4).

JFB: Pro 30:24-31

These verses provide two classes of apt illustrations of various aspects of the moral world, which the reader is left to apply. By the first (Pro 30:25-28), diligence and providence are commended; the success of these insignificant animals being due to their instinctive sagacity and activity, rather than strength. The other class (Pro 30:30-31) provides similes for whatever is majestic or comely, uniting efficiency with gracefulness.

JFB: Pro 30:26 - conies

Mountain mice, or rabbits.

JFB: Pro 30:28 - spider

Tolerated, even in palaces, to destroy flies.

JFB: Pro 30:28 - taketh . . . hands

Or, uses with activity the limbs provided for taking prey.

JFB: Pro 30:32

As none can hope, successfully, to resist such a king, suppress even the thought of an attempt.

JFB: Pro 30:32 - lay . . . hand upon thy mouth

"lay" is well supplied (Jdg 18:19; Job 29:9; Job 40:4).

JFB: Pro 30:33 - That is, strife

Or other ills, as surely arise from devising evil as natural effects from natural causes.

Clarke: Pro 30:1 - The words of Agur the son of Jakeh

The words of Agur the son of Jakeh - The words Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ucal, have been considered by some as proper names: by others, as descriptive characters. With some, Agur is Solomon; and Jakeh, David; and Ithiel and Ural are epithets of Christ

The Vulgate translates, Verba congregantis filii vomentis: visio, quam locutus est sir, cum quo est Deus, et qui Deo secum morante confortatus, ait . "The words of the collector, the son of the vomiter: the vision of the man who has God with him, and who is fortified by God dwelling with him, saith.

Coverdale makes the following words a title to the chapter

"The wordes of Agur the sonne of Jake

"The prophecie of a true faithfull man, whom God hath helped; whom God hath comforted and nourished.

The whole might be thus translated, keeping near to the letter: -

"The words of the epistle of the obedient son."Or

"The words of the collector, the son of Jakeh. The parable which הגבר haggeber , the strong man, the hero, spake unto him who is God with me; to him who is God with me, even the strong God.

The visioun that a man spake with whiche is God, and that God with him, wonyng confortid. - Old MS. Bible

From this introduction, from the names here used, and from the style of the book, it appears evident that Solomon was not the author of this chapter; and that it was designed to be distinguished from his work by this very preface, which specifically distinguishes it from the preceding work. Nor can the words in Pro 30:2, Pro 30:3, Pro 30:8, Pro 30:9, be at all applied to Solomon: they suit no part of Solomon’ s life, nor of his circumstances. We must, therefore, consider it an appendix or supplement to the preceding collection; something in the manner of that part which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, had collected. As to mysteries here, many have been found by them who sought for nothing else; but they are all, in my view of the subject, hazarded and precarious. I believe Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ural, to be the names of persons who did exist, but of whom we know nothing but what is here mentioned. Agur seems to have been a public teacher, and Ithiel and Ucal to have been his scholars; and what he delivers to them was done by prophesy. It was what the prophets generally term משא massa , an Oracle, something immediately delivered by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of man.

Clarke: Pro 30:2 - Surely I am more brutish

Surely I am more brutish - These words can in no sense, nor by any mode of speech, be true of Solomon: for while he was the wisest of men, he could not have said that he was more brutish than any man, and had not the understanding of a man. It is saying nothing to the purpose, to say he was so independently of the Divine teaching. Had he put this in, even by innuendo, it might be legitimate: but he does not; nor is it by fair implication to be understood. Solomon is not supposed to have written the Proverbs after he fell from God. Then indeed he might have said he had been more brutish than any man. But Agur might have used these words with strict propriety, for aught we know; for it is very probable that he was a rustic, without education, and without any human help, as was the prophet Amos; and that all that he knew now was by the inspiration of the Almighty, independently of which he was rustic and uneducated.

Clarke: Pro 30:3 - I neither learned wisdom

I neither learned wisdom - I have never been a scholar in any of those schools of the wise men, nor have the knowledge of the holy, קדשים kedoshim , of the saints or holy persons

The Septuagint give this a different turn: yeov dedidace me sofian, kai gnwsin agiwn egnwka; "God hath taught me wisdom, and the knowledge of the saints I have known.

This may refer to the patriarchs, prophets, or holy men, that lived before the days of Solomon. That is, the translators might have had these in view.

Clarke: Pro 30:4 - Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? - Calmet paraphrases this passage thus: "Who hath descended, etc. In order to show the truth of what he was about to say, he observes: I have not the science of the saints; for how could I have acquired it? Who is he who could attain to that? Who has ascended to heaven to learn that science, and who has descended in order to publish it? Is the science of salvation one of those things that can be apprehended only by study? Is it not a pure gift of the goodness of God? Moses, after having shown to the people the will of God, said to them: ‘ This commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee; neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’ Deu 30:11, Deu 30:12. The person whose words we are here examining speaks a knowledge more sublime than that contained in the simple laws of the Lord, common to all the people of Israel. He speaks of the sublime science of the designs of God, of his ways, and of his secrets; and in this sense he affirms he has no knowledge.

Clarke: Pro 30:4 - Who hath gathered the wind in his fists?

Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? - It is as difficult for a mortal man to acquire this Divine science by his own reason and strength, as to collect the winds in his fists. And who can command the spirit of prophecy, so that he can have it whensoever he pleases

Clarke: Pro 30:4 - What is his name?

What is his name? - Show me the nature of this Supreme Being. Point out his eternity, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence; comprehend and describe him, if thou canst

Clarke: Pro 30:4 - What is his son’ s name

What is his son’ s name - Some copies of the Septuagint have η τι ονομα τοις τικνοιο αυτου ; "Or the name of his sons;"meaning, I suppose, the holy angels, called his saints or holy ones, Pro 30:3

The Arabic has, What is his name? and what is the name of his father? him who begat him. But the Chaldee, the Syriac, and the Vulgate, read as the Hebrew

Many are of opinion that Agur refers here to the first and second persons of the everblessed Trinity. It may be so; but who would venture to rest the proof of that most glorious doctrine upon such a text, to say nothing of the obscure author? The doctrine is true, sublimely true; but many doctrines have suffered in controversy, by improper texts being urged in their favor. Every lover of God and truth should be very choice in his selections, when he comes forward in behalf of the more mysterious doctrines of the Bible. Quote nothing that is not clear: advance nothing that does not tell. When we are obliged to spend a world of critical labor, in order to establish the sense of a text which we intend to allege in favor of the doctrine we wish to support, we may rest assured that we are going the wrong way to work. Those who indiscriminately amass every text of Scripture they think bears upon the subject they defend, give their adversaries great advantage against them. I see many a sacred doctrine suffering through the bad judgment of its friends every day. The Godhead of Christ, salvation by faith, the great atoning sacrifice, and other essential doctrines of this class, are all suffering in this way. My heart says, with deep concern

Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis

Tempus eget

When truth is assailed by all kinds of weapons, handled by the most powerful foes, injudicious defenders may be ranked among its enemies. To such we may innocently say, "Keep your cabins; you do assist the storm."

Clarke: Pro 30:5 - Every word of God is pure

Every word of God is pure - כל אמרת אלוה צרופה col imrath eloah tseruphah , "Every oracle of God is purified."A metaphor taken from the purifying of metals. Every thing that God has pronounced, every inspiration which the prophets have received, is pure, without mixture of error, without dross. Whatever trials it may be exposed to, it is always like gold: it bears the fire, and comes out with the same lustre, the same purity, and the same weight

Clarke: Pro 30:5 - He is a shield unto them

He is a shield unto them - And this oracle among the rest. "He is the defense of all them that put their trust in him." לכל lechol , to all, is added here by nineteen of Kennicott’ s and De Rossi’ s MSS.; for instead of לחסים lachosim , to the trusters, they read לכל החוסים lechol hachosim , "to Every One of them that trust."Where the preposition and adjective are not only added, but the noun is written more full, and more emphatic: but a translation cannot well express it without paraphrase.

Clarke: Pro 30:6 - Add not thou unto his words

Add not thou unto his words - You can no more increase their value by any addition, than you can that of gold by adding any other metal to it. Take care that you do not any thing that this word forbids, nor leave undone any thing that it commands: for this is adding and diminishing in Scripture phrase

Clarke: Pro 30:6 - Lest he reprove thee

Lest he reprove thee - Lest he try thy word by fire, as his has been tried; and it appear that, far from abiding the test, the fire shows thine to be reprobate silver; and so thou be found a falsifier of God’ s word, and a liar

How amply has this been fulfilled in the case of the Romish Church! It has added all the gross stuff in the Apocrypha, besides innumerable legends and traditions, to the word of God! They have been tried by the refiner’ s fire. And this Church has been reproved, and found to be a liar, in attempting to filiate on the most holy God spurious writings discreditable to his nature.

Clarke: Pro 30:7 - Two things have I required of thee

Two things have I required of thee - These two petitions are mentioned in the next verse; and he wishes to have them answered before he should die. That is, he wishes the answer now, that he may live the rest of his life in the state he describes.

Clarke: Pro 30:8 - Remove far from me vanity and lies

Remove far from me vanity and lies -

1.    שוא shav , all false shows, all false appearances of happiness, every vain expectation. Let me not set my heart on any thing that is not solid, true, durable, and eternal

2.    Lies, דבר כזב debar cazab , all words of deception, empty pretensions, false promises, uncertain dependences, and words that Fail; promises which, when they become due, are like bad bills; they are dishonored because they are found to be forged, or the drawer insolvent

From the import of the original, I am satisfied that Agur prays against idolatry, false religion, and false worship of every kind. שוא shau is used for an idol, a false god. Jer 18:15 : "My people have forsaken me; they have burnt incense to Vanity;" לשוא lashshav , "to an Idol."Psa 31:6 : "I have hated them that regard lying Vanities;" הבלי שוא habley shave , "vain Idols."See also Hos 12:11; Jon 2:8. And כזב cazab , a thing that fails or deceives, may well apply to the vain pretensions, false promises, and deceptive religious rites of idolatry. So Jer 15:18 : "Wilt thou be unto me as a liar," כמו אכזב kemo achzob , like the false, failing promises of the false gods; "and as waters that fail;" לא נאמנו lo neemanu , that are not faithful; not like the true God, whose promises never fail. According to this view of the subject, Agur prays

1.    That he may be preserved from idolatry

2.    That he may put no confidence in any words but those pure words of God that never fail them that trust in him

Clarke: Pro 30:8 - Give me neither poverty nor riches

Give me neither poverty nor riches - Here are three requests

1.    Give me not poverty. The reason is added: Lest, being poor, I shall get into a covetous spirit, and, impelled by want, distrust my Maker, and take my neighbour’ s property; and, in order to excuse, hide, or vindicate my conduct, I take the name of my God in vain; תפשתי taphasti , "I catch at the name of God."Or, by swearing falsely, endeavor to make myself pass for innocent. Forswere the name of my God - Old MS. Bible. Coverdale, "deny or apostatize from him.

2.    Give me not riches. For which petition he gives a reason also: Lest I be full, and addict myself to luxurious living, pamper the flesh and starve the soul, and so deny thee, the Fountain of goodness; and, if called on to resort to first principles, I say, Who is Jehovah! Why should I acknowledge, why should I serve him? And thus cast aside all religion, and all moral obligation

3.    The third request is, Feed me with food convenient for me, הטריפני לחם חקי hatripheni leechem chukki ; the meaning of which is, "give me as prey my statute allowance of bread,"i.e., my daily bread, a sufficient portion for each day. There is an allusion made to hunting: "Direct so by thy good providence, that I may each day find sufficient portion to subsist on, as a hunter in the forest prays that he may have good speed."It is the province of a preacher to show the importance and utility of such a prayer, and dilate the circumstances, and expand the reasons, after the commentator has shown the literal sense.

Clarke: Pro 30:10 - Accuse not a servant

Accuse not a servant - Do not bring a false accusation against a servant, lest thou be found guilty of the falsehood, and he curse thee for having traduced his character, and in his turn traduce thine. In general, do not meddle with other people’ s servants.

Clarke: Pro 30:11 - There is a generation

There is a generation - There are such persons in the world. In this and the three following verses the wise man points out four grand evils that prevailed in his time

The first, Those who not only did not honor, but who evil-treated, their parents.

Clarke: Pro 30:12

The second, Those who were self-righteous, supposing themselves pure, and were not so.

Clarke: Pro 30:13

The third, Those who were full of vanity, pride, and insolence.

Clarke: Pro 30:14

The fourth, The greedy, cruel, and oppressive, and, especially, oppressive to the poor.

Clarke: Pro 30:15 - The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give

The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give - " This horseleech,"says Calmet, "is Covetousness, and her two daughters are Avarice and Ambition. They never say, It is enough; they are never satisfied; they are never contented.

Many explanations have been given of this verse; but as all the versions agree in render ing עלוקה alukah the horseleech or blood-sucker, the general meaning collected has been, "There are persons so excessively covetous and greedy, that they will scarcely let any live but themselves; and when they lay hold of any thing by which they may profit, they never let go their hold till they have extracted the last portion of good from it."Horace has well expressed this disposition, and by the same emblem, applied to a poor poet, who seizes on and extracts all he can from an author of repute, and obliges all to hear him read his wretched verses

Quem vero arripuit, tenet, occiditque legendo

Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris

Hirudo. De arte poet., ver. 475

"But if he seize you, then the torture dread

He fastens on you till he reads you dead

And like a leech, voracious of his food

Quits not his cruel hold till gorged with blood.

Francis

The word אלוקה alukah , which we here translate horseleech, is read in no other part of the Bible. May it not, like Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ucal, be a proper name, belonging to some well-known woman of his acquaintance, and well known to the public, who had two daughters notorious for their covetousness and lechery? And at first view the following verse may be thought to confirm this supposition: "There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough."The grave, the barren womb the earth, the fire. What an astonishing simiiarity there is between this and the following institute, taken from the Code of Hindoo Laws, chapter 20, sec. i., p. 203

"A woman is never satisfied with the copulation of man, no more than a fire is satisfied with burning fuel; or the main ocean is with receiving the rivers; or death, with the dying of men and animals."You can no more satisfy these two daughters of Alukah than you can the grave, etc

Some of the rabbins have thought that alukah signifies destiny, or the necessity of dying, which they say has two daughters, Eden and Gehenna, paradise and hell. The former has never enough of righteous souls; the latter, of the wicked. Similar to them is the opinion of Bochart, who thinks alukah means destiny, and the two daughters, the grave and hell; into the first of which the body descends after death, and into the second, the soul

The Septuagint gives it a curious turn, by connecting the fifteenth with the sixteenth verse: Τῃ Βδελλῃ θυγατερες ησαν αγαπησει αγαπωμεναι, και αἱ τρεις αὑται ουκ ενεπιμπλασαν αυτην, και ἡ τεταρτη ουκ ηρκεσθη ειπειν· Ἱκανον ; "The horseleech had three well-beloved daughters; and these three were not able to satisfy her desire: and the fourth was not satisfied, so as to say, It is enough.

After all, I think my own conjecture the most probable. Alukah is a proper name, and the two daughters were of the description I have mentioned.

Clarke: Pro 30:17 - The eye that mocketh at his father

The eye that mocketh at his father - This seems to be spoken against those who curse their father, and do not bless their mother, Pro 30:11

Clarke: Pro 30:17 - The ravens of the valley

The ravens of the valley - Those which frequent the places where dead carcasses and offal are most likely to be found. The raven, the crow, the rook, the daw, the carrion crow, and the Cornish chough, appear to be all of the same genus. Some of them live on pulse and insects; others, the raven in particular, live on carrion

Clarke: Pro 30:17 - The young eagles shall eat it

The young eagles shall eat it - The mother eagle shall scoop out such an eye, and carry it to the nest to feed her young. Many of the disobedient to parents have come to an untimely end, and, in the field of battle, where many a profligate has fallen, and upon gibbets, have actually become the prey of ravenous birds.

Clarke: Pro 30:19 - The way of an eagle

The way of an eagle - I borrow, with thanks, the very sensible note of the Rev. Mr. Holden on this passage

"The particle כן ken plainly shows that Pro 30:19 and Pro 30:20 are to be taken in connection; consequently, it is a comparison between the way of an adulterous woman, and the way of the things here described

"The adulterous woman goes about in search of her deluded victim, like as the eagle takes its flight into the air to spy out its prey. She uses every species of blandishment and insinuation to allure and beguile, as the serpent employs its windings and sinuous motions to pass along the rocks; she pursues a course surrounded with danger, as a ship in the midst of the sea is continually exposed to the fury of the tempest, and the hazard of shipwreck; and she tries every means, and exercises all her sagacity, to prevent the discovery of her illicit enjoyments, as a man attempts to conceal his clandestine intercourse with a maid. Such is the conduct of a lewd woman, marked by specious dissimulation and traitorous blandishment; she eateth and wipeth her mouth-she indulges her adulterous lust, yet artfully endeavors to conceal it, and with unblushing countenance asserts her innocence, exclaiming, I have done no wickedness.

Chaucer’ s January and May is an excellent comment on such wiles and protestations

Clarke: Pro 30:19 - The way of a man with a maid

The way of a man with a maid - בעלמה bealmah with or in a maid; but one of De Rossi’ s MSS. has בעלמיו bealmaiv , in his youth; and with this the Septuagint, ev neothti, the Vulgate, in adolescentia, the Syriac and the Arabic agree; and so also my own MS. Bible: - The weie of a man in his waxing youthe. Dr. Kennicott, in a sermon preached at Onsford, 1765, p. 46, has defended the reading of the versions, corroborating it by two MSS., one in the Harleian, and the other in the Bodleian library, besides that mentioned by De Rossi. See De Rossi’ s Var. Lect. Certainly the way of a man in his youth contains too many intricacies for human wisdom to explore. He only who searches the heart knows fully its various corrupt principles, and their productions. The common reading may refer to the formation of a child in the womb. But some have understood it of the immaculate conception. See my note on Mat 1:23 (note), where the subject is largely considered

If we take the four things which Agur says were too wonderful for him, in their obvious sense, there is little difficulty in them

1.    The passage which a bird makes through the air

2.    That which is made by a serpent on a rock; and

3.    That made by a ship through the sea, are such as cannot be ascertained: for who can possibly show the track in which either of them has passed

And as to the fourth, if it refer to the suspected incontinence of one reputed a virgin, the signs are so equivocal, as to be absolutely unascertainable. The existence of the hymen has been denied by the ablest anatomists; and the signs of continence or incontinence, except in the most recent cases, are such as neither man nor woman can swear to, even to the present day; and they were certainly not less difficult to Agur and his contemporaries. I shall carry this matter no farther.

Clarke: Pro 30:21 - For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear

For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear - This is another enigma. Four things insupportable to men. 1. A slave, when he becomes ruler. 2. An overfed fool. 3. An ill-tempered woman, when mistress of a family. And, 4. A servant maid, when the rule of the house is committed to her

1.    A slave, when he comes to bear rule, is an unprincipled tyrant. It has been often observed both in America and in the West Indies, when it was judged necessary to arm some of the most confidential slaves, that no regiments were used so cruelly in the drill, etc., as those black regiments that had black officers

2.    The overfed fool. The intellectually weak man, who has every thing at his command, has generally manners which none can bear; and, if a favourite with his master, he is insupportable to all others

3.    An ill-tempered woman, when she gets embarrassed with domestic cares, is beyond bearing

4.    A servant maid, when, either through the death of the mistress, or the sin of the husband, she is in fact exalted to be head over the family, is so insolent and impudent, as to be hateful to every one, and execrated by all.

Clarke: Pro 30:24 - There be four things

There be four things - Of which it is said, they are very little but very wise. 1. The ants. 2. The rabbits. 3. The locusts. 4. The spider

1.    The ants show their wisdom by preparing their meat in the summer, seeking for it and storing it when it may be had; not for winter consumption, for they sleep all that time; but for autumn and spring. See the note on Pro 6:6 (note). The ants are a people; they have their houses, towns, cities, public roads, etc. I have seen several of these, both of the brown and large black ant

2.    The rabbits act curiously enough in the construction of their burrows; but the word שפן shaphan probably does not here mean the animal we call coney or rabbit. It is most likely that this is what Dr. Shaw calls the Daman - Israel; a creature very like a rabbit, but never burrowing in the ground, but dwelling in clefts and holes of rocks

3.    The locusts. These surprising animals we have already met with and described. Though they have no leader, yet they go forth by troops, some miles in circumference, when they take wing

4.    The spider. This is a singularly curious animal, both in the manner of constructing her house, her nets, and taking her prey. But the habits, etc., of these and such like must be sought in works on natural history.

Clarke: Pro 30:29 - There be three things which go well

There be three things which go well - Here is another set of emblems; four things which walk beautifully and with majesty. 1. The lion. 2. The greyhound. 3. The he-goat. And, 4. A king

1.    Nothing can be more majestic than the walk of the lion. It is deliberate, equal, firm, and in every respect becoming the king of the forest

2.    The greyhound. זרזיר מתנים zarzir mothnayim , the girt in the loins; but what this beast is we do not distinctly know. It is most likely that this was the greyhound, which in the East are remarkably fine, and very fleet. Scarcely any thing can be conceived to go with greater fleetness, in full chase, than a greyhound with its prey in view: it seems to swim over the earth

3.    The goat, תיש tayish . This is generally allowed to be the he-goat; and how he walks, and what state he assumes, in the presence of his part of the flock, every one knows, who has at all noticed this animal. The ram also, which some suppose to be intended, is both fierce and majestic at the head of the sheep

4.    And a king, against whom there is no risi,nv up. That is, a king whose court, counsels, and troops, are so firmly united to him, as to render all hopes of successful conspiracy against him utterly vain. He walks boldly and majestically about, being safe in the affections of his people. But the Hebrew is singular; it makes but two words; and these are they, ומלך אלקום umelech Alkum , "and King Alkum."It is a doubt whether this may not be a proper name, as Agur abounds in them; see Ithiel, Ucal, and probably Alukah, Pro 30:15. But it is said, "We know nothing of a king named Alkum."True; nor do we know any thing of Agur, Ithiel, Ucal, to say nothing of Alukah. And this might have been some remarkable chieftain, who carried his victories wherever he went, and was remarkably fortunate. If, however, we separate the word into אל al , "not,"and קום kum , "he arose,"we may make the interpretation above given.

Clarke: Pro 30:32 - If thou hast done foolishly

If thou hast done foolishly - And who has not, at one time or other of his life

Clarke: Pro 30:32 - Lay thine hand upon thy mouth

Lay thine hand upon thy mouth - Like the leper; and cry to God, Unclean! unclean! and keep silence to all besides. God will blot out thy offense, and neither the world nor the Church ever know it, for he is merciful; and man is rarely able to pass by a sin committed by his fellows, especially if it be one to which himself is by nature not liable or inclined.

Clarke: Pro 30:33 - And the wringing

And the wringing - Who hugeli snytith drawith out blood. - Old MS. Bible. This is well expressed in homely phrase. The Septuagint have, "draw the milk, and you may have butter; if you press the nostrils you may bring out blood; and if you draw out your discourse to a great length, you may have strife and contention."Avoid, therefore, all strong excitements and irritations. Coverdale’ s translation of this verse is very simple: "Whoso chyrneth mylck maketh butter; he that rubbeth his nose maketh it blede; and he that causeth wrath bryngeth forth strife."

Defender: Pro 30:1 - Agur

The name Agur may mean "gatherer" and Jakeh "hearkening." Ithiel means "God with me" and Ucal means "overcomer." Since none of these men are mentioned anywhere else in Scripture, it may be that they are just symbolic names. However, their meanings are uncertain, so it is conjectural as to what their symbolic meaning might be. They were probably real men known to Solomon. The important thing is the message, which Solomon thought well to include in the Proverbs."

Defender: Pro 30:4 - ascended up into heaven

The answer to the seven rhetorical questions in these verses can be none other than God Himself, together with His Son. The Lord Jesus gave the answer to the first two questions 1000 years later in his conversation with Nicodemus (Joh 3:13).

Defender: Pro 30:4 - his son's name

Here is strong Old Testament evidence that the God of creation has a Son, by whom, in fact, He formed the winds and the waters and all the ends of the earth, and who finally descended from heaven to become the Son of man as well as Son of God. That Son's name was given later through the prophet Isaiah - "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa 9:6)."

Defender: Pro 30:5 - Every word of God

Note the emphasis that every word of God is pure and worthy of trust - not just some words, but every word, and not just the thoughts but the words!"

Defender: Pro 30:6 - Add thou not

It is a serious blasphemy for a creature to try either to augment or dilute the words of the Creator (compare Rev 22:18, Rev 22:19)."

Defender: Pro 30:25 - The ants

Agur, in Pro 30:24-31, draws spiritual lessons for man from the instincts of animals created by God, specifically referring to ants, conies, locusts, spiders, lions, greyhounds, and goats - seven animals representing all animals (Job 12:7-9)."

TSK: Pro 30:1 - Agur // even

Agur : Agur was probably a public teacher, and Ithiel and Ucal, his pupils; and this was the massa , or oracle, which he delivered, not by his own wisdom, but by the Holy Spirit, for the benefit of man; and which, it is probable, was added by ""the men of Hezekiah."

even : Pro 31:1; 2Pe 1:19-21

TSK: Pro 30:2 - I am // brutish

I am : Job 42:3-6; Psa 73:22; Isa 6:5; Rom 11:25; 1Co 3:18, 1Co 8:2; Jam 1:5

brutish : Pro 5:12; Psa 92:6; Jer 10:14; 2Pe 2:12-16

TSK: Pro 30:3 - neither // nor // have // the holy

neither : Amo 7:14, Amo 7:15; Mat 16:17

nor : Job 11:7-9; Mat 11:27; Joh 17:3; Rom 11:33; Eph 3:18, Eph 3:19

have : Heb. know

the holy : Isa 6:3, Isa 6:10, Isa 30:11, Isa 57:15; Rev 3:7, Rev 4:8

TSK: Pro 30:4 - Who hath ascended // who hath gathered // what is his name // and what

Who hath ascended : Deu 30:12; Joh 3:13; Rom 10:6; Eph 4:9, Eph 4:10

who hath gathered : Job 38:4-41; Psa. 104:2-35; Isa. 40:12-31, Isa 53:8

what is his name : Exo 3:13-15, Exo 6:3, Exo 34:5-7; Deu 28:58

and what : Gen 32:29; Jdg 13:18; Psa 2:7; Isa 7:14, Isa 9:6; Jer 23:6; Mat 1:21-23; Mat 11:27; Luk 10:22

TSK: Pro 30:5 - word // pure

word : Psa 12:6, Psa 18:30, Psa 19:8, Psa 119:140; Rom 7:12; Jam 3:17

pure : Heb. purified, Gen 15:1; Psa 84:11, Psa 91:2, Psa 115:9-11, Psa 144:2

TSK: Pro 30:6 - Add // and

Add : Deu 4:2, Deu 12:32; Rev 22:18, Rev 22:19

and : Job 13:7-9; 1Co 15:15

TSK: Pro 30:7 - have // deny me them not

have : 1Ki 3:5-9; 2Ki 2:9; Psa 27:4; Luk 10:42

deny me them not : Heb. withhold them not from me, Psa 21:2

TSK: Pro 30:8 - Remove // feed // convenient for me

Remove : Pro 21:6, Pro 22:8, Pro 23:5; Psa 62:9, Psa 62:10, Psa 119:29, Psa 119:37; Ecc 1:2; Isa 5:18, Isa 59:4; Joh 2:8; Act 14:15

feed : Gen 28:20, Gen 48:15, Gen 48:16; Exo 16:15, Exo 16:18, Exo 16:21, Exo 16:22, Exo 16:29, Exo 16:35; Mat 6:11, Mat 6:33; Luk 11:3; 1Ti 6:6-8

convenient for me : Heb. of my allowance, 2Ki 25:30; Jer 37:21, Jer 52:34

TSK: Pro 30:9 - I be full // deny thee // Who // or // and take the name

I be full : Deu 6:10-12, Deu 8:10-14, Deu 31:20, Deu 32:15; Neh 9:25, Neh 9:26; Job 31:24-28; Jer 2:31; Eze 16:14, Eze 16:15, Eze 16:49, Eze 16:50; Dan 4:17, Dan 4:30; Hos 13:6; Act 12:22, Act 12:23

deny thee : Heb. belie thee

Who : Exo 5:2; 2Ch 32:15-17

or : Pro 6:30, Pro 6:31; Psa 125:3

and take the name : Pro 29:24; Exo 20:7; Lev 5:1; Mat 26:72, Mat 26:74

TSK: Pro 30:10 - Accuse not // lest

Accuse not : Heb. Hurt not with thy tongue, Pro 24:23; Deu 23:15; 1Sa 22:9, 1Sa 22:10, 1Sa 24:9, 1Sa 26:19, 1Sa 30:15; 2Sa 16:1-4; 2Sa 19:26, 2Sa 19:27; Dan 3:8-18, Dan 6:13, Dan 6:24; Rom 14:4

lest : Pro 11:26, Pro 24:24, Pro 28:27; Deu 15:9; 2Ch 24:22-24

TSK: Pro 30:11 - a generation // that curseth // doth

a generation : Pro 30:12-14; Mat 3:7; 1Pe 2:9

that curseth : Pro 30:17, Pro 20:20; Lev 20:9; Deu 21:20, Deu 21:21, Deu 27:16; Mat 15:4-6; Mar 7:10-13

doth : 1Ti 5:4, 1Ti 5:8

TSK: Pro 30:12 - that are // not

that are : Pro 21:2; Jdg 17:5, Jdg 17:13; 1Sa 15:13, 1Sa 15:14; Job 33:9; Psa 36:2; Isa 65:5; Jer 2:22-24, Jer 2:35; Luk 11:39, Luk 11:40, Luk 16:15, Luk 18:11; 2Ti 3:5; Tit 1:15, Tit 1:16; 1Jo 1:8-10

not : Psa 51:2, Psa 51:7; Isa 1:16; Jer 4:14; Eze 36:25; Zec 13:1; 1Co 6:11; Tit 3:5; 1Jo 1:7; Rev 1:5

TSK: Pro 30:13

Pro 6:17, Pro 21:4; Psa 101:5, Psa 131:1; Isa 2:11, Isa 3:16; Eze 28:2-5, Eze 28:9; Dan 11:36, Dan 11:37; Hab 2:4; 2Th 2:3, 2Th 2:4

TSK: Pro 30:14 - whose // to devour

whose : Pro 12:18; Job 29:17; Psa 3:7, Psa 52:2, Psa 57:4, Psa 58:6; Dan 7:5-7; Rev 9:8

to devour : Pro 22:16, Pro 28:3; Psa 10:8, Psa 10:9, Psa 12:5, Psa 14:4; Ecc 4:1; Isa 32:7; Amo 2:7, Amo 4:1, Amo 8:4; Mic 2:1, Mic 2:2, Mic 3:1-5; Hab 3:14; Zep 3:3; Mat 23:14; Jam 5:1-4

TSK: Pro 30:15 - The horseleach // Give // There // It is enough

The horseleach : Isa 57:3; Eze 16:44-46; Mat 23:32; Joh 8:39, Joh 8:44

Give : Isa 56:11, Isa 56:12; Hos 4:18; Mic 7:3; Rom 16:18; 2Pe 2:3, 2Pe 2:13-15; Jud 1:11, Jud 1:12

There : Pro 30:21, Pro 30:24, Pro 30:29, Pro 6:16; Amo 1:3, Amo 1:6, Amo 1:9, Amo 1:11, Amo 1:13, Amo 2:1, Amo 2:4

It is enough : Heb. Wealth

TSK: Pro 30:16

Pro 27:20; Hab 2:5

TSK: Pro 30:17 - eye // the ravens // valley

eye : Pro 30:11, Pro 20:20, Pro 23:22; Gen 9:21-27; Lev 20:9; Deu 21:18-21; 2Sa 18:9, 2Sa 18:10, 2Sa 18:14-17

the ravens : 1Sa 17:44; 2Sa 21:10

valley : or, brook

TSK: Pro 30:18 - too

too : Job 42:3; Psa 139:6

TSK: Pro 30:19 - way of an // midst // and the

way of an : Job 39:27; Isa 40:31

midst : Heb. heart

and the : Exo 22:16

TSK: Pro 30:20

Pro 7:13-23; Num. 5:11-30

TSK: Pro 30:22 - a servant // a fool

a servant : Pro 19:10, Pro 28:3; Ecc 10:7; Isa 3:4, Isa 3:5

a fool : 1Sa 25:3, 1Sa 25:10, 1Sa 25:11, 1Sa 25:25, 1Sa 25:36-38, 1Sa 30:16

TSK: Pro 30:23 - an odious // an handmaid

an odious : Pro 19:13, Pro 21:9, Pro 21:19, Pro 27:15

an handmaid : Pro 29:21

TSK: Pro 30:24 - little // exceeding wise

little : Job 12:7

exceeding wise : Heb. wise, made wise

TSK: Pro 30:25

The ants may truly be called a people, as they have houses, towns, public roads, etc.; and shew their wisdom and prudence by preparing their meat in due season.

Pro 6:6-8

TSK: Pro 30:26

Lev 11:5; Psa 104:18

TSK: Pro 30:27 - The locusts // by bands

The locusts : Exo 10:4-6, Exo 10:13-15; Psa 105:34; Joe 1:4, Joe 1:6, Joe 1:7, Joe 2:7-11, Joe 2:25; Rev 9:3-11

by bands : Heb. gathered together

TSK: Pro 30:30

Num 23:24; Jdg 14:18

TSK: Pro 30:31 - greyhound // against

greyhound : or, horse, Heb. girt in the lions

against : Pro 16:14, Pro 20:2; Dan 3:15-18

TSK: Pro 30:32 - thou hast done // lay

thou hast done : Pro 26:12; Ecc 8:3

lay : Pro 17:28; Job 21:5, Job 40:4; Ecc 8:4; Mic 7:16, Mic 7:17; Rom 3:19

TSK: Pro 30:33 - so

so : Pro 15:18, Pro 16:28, Pro 17:14, Pro 26:21, Pro 28:25, Pro 29:22

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Pro 30:1 - Agur the son of Jakeh // The prophecy // Unto Ithiel and Ucal // Ithiel // Ucal

Agur the son of Jakeh a person so called, as appears from the designation of his own and his father’ s name, who lived either in Solomon’ s time, or rather afterwards, and was famous in his generation for wisdom, and piety, and prophecy; and therefore his proverbs were thought fit to be added to those of Solomon, either by those men of Hezekiah, mentioned Pro 25:1 , or by some other. But that this should be meant of Solomon may easily be supposed, but cannot be proved; nor is it probable, as being contrary both to the style of the whole chapter, and to the matter of some part of it, as Pro 30:7-9 , which agrees not to Solomon; and to the laws of good interpretation, one of which is, that all words should be taken in their most natural and proper sense, when there is no evidence nor necessity of understanding them improperly and figuratively, which is the present case.

The prophecy the prophetical instruction; for as the prophets were public preachers as well as foretellers of things to come, so their sermons, no less than their predictions, are commonly called their prophecies.

Unto Ithiel and Ucal two friends, or disciples, and contemporaries of Agur, called by those names, who having a great and just opinion of his wisdom, desired his instructions. Others, concerning Ithiel and Ucal ; which they understand of Christ, called

Ithiel which signifies God with me , and answers to Immanuel , which is God with us ; and

Ucal which signifies power or prevalency . But if he had meant this of Christ, why should he design him such obscure and ambiguous names, as if he would not be understood? Why did he not call him by the name of Shiloh or Messiah , or some other Scripture title belonging and ascribed to him? Besides, this interpretation agrees not with the contents of this chapter, wherein there is only a short and occasional mention of Christ, but the chapter consists in a manner wholly of counsels and sentences of a quite other kind.

Poole: Pro 30:2

You come to me with a great opinion of my wisdom, and you expect that I should inform and instruct you in all things, yea, even in the greatest mysteries: but you are much mistaken in me; I am as ignorant and foolish as other men generally are, yea, more than many others; which he utters either,

1. From a deep sense of the common corruption of human nature, and of the blindness of men’ s minds in things concerning God and their own duty, and of the necessity of instruction from God’ s word, and of illumination from his Spirit, without which they can never understand these matters. Or,

2. From a modest and humble apprehension of his own ignorance, which hath extorted such-like expressions even from heathen philosophers; whence Pythagoras rejected the title of a wise man when it was ascribed to him; and Socrates, though reputed the wisest man of his age, professed that he knew nothing but this, that he knew nothing .

Poole: Pro 30:3 - I neither learned wisdom // Of the holy

I neither learned wisdom I have not been taught in the schools of wisdom, as the sons of prophets were, but must own myself to be an unlearned man, as the prophet Amos was, Amo 7:14,15 . Or, I have not learned it, neither by my own understanding and study, nor by the help of other men.

Of the holy either,

1. Of the holy angels, who are called holy by way of eminency, as Deu 33:2 Job 15:15 Dan 4:13,17,23 8:13 . But it was vain to deny that angelical knowledge to be in him, which no man imagined to be in him, and which was not in Adam fix the state of innocency. Or,

2. Of the holy prophets. So the sense is, I have not such Divine inspirations as prophets strictly so called have received, whereby I should be enabled to know or explain those great mysteries wherein you desire information from me. Or,

3. Of holy things, of the mind and will of God concerning man’ s salvation, and the way which leads to it; not that he denieth that he had any knowledge of these things, but only a full, and comprehensive, and perfect knowledge, which they falsely supposed to be in him.

Poole: Pro 30:4 - Who? // Hath ascended up into heaven // Or descended // Hath gathered the wind in his fists // All the ends of the earth // What is his name, and what is his son’ s name, if thou canst tell?

Who? what mere man? None at all; and therefore I may truly say, that I have not that which no mortal man ever yet had.

Hath ascended up into heaven there to learn the mind of God who dwells there, and that wisdom which is from above.

Or descended or rather, and descended , to teach men below what he had learned above. The meaning of the place is, No man can fully know and teach us these things unless he hath been in heaven, and sent down from thence to the earth to that end; whence our Saviour Christ justly applies these words to himself, Joh 3:13 , and appropriates this work of declaring God’ s nature and will to men to himself, upon this account, that he alone was in his Father’ s bosom, Joh 1:18 .

Hath gathered the wind in his fists to hold them in, or let them out, and rule them at his pleasure. Where is there a man that can do this? And none but he who made and governs all the creatures can know and teach these things. The waters ; those above in the clouds, and those below, the sea, which God keeps as it were within doors , and in a garment and swaddling-band , as it is expressed, Job 38:8,9 ; and the waters which he shuts up in the bowels of the earth.

All the ends of the earth the whole earth, from one end to another, which God upholdeth in the air by the word of his power, and secureth from the rage of the sea, by the banks and shores wherewith he hath begirt it for that purpose.

What is his name, and what is his son’ s name, if thou canst tell? The sense is either,

1. Seeing it is apparent that no man hath this power, and consequently this knowledge, but that this is the prerogative of the great God, declare, if thou art able, his name, i.e. his nature and perfections, and the eternal generation and the perfections of his Son. Or rather,

2. If thou thinkest there be any such man who can do these things, I challenge thee to produce his name; or if he be long since dead, and gone out of the world, the name of any of his posterity that can assure us that their progenitor was such a person; which because thou canst not do, I must conclude that none can thoroughly understand this matter but the blessed God, and his Son Christ, and they to whom God shall reveal it by Christ.

Poole: Pro 30:5 - Every word of God is pure // That put their trust in him

Every word of God is pure and therefore you, Ithiel and Ucal, must not expect the full knowledge of Divine mysteries from me, nor from any man, but from the word of God, which is a certain rule, both of your belief and practice, because every part and parcel of it is holy, and true, and good, and there is not the least mixture of falsehood and folly in it, as there is in all the words and writings of men.

That put their trust in him which supposeth their knowledge of him by his word, Psa 9:10 ; and contains their reliance upon his promises, joined with obedience to his commands.

Poole: Pro 30:6

And as the word of God is pure, do not thou corrupt or abuse it, by adding to it thine own or other men’ s inventions and opinions, and delivering or receiving of them in the name and as the words of God. He here forbids only adding to it, not diminishing from it, which yet is equally forbidden, Deu 4:2 12:32 , because the Israelites then and always were, and others are, more prone to add than to diminish, because it is more easy to add under colour of interpreting, and because it is more agreeable to the humour of mankind, which is much delighted with its own inventions, as the experience of all ages showeth. Lest he reprove thee by words or deeds ; by discovering thy folly, and bringing thee to deserved shame and punishment.

Poole: Pro 30:7 - Have I required // withhold them not from me before I die

Have I required I do earnestly and especially desire Deny me them not before I die , Heb.

withhold them not from me before I die i.e. whilst I live, as things of great and continual necessity for thy honour and service, and my own good.

Poole: Pro 30:8 - Remove far from me // Vanity // Lies // Give me neither poverty nor riches // Food convenient for me

Remove far from me from my heart, and from the course of my life. This is the first of Agur’ s petitions.

Vanity either,

1. All vain and false opinions concerning God, or the things of God; all unbelief, idolatry, or misbelief. Or,

2. All vanity of heart and life; a vain conversation, an affectation of the vain things of this world, as riches, pleasures, or honours, the bewitching power and sad effects whereof he had observed in others, and feared in himself, as the following request implies.

Lies all falsehood and deceit in my words and carriage towards God or men.

Give me neither poverty nor riches: this is his second request, which may seem to have some reference to the former, poverty being commonly the occasion and temptation to the sin of lying, and riches being the great occasions and enticements to vanity. Thus, as his first petition was against the sins themselves, so this latter is against the occasions of them.

Food convenient for me moderate, and suitable both to my natural necessities, and to that estate and condition of life in which thou hast put me, and to that work and service which thou hast for me to do. And this mediocrity of estate is so amiable, that it hath been oft desired by wise heathens, as more eligible than a state of the greatest plenty and glory.

Poole: Pro 30:9 - Deny thee // Who is the Lord // Take the name of my God in vain

Deny thee by trusting to riches, which is a denial of God, Job 31:24-28 , by unthankfulness for and abuse of his mercies, and by rebellion against him, and divers other courses and common practices of rich men, whereby God is denied in truth and in works, even when he is owned in words and in show.

Who is the Lord that I should obey or serve him? I do not need him, I can live of my own without him. Lest by degrees I should arrive at downright atheism or infidelity, which is most incident to rich and great men, as is manifest from experience.

Take the name of my God in vain use false oaths, either to vindictate myself when I am suspected or accused of theft, and my oath is required according to the law, Exo 22:8-11 , or to gratify others for filthy lucre, as poor men frequently do.

Poole: Pro 30:10 - Accuse not a servant // A servant // Curse thee // Be found guilty

Accuse not a servant to wit, maliciously, rashly, or without just and sufficient cause; for otherwise, in some cases, this may be not only lawful, but a duty, as when a servant lives wickedly, or robs his master, or the like,

A servant whose condition is in itself mean and miserable, and therefore thou shouldst not make it worse without great and apparent necessity.

Curse thee desire God to curse and punish thee, which though it may be sinful in him, yet being deserved by thee, thou hast reason to fear and expect.

Be found guilty by God, who is ready to plead the cause of the afflicted, and upon strict search shall find thee guilty, and punish thee accordingly.

Poole: Pro 30:11 - A generation // Their father

A generation a sort of men, abominable both to God and men; which is implied concerning these and the following kinds of sinners, Pro 30:12-14 .

Their father and mother too, as it follows; ungrateful and unnatural monsters.

Poole: Pro 30:12

Who not only pretend to others, but conceit within themselves, that they are truly religious persons, when they live in the course of wickedness.

Poole: Pro 30:13

Who are proud and insolent, advancing themselves, and despising all others in comparison of themselves, and showing the pride of their hearts in their countenances and carriages.

Poole: Pro 30:14

Extortioners, and cruel oppressors, who grind the faces of the poor.

Poole: Pro 30:15 - The horseleech // hath two daughters // Crying, Give, give // There are three things // Give, give

The horseleech an insatiable creature, sucking blood till it be ready to burst,

hath two daughters which are either,

1. The two forks into which her tongue is divided, and wherewith she sucks: but those who have more accurately observed and described the frame of that creature tell us that they have no tongue, and that they suck either by three little teeth, or several parts of the mouth gathered and compressed together. Or rather,

2. The following things, which resemble the horse leech in its insatiableness; nothing being more ordinary than to call those persons or things the sons or daughters of those whose examples they imitate. And whereas it is objected, that they are not only two, but three , yea, four , as is said in the next clause, the answer is easy, that though he begin with two, yet he proceeds from thence to three, and four, all which are said to be the daughters of the horseleech, if the words be rendered commodiously, and as they are in the Hebrew, as we shall presently see.

Crying, Give, give never filled, and always craving, and ready to receive more and more.

There are three things or, yea, (which may be understood in this, as it is in our translation of the next clause,) they (to wit, the daughters of the horseleech) are three; that are never satisfied; which is added partly to explain the former clause,

Give, give and to show the cause of that excessive desire of more, because they were not contented with what they had; and partly to give the reason why he calls them the daughters of the horseleech . Yea, four things say not ; or, yea, they (the daughters forementioned) are four , which say not .

Poole: Pro 30:16 - The barren womb // The earth // The fire

The barren womb for as the Israelitish women did generally and vehemently desire many children, for divers reasons elsewhere mentioned; so those who were barren amongst them were most eager in those desires, as we see in Rachel, Gen 30:1 , and as in all other cases persons most prize and thirst after those good things which they want.

The earth which when it is dry thirsts for rain, and in a little time sucks up great quantities of water, and gapes for more.

The fire which continually burns as long as there is any combustible matter left for it.

Poole: Pro 30:17 - The eye that mocketh at his father // The ravens of the valley shall pick it out // The young eagle

The eye that mocketh at his father he that scorneth or derideth his parents, though it be but with a look or gesture, and much more when he breaks out into opprobrious words and actions.

The ravens of the valley shall pick it out he shall die an unnatural, and untimely, and ignominious death, and after death shall lie unburied, and so be exposed to the birds and beasts of prey, and, amongst others, to the crows or ravens, who use to feed upon dead carcasses, and particularly to pick out their eyes, as is noted by all sorts of writers; of which see my Latin Synopsis. He saith, the ravens oft he valley, either because they most delight in valleys, or with a particular respect unto that valley near Jerusalem, which was called the valley of dead bodies, Jer 31:40 , from the carcasses cast out there, to which therefore the ravens resorted in great numbers, according to their manner or, as others render, the ravens of the brooks, because they are of a hot and dry temper, and therefore delight in places adjacent to the brooks of water.

The young eagle which also preyeth upon dead carcasses and especially upon their eyes, as the ravens do, the reason being the same in both, whether it be the softness of that part which makes it more easy to them to take, or from the pleasant taste of it.

Poole: Pro 30:18

The way whereof I cannot trace or find out.

Poole: Pro 30:19 - The way of an eagle in the air // The way of a serpent upon a rock // The way of a ship in the midst of the sea

The way of an eagle in the air either,

1. The manner of her flight, which is exceeding high, and swift, and strong. Or rather,

2. The way or part of the air through which she passeth, without leaving any print or sign in it, which though it be true of all birds, yet is here attributed to the eagle, of whom this is more true, because she flies out of sight, where neither her body nor any sign of it can be discerned.

The way of a serpent upon a rock where she leaves no impression, nor slime, nor token where she was, as she doth in softer bodies, and as birds leave their feathers there.

The way of a ship in the midst of the sea which though at present it make a furrow, yet is speedily closed again. The way of a man with a maid; either,

1. The various methods and artifices which young men use to entice or persuade young virgins, either to honest love and marriage, or to unlawful lust and uncleanness. Or rather,

2. The impure conversation of a man with one who goeth under the name of a maid, but is not so in truth, which is managed with so much secrecy and cunning that it can very hardly be discovered; which exposition agrees best with the foregoing. similitudes referred to it, and with the following verse.

Poole: Pro 30:20 - Such // is the way of an adulterous woman // She eateth // Wipeth her mouth // Saith, I have done no wickedness

Such so secret and undiscernible,

is the way of an adulterous woman of her who, though she be called and accounted a maid yet in truth is an adulteress: not a common strumpet, for of such the following words are not true, but one that secretly lives in the sin of adultery or fornication.

She eateth to wit, the bread of deceit in secret , by which is understood the act of filthiness, Pro 9:17 20:17 , which such persons do as greedily desire, and as delightfully feed upon, as hungry persons do upon bread. Thus chastely doth the Holy Ghost express the most filthy actions, to teach us to avoid all immodest and obscene speeches as well as actions.

Wipeth her mouth as a child doth when it hath eaten some forbidden food, and would not be discovered.

Saith, I have done no wickedness denies the fact, and avoweth her innoceney.

Poole: Pro 30:21 - The earth is disquieted // Which it cannot bear

The earth is disquieted either,

1. The earth itself trembleth and is moved; so it is an hyperbole. Or rather,

2. The inhabitants of the earth. They do by their insolence and impudence cause great and dreadful disturbances in the places where they live.

Which it cannot bear which are intolerable in human societies.

Poole: Pro 30:22 - When he reigneth // A fool // when he is filled with meat

When he reigneth when he is advanced to great power and dignity; for such a one is ignorant and unfit for his place, and therefore commits many errors; he is poor, and therefore an insatiable oppressor, according to Pro 28:3 ; he is proud and imperious, and being maligned and hated by others, he is provoked to hate them, and to be injurious and cruel to them.

A fool a conceited and wilful fool, or all obstinately wicked man,

when he is filled with meat either,

1. When he is glutted with meat or drink, which dulls men’ s reason, and heats their blood, and stirs them up to many insolencies. Or rather,

2. When he abounds in wealth, which in that case is like a sword in a madman’ s hand, being an instrument and occasion of innumerable wickednesses and mischiefs, as appears from common experience.

Poole: Pro 30:23 - Odious // When she is married // That is heir to her mistress

Odious proud, and perverse, and full of hateful and offensive qualities.

When she is married for then she displayeth and exerciseth all those ill humours, which before for her own ends she concealed; then she is puffed up, and imperious, and becomes intolerable to her own family, and to her relations and neighbours.

That is heir to her mistress that possesseth her estate, either by the gift of her mistress, into whose favour she had insinuated herself by her cunning and officious carriage; or rather by the marriage of her master, which great and sudden change transports her beside herself, and makes her insufferably proud, and scornful, and injurious to all that converse with her.

Poole: Pro 30:24

Comparatively to other brute creatures. They act very wisely and providently, not from any reason which they have, but by the direction of Divine Providence, which secretly guides them to do those things for their own preservation which are most agreeable to the rules of wisdom. The design of this observation is either,

1. To commend wisdom to us, and to teach us to imitate the providence of these creatures, as we are provoked to imitate their diligence, Pro 6:6 . Or,

2. To keep us from being proudly conceited of our own wisdom, because we are either equalled or exceeded therein by the unreasonable creatures in the wise conduct of their affairs. Or,

3. To direct us to whom to resort for wisdom when we want and desire it, even to that God who is able to inspire wisdom even into the brute creatures.

Poole: Pro 30:25 - People // They prepare their meat in the summer

People which title is oft given to the unreasonable creatures, both in Scripture, as Joe 1:6 2:2 , and in Homer, and Virgil, and divers other authors.

They prepare their meat in the summer of which See Poole "Pro 30:6" , See Poole "Pro 30:7" , See Poole "Pro 30:8" .

Poole: Pro 30:26

In rocky ground, or in the holes of rocks, for their safety against their too potent enemies.

Poole: Pro 30:27 - Have no king // By bands

Have no king to rule and order them.

By bands in great numbers, and in several companies, and in exact order, as is observed in Scripture, as Jud 6:5 7:12 Joe 1:6 2:7 , and by other writers.

Poole: Pro 30:28 - The spider taketh hold // Is in kings’ palaces

The spider taketh hold of the thread which she spins out of her own bowels with her hands; with her legs, which he calls hands, because they serve her for the same purpose, to do her work, to weave her web, and to catch gnats or flies, &c.

Is in kings’ palaces is not only in poor cottages, but many times in palaces also, where she makes a shift to keep her abode, notwithstanding all the care and pains which is taken to sweep and cleanse it.

Poole: Pro 30:29

That walk decently, and with great alacrity and courage; which are here commended to us to imitate in the management of our affairs.

Poole: Pro 30:30

He doth not flee from his pursuers, whether men or beasts, but walketh away with a slow and majestic pace, as is observed by Aristotle, and many others.

Poole: Pro 30:31 - A greyhound // An he-goat // A king, against whom there is no rising up

A greyhound called in Hebrew, girt in the lions ; either because its loins are slender, and as it were girt up into a little compass, and tight or well trussed up: or because of its great agility and swiftness; for the girding of the loins was used for expedition in going or working. Or, as it is rendered by others a horse , to wit, a war-horse, having his armour girt about him, and marching to the battle, which he doth with great majesty and courage, as God himself observes at large, Job 39:19 , &c.

An he-goat which marcheth in the head of the flock in grave and stately manner, conducting them with great courage and resolution, and being ready to fight for them, either with beasts or men that oppose him; whence great captains are oft compared to he-goats, as Isa 14:9 Jer 1 8 Da 8:5,21 Zec 10:3 .

A king, against whom there is no rising up a mighty and victorious king, whose power none can withstand, who therefore goeth hither and thither, and proceedeth in his affairs with invincible courage and majesty. But this place, with the variation of one Hebrew point, reading ammo for immo , may be rendered, as a very learned man observes, a king, and his people with him; a king when he hath the hearts and hands of his people going along with him in his undertakings.

Poole: Pro 30:32 - In lifting up thyself // Thought evil // Lay thine hand upon thy mouth

In lifting up thyself either,

1. By rebellion or sedition against the king last mentioned. Or,

2. By anger or wrath, of which he speaks in the next verse. But this verse hath no necessary dependence either upon the foregoing or following verse. Or,

3. Through thy pride, which makes men carry themselves very foolishly, and scornfully, and injuriously, and is the root of contention, as was observed, Pro 13:10 .

Thought evil i.e. designed any mischief or injury against thy neighbour.

Lay thine hand upon thy mouth to wit, to shut it. Be silent, as this phrase is used, Job 21:5 29:9 . Restrain thyself, do not speak one word, much less do any thing tending to the accomplishment of it; do not open thy mouth to justify or excuse it, but silently and seriously consider the evil of it, and repent of it, and do so no more.

Poole: Pro 30:33 - The forcing of wrath // Bringeth forth strife

The forcing of wrath the stirring up of wrath, either,

1. In a man’ s self towards others, by giving way to passion, or by fixing his thoughts upon those things which may inflame it. Or,

2. In others by reproaches, injuries, or any other provocations.

Bringeth forth strife is the cause of many quarrels, and much mischief among men.

PBC: Pro 30:15

Surely the horseleach is connected with the three, yea, four things that follow, things that are never satisfied. The horseleach clings to its object of desire until it is filled in a gluttonous manner, while taking the very life out of its victim. Once it is full, and the victim thinks it has left, its children are not far behind. They see the pleasure their mother has enjoyed, and become even more gluttonous than she, attacking the same victim.

In this passage, we are being warned against greed, covetousness, and never being satisfied: desiring the things that we don’t have, desiring the things that we cannot have, not being satisfied with what we do have, wasting that which is given to us.

1.   The grave is continually given the object of its desire, but is never satisfied. Its void is never filled and it always has room for more.

2.   The barren womb cannot have the object of her desire but never becomes reconciled to this fact. Her overwhelming desire overshadows any joy that she might have had otherwise.

3.   The earth that is not filled with water continually takes in that which it needs but the water is dispersed in an unpredictable and inconsistent manner. The need is fulfilled but wasted and more is demanded.

4.   The fire consumes everything given to it and cannot survive without having more.

We concentrate on the object of our desire to the point that nothing else matters. In spite of the manifold blessings of God, we are not satisfied until we are given that which we long after or lust after. Then, when we have our heart’s desire, that is still not enough. We’ve tasted it, it was good, we want more, we may have wasted it, spent it foolishly, so we are even more dissatisfied than before; our appetite is never quenched.

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Haydock: Pro 30:1 - Gatherer // Vomiter // Vision // With

Gatherer, &c., or, as it is in the Latin, Congregans, the son of Vomens. The Latin interpreter has given us in this place the signification of the Hebrew names, instead of the names themselves, which are in the Hebrew, Agur, the son of Jakeh. But whether this Agur be the same person as Solomon, as many think, or a different person, whose doctrine was adopted by Solomon, and inserted among his parables or proverbs, is uncertain. (Challoner) ---

Vomiter may denote David, who delivered many excellent canticles; Eructavit cor, Psalm xliv. De Dieu translates, "The words of him who is recollected the son of obedience." The author styles himself foolish, and asks for neither beggary nor riches, (ver. 2, 8.) which seems not to agree with Solomon; though there can be no doubt but this chapter is inspired. (Calmet) ---

In effect, that great king might form this petition, being mindful of the instability of human greatness, and confess that of himself he was foolish. ---

Vision. Hebrew massa (Haydock) generally implies something disagreeable, but here it is put for a collection of moral sentences. ---

With, &c. Hebrew also, "to Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal," (Protestants; Haydock) friends of Agur, (Calmet) or his children, (Menochius) or rather Solomon speaks to all the faithful. We never find Agur mentioned as a canonical writer; and if he were, he would have been placed after Solomon. (Worthington)

Haydock: Pro 30:2 - With me

With me. He speaks of what he could claim of his own, abstracting from the prophetic light. (Calmet) ---

In his humility, he supposeth that others are more perfect. The wisest know best their own defects. (Worthington)

Haydock: Pro 30:4 - Descended // Hands // Son

Descended. How then could I acquire such a sublime science? (Deuteronomy xxx. 11.) (Calmet) ---

Christ alone could impart it, (John iii. 13.; Haydock) who is the perfect wisdom. (Worthington) ---

Hands. Septuagint, "breast." (Haydock) ---

It is no less difficult to fathom the designs of Providence. Some understand the "spirit" of prophecy to be here meant. ---

Son. Septuagint, "children." But many Greek copies, and all the interpreters, have Son, which the Fathers explain of the second person of the blessed Trinity, specified [in] chap. viii. 22. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 30:5 - Is fire-tried

Is fire-tried; that is, most pure, like gold purified by fire. (Challoner) (Psalm xvii. 31., and Jeremias xxiii. 29.) ---

It cannot deceive.

Haydock: Pro 30:6 - And not any thing // Liar

And not any thing contrary, Deuteronomy iv. 2., and xii. 32. ---

Liar. Our Saviour condemned the false explanations of the Pharisees, as his Church does those of all heretics.

Haydock: Pro 30:8 - Words // Riches

Words, which are so opposite to thine, ver. 5. ---

Riches. The former often prompts men to deceive, the latter to grow proud and forget God.

Haydock: Pro 30:10 - Accuse // Servant

Accuse. Septuagint, "deliver not" to an idolater, Deuteronomy xxiii. 15. (Rabbins) ---

Servant. Add not to his affliction. (Worthington) ---

We must suppose that the accusation is frivolous or false. (Lyranus) ---

A servant may do a person much injury: but this ought not to deter the other from performing what justice and charity require.

Haydock: Pro 30:15 - The horse-leech

The horse-leech: concupiscence, which hath two daughters that are never satisfied, viz., lust and avarice. (Challoner)

Haydock: Pro 30:16 - Womb // Enough

Womb. Septuagint, "the love of a woman," (Haydock) a harlot, or rather Hebrew, "a barren woman." ---

Enough. The more fuel, the brighter the flame. These four similitudes may denote cruelty, lust, avarice, and prodigality; (Calmet) or the first and last may be understood (Haydock) of envy and ambition. (Worthington)

Haydock: Pro 30:17 - Labour

Labour. Septuagint, &c., "old age." Hebrew, "the obedience or admonition." Those who curse their parents, were sentenced to death, Leviticus xx. 6.

Haydock: Pro 30:19 - Youth

Youth. Hebrew, "a virgin." The "conception of a mighty man (the Messias; Haydock) in a virgin," is fitly compared to the flight of an eagle in the air, which leaves no trace behind, and is the most difficult to comprehend. See Jeremias xxxi. 22.; Univ. Hist. iii. p. 144, note. Isaiah vii. 14.; Parkhurst in alm. (Haydock) ---

Some of the Jews have admitted this explanation. (Cornelius a Lapide) ---

Others understand that the marks of virginity are equivocal; (Bossuet, &c.) or, if we stick to the Vulgate and Septuagint, the difference betwixt a child and a young man is extremely great, and almost incomprehensible. (Calmet) ---

Young people who follow their carnal appetite, can no more give an account of their actions than of the course of an eagle, &c. (Worthington) ---

His wanderings are manifold. The Hebrew seems to contain a prophecy of Christ's conception.

Haydock: Pro 30:23 - Mistress

Mistress, and is married to her master. She will generally prove insolent; like slaves on the throne, Regnabit sanguine multo ad regnum quisquis venit ab exilio. (Suetonius, Tib. 59.) (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 30:27 - Bands

Bands, like an army. When one rises or falls, all do the like. They are so numerous in the East, as to darken the sun and spread destruction, Joel i., and ii. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 30:28 - The stellio

The stellio. A kind of house lizard, marked with spots like stars, from whence it has its name. (Challoner) ---

Hebrew semamith. (Haydock) ---

It probably provides food against the stormy season, like ants. (Bochart) (Calmet) ---

Others understand "the spider," (Kimchi) or "monkey." (Vatable, &c.)

Haydock: Pro 30:30 - Meeteth

Meeteth. If he retreat, he looks back with disdain, till the woods conceal the turpitude of his flight. (Pliny, [Natural History?] viii. 16.)

Haydock: Pro 30:31 - Loins // Whom

Loins. It rules, and is even terrible to lions. (Pliny x. 21.) ---

The terms of the original are found nowhere else, and some understand the horse, the bee, and a soldier in arms. (Calmet) ---

Whom. Hebrew, "and Alkum with him." (Montanus) ---

But we know no animal or king of this name;; and it may imply, "in the midst of his court," or "assembly." (Chaldean) Some Latin copies read, Et Rex, nec est qui resistat ei, (Sixtus V.) which is more conformable to the Hebrew, (Calmet) and is here translated, though the Vulgate read, Nec est rex qui, &c. These four emblems (Haydock) denote fortitude, chastity, order, and justice.

Haydock: Pro 30:32 - Mouth

Mouth. Fools ought not to govern. (Worthington) ---

Many might have been deemed wise, if they had continued in a lower station. (Calmet) ---

Hebrew, "If thou hast acted foolishly in raising thyself, and if thou hast entertained evil thoughts, put thy hand to thy mouth." (Haydock) ---

Chaldean, "put not thy," &c. Give not way to pride, or to insolent language. (Calmet)

Haydock: Pro 30:33 - And // Strife

And. Hebrew, "For he who presseth milk." (Calmet) ---

Protestants, "Surely the churning of milk bringeth for butter," &c. (Haydock) ---

Strife. Moderation is necessary, (Calmet) in all actions. (Worthington)

Gill: Pro 30:1 - The words of Agur the son of Jakeh // even the prophecy // the man spake // unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal

The words of Agur the son of Jakeh,.... Here begins, according to Aben Ezra, the fourth part of this book; though, according to others, it is the fifth; See Gill on Pro 22:17; Who this Agur was is a matter of doubt; some of the Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Gersom, and likewise some Christian writers ^f, take him to be Solomon himself, who calls himself Agur, which is said to signify "a gatherer"; and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "the words of the gatherer, the son of the vomiter"; just as he calls himself Koheleth, or "the caller", or "preacher", Ecc 1:1. The reason given of this name is, because he gathered wisdom and the law ^g; or, as Jarchi, he gathered wisdom, and vomited it; that is, delivered it out to others; so he did, he sought after and attained to more wisdom than any before him, for he was wiser than all men; and it may be added, that he "gathered" silver and gold, and the treasure of kings, and increased in riches more than any before him, Ecc 1:13. But then all this does not agree with the person whose words these are; for he speaks of himself as being very ignorant, and as not having learned wisdom, Pro 30:2; and desires neither poverty nor riches, Pro 30:8; besides, the word "Agur" signifies not "a gatherer", but "gathered", as Hillerus ^h renders it; and so Cocceius, who thinks also that Solomon is meant, yet not for the above reasons, but translates the clause thus, "the words of the recollected son of the obedient"; as if it described Solomon the son of David, the obedient one, the man after God's own heart, when he was restored by repentance; but it seems better, with Aben Ezra, to understand this of some very good, knowing, and worthy man, who lived in those times, either before the times of Solomon, or in the same, whose pithy sayings and sentences he had a great regard for, and joined them to his own; or who lived in the times of Hezekiah, or before, whose proverbs were collected by his men, and added to those of Solomon's they had copied in the preceding chapters; see Pro 25:1;

even the prophecy; or "burden" ⁱ, as many of the prophecies are called; it designs something received from the Lord, taken up and carried to others; so Balaam is said to "take up his parable", Num 23:7. Here it does not design a prediction of future events, unless it can be thought that there is in the following words a prophecy of the Messiah; but an instruction, a declaration of things useful and profitable; so preaching in the New Testament is called prophesying often, 1Co 14:1. This is a part of the word of God, of the prophecy which came not by the will of man, but by the inspiration of God, 2Pe 1:19; which prophecy

the man spake, this excellent good man Agur, who was divinely inspired; see Num 24:3;

unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal; who were either the children of Agur, whom he instructed in the knowledge of divine things; or they were, as Aben Ezra, either his companions with whom he conversed about sacred things, or his disciples who inquired of him about these things, and learned them of him. Some think ^k these are titles of God himself, to whom Agur directs his speech, and acknowledges his ignorance of the divine Being, whom he might justly call Ithiel and Ucal, that is, "God with me", and "the mighty One"; and certain it is that Agur does direct a prayer to God, Pro 30:7; And some read these words themselves as a prayer, "let God be with me, and one shall prevail" ^l, that is, over all mine enemies; for, if God is on the side of his people, who shall be against them? or, "I shall be able" to do all things through the Lord's strength, Rom 8:31; But I rather think the words should be read, as Jarchi observes, "concerning Ithiel and Ucal" ^m; that is, concerning the Messiah, to whom these names agree. Ithiel, or "God with me", is very similar to a phrase used by Christ himself in the days of his flesh, Joh 8:29. God was with him as the eternal Word, and his only begotten Son, from all eternity, which denotes his co-existence, nearness of union, equality of nature, and distinction of persons; he was with him as Mediator before the world began, in the council of peace, which was between them both; in the covenant of grace made with him, in which all things were agreed upon respecting the salvation of his people; he was with him in the beginning of time down to his incarnation; he was with him in the creation of all things, in the sustentation of them; in the works of providence, and in the government of the church; he was with him during his state of humiliation; in his infancy, to protect him from the malice of Herod; he was with him when disputing with the doctors in the temple, to direct him; he was with him at his baptism, transfiguration, and other times; he was with him throughout his public ministry, from the beginning to the end of it; he did good and healed all manner of diseases, and wrought amazing miracles, God being with him, Joh 3:2, Act 10:38; and he was with him in his sufferings and at his death; and so he is with him in his exalted state; he raised him from the dead, set him at his own right hand, and ever attends to his prevalent intercession; and will be with him in raising the dead and judging the world. "Ucal", which has the signification of being able, strong, mighty, and powerful, agrees with Christ, who is the mighty God the most mighty, the Almighty; and which appears by the works he did before his incarnation, as the creation of all things out of nothing, the preservation of all things, and the several wonderful events in which he was; concerned, as the confusion of languages, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, the conducting the children of Israel through the wilderness, with others; also what he did when here on earth, the mighty works and miracles done by him, and especially the great work of man's redemption, and also the raising of himself from the dead: moreover, what he now does and will do for his people show him to be the mighty One; taking the care of all the churches and providing for them; supplying all the wants of his people, bearing all their burdens, supporting them under all their temptations, and delivering them out of them; strengthening them for his service, protecting them from their enemies, keeping them from falling, raising their dead bodies, and bringing all the sons of God to glory: or if the word should be rendered, as it may, "eaten" or "consumed" ⁿ, it is true of Christ, whose zeal ate him up, Psa 69:9; and who is the antitype of the sacrifice consumed by fire.

Gill: Pro 30:2 - Surely I am more brutish than any man // and have not the understanding of a man

Surely I am more brutish than any man,.... "Every man is become brutish in his knowledge"; man in his original state was a knowing creature but sinning lost his knowledge, and "became like the beasts that perish"; hence we read of the "brutish among the people": but Agur thought himself not only brutish among the rest, but more brutish than any. So Plato ^o says of some souls living on earth, that they are θηριωδεις, of a brutish nature; see Jer 10:14. Or I think the words may be rendered, "a brute am I rather than a man" ^p; have more of the brute than of the man, especially in the sight and presence of God; a very beast before him, or in comparison of other wise, holy, and good men; or with respect to the knowledge of spiritual, divine, and heavenly things, Psa 73:22; or "a brute was I from the time", or " ever since I was a man" ^q; as soon as be was born, being born in sin, and like a wild ass's colt, Job 11:12;

and have not the understanding of a man; or "of Adam" ^r; who was made after the image of God, which consisted in knowledge as well as holiness; who knew much of God, his nature, perfections, and persons; of the creatures, and the works of his hands and of all things in nature; but affecting more knowledge than he should lost in a great measure what he had, and brought his posterity in and left them in a state of blindness and ignorance, one of whose sons Agur was: or his meaning is, that he had not the understanding, as not of Adam in innocence, and of prophets and other eminent men of God, so not of ordinary men of those who had, he least share of the knowledge of divine things. Aben Ezra, who takes Ithiel and Ucal to be scholars or companions of Agur, supposes, that they asked him questions concerning the divine Being, nature, and perfections, to which he answers in this strain; showing his insufficiency to give them any instruction or satisfaction in such matters, or to discourse on such sublime subjects: or rather his view was to show the blindness and ignorance of human nature with respect to divine things he was about to treat of; and particularly to observe, that the knowledge of a Saviour, and salvation by him, were not from nature, and attainable by that; and that a man must first know himself, his own folly and ignorance, before he can have any true knowledge of Ithiel and Ucal, the mighty Saviour and Redeemer; of the need of him, and of interest in him. Some think his view is to prove that his words, his prophecy, or what he was about to say, or did say, must be owing entirely to divine inspiration; since he was of himself; and without a divine revelation, so very blind, dark, and ignorant; it could not be owing to any natural sagacity of his, who was more brutish than any; nor to any acquired knowledge, or the instruction of men, since he had none, as follows; and so כי, with which the words begin, may be rendered "for" or "because" ^s, as it usually is, "for I am more brutish, than any man", &c.

Gill: Pro 30:3 - I neither learned wisdom // nor have the knowledge of the holy

I neither learned wisdom,.... Natural wisdom or philosophy, so as to understand the nature of things, and reason about them in a philosophical manner; or political wisdom, so as to know how to govern states, and manage the affairs of kingdoms; or in a lower sphere to transact the affairs of life to any peculiar advantage; he had not a polite or liberal education: or spiritual and evangelical wisdom; that is, not of himself through the mere strength and force of his genius and natural capacity, or of others; he was not the son of a prophet, nor brought up in the schools of the prophets; he did not learn it, nor was he taught it by men; for this is not acquired by human teaching; it is what comes from above, from heaven, and by the revelation of God;

nor have the knowledge of the holy; or "holies" ^s; either of holy persons, such knowledge as holy men of God had; or of the holy angels, not of their nature, capacities, influence and operations; nor such as they have: or rather of the holy Persons in the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit; their nature modes of subsisting, perfections, purposes, and the like; at least not a full and comprehensive one: or of holy things, of the holy Scriptures, and the holy doctrines of them; however, not what is perfect and complete. It may be rendered, "but I have the knowledge of the holy" ^t, though he had not the advantage of human literature, nor had ever been under the instructions of men on one account or another, and therefore what he knew, or was about to discourse of, was from God. Some understand this verse and Pro 30:2 of Ithiel, or Christ ^u, as in the esteem of men, 1Co 1:23.

Gill: Pro 30:4 - 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

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?.... That has been thither to fetch knowledge of God and divine things, and has returned to communicate it. Enoch was taken up to heaven before this time: and Elijah, as is very probable, after; but neither of them returned again, to inform mortals what was to be seen, known, and enjoyed there: since, the Apostle Paul was caught up into the third heaven, and came back again; but then the things he heard were such as it was not lawful for a man to utter: and indeed, since the coming of Christ there is no need of any further revelation to be made nor of any such expedition, in order to obtain it, Rom 10:6. And, properly speaking, there never was any besides him, whose names are Ithiel and Ucal, that ever did this: he lay in the bosom of the Father, and was privy to his whole mind and will; he descended from heaven to earth not by local motion, but, by assumption of nature; and when he had made known his Father's will, and done his work, he ascended far above all heavens, and received gifts for men; to fill his churches and ministers with them, in order to communicate and improve spiritual and divine knowledge; and therefore, with great propriety and pertinence, he applies these words to himself, Joh 3:13;

who hath gathered the wind in his fists? not any mere creature; not any man or set of men; it is not in the power of any, either men or angels, to restrain or let loose the winds at pleasure; nor has Satan, though called the prince of the power of the air, that is, of the devils in the air, any such command of them; none but he that made them can command them to blow, or be still; even he who brings them out of his treasures, and his own son, whom the wind and seas obeyed; see Psa 135:7; The Heathens ^w themselves are so sensible of this, that the power of the winds only belongs to God, that they have framed a deity they call Aeolus; whom the supreme Being has made a kind of steward or store keeper of the winds, and given him a power to still or raise them as he pleases ^x;

who hath bound the waters in a garment? either the waters above, which are bound in the thick clouds as in a garment which hold them from pouring out; or the waters of the sea, which are as easily managed by the Lord as an infant by its parent, and is wrapped about with a swaddling band, Job 26:8. But can any creature do this? none but the mighty God; and his almighty Son the Ithiel and Ucal, who clothes the heavens with blackness, and makes sackcloth their covering: even he who is the Redeemer of this people, and has the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to them Isa 50:2;

who hath established all the ends of the earth? fixed the boundaries of the several parts of the world, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and the several countries in them? settled the foundations of the earth, and secured the banks and borders of it from the raging of the sea? None but these next mentioned; see Job 38:4;

what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? if thou surest it is a mere man that does all these things tell his name; or, if he be dead, say what is the name of his son or of any of his family; so Jarchi and others interpret it: or rather, since it is the Lord alone and his own proper Son, to whom these things can he ascribed say what is his name; that is, his nature and perfections which are incomprehensible and ineffable; otherwise he is known by his name Jehovah and especially as his name is proclaimed in Christ and manifested by him and in his Gospel: and seeing he has a son of the same nature with him, and possessed of the same perfections, co-essential, and co-existent, and every way equal to him, and a distinct person from him, say what is his nature and perfections also; declare his generation and the manner of it; his divine filiation, and in what class it is; things which are out of the reach of human capacity, and not to be expressed by the tongue of men and angels; see Mat 11:27. Otherwise, though his name for a while was a secret, and he was only called the seed of the woman and of Abraham, Gen 3:15; yet he had many names given him under the Old Testament; as Shiloh, Immanuel, the Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and Prince of peace; the Lord our righteousness, and the Man, the Branch: and under the New Testament, Jesus the Saviour, Christ the Anointed; the Head of the church, the Judge of the world; the Word of God, and King of kings, and Lord of lords. This Scripture is a proof of Christ's being the eternal Son of God; of his equality with his divine Father as such, their name and nature being alike ineffable; of his co-existence with his Father as such; and of his omnipresence and omnipotence, expressed by the phrases here used of ascending, &c. and of his distinct personality from the Father; the same question being distinctly put of him as of the Father. Some render the last clause, "dost thou know?" ^y thou dost not know God and his Son, their being and perfections are not to be known by the light of nature, only by revelation, and but imperfectly.

Gill: Pro 30:5 - Every word of God is pure // he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him

Every word of God is pure,.... The whole word of God. "All Scripture", given by inspiration of God, to which Agur directs, as giving the best account of God, of his name, nature, and perfections; of his Son, person, offices, and grace; being pure, very pure, "purified" ^z like silver, purified in a furnace of earth. The whole of Scripture is pure, free from all falsehood and error; coming from the God of truth, who cannot lie, and therefore called "the Scriptures of truth": every promise is pure as well as precious, made without dissimulation, faithfully performed, and all yea and amen in Christ; every doctrine is pure, free from the mixtures and inventions of men; the sincere milk of the word; consistent and all of a piece, not yea and nay; and tending to promote purity of heart and life; wholesome words, and doctrines according to godliness; see Psa 12:6;

he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him; not the word, but God, whose the word is; and which represents him as a proper object of trust, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual, at all times; and as a shield to protect such, by his power and grace, from all their enemies, sin, Satan, and the world, and also from all errors and false doctrines; see Psa 3:3.

Gill: Pro 30:6 - Add thou not unto his words // lest he reprove thee // and thou be found a liar

Add thou not unto his words,.... To the words of God; as the Jews did, by joining their oral law, or the traditions of the elders, to the written word, and preferring them before it; and as the Papists, by making their unwritten traditions, and the sense and determinations of their church, equal to the Scriptures; and as all enthusiasts do, who set up their pretended dreams, visions, revelations, and prophecies, upon a foot with the word of God, or as superior to it; whereas that is, and that only, the rule and standard of faith and practice, and is a sufficient and perfect one; see Deu 4:2;

lest he reprove thee; that is, God; either by words or by blows, by threatenings and denunciations of his wrath and displeasure; or by chastisements and corrections for such daring pride, blasphemy, and wickedness; those who add to his words, he threatens to add plagues unto them, Rev 22:18;

and thou be found a liar; a forger, speaker, and spreader of doctrinal lies, such doctrines as are contrary to the word of truth; not being built on that, but upon human inventions, and additions to it.

Gill: Pro 30:7 - Two things have I required of thee // deny me them not before I die

Two things have I required of thee,.... Or, "have asked of thee ^a, O God"; as may be supplied, for the words are addressed to him. The following is a prayer made unto him, which contains the two requests here referred to; his requests are not many, his words are few; he did not make long prayers, or expect to be heard for much speaking;

deny me them not before I die; not that he thought he was near his end; nor is it his sense that he desired some time or other, at least before he died, that he might have these two requests granted him after mentioned; for what are poverty and riches, or convenient food, to a man just dying? but his meaning is, that he might be thus favoured as long as he lived; that all the while he was in the world, he might be kept from sin, and be free from anxious worldly thoughts and cares, having a moderate competency of good things: faith in prayer will have no denial; a wrestling Jacob will not let the angel go without a blessing; importunity in prayer gets much from the hands of God; "the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much", Jam 5:16.

Gill: Pro 30:8 - Remove far from me vanity and lies // give me neither poverty nor riches // feed me with food convenient for me

Remove far from me vanity and lies,.... This is the "first" request, to be preserved from sin, in general; which is a vain, lying, and deceitful thing; promising pleasure, profit, liberty, and impunity, which it does not give. Agur desires to have vain thoughts removed out of his mind, vain words from his mouth, and vain actions from his life and conversation; to have his eyes turned from beholding vanity, and his feet from walking in it; and his affections taken off from the vain things of the world, the lusts, pleasures, profits, and honours of it; as well as to be kept from all errors and false doctrines, which are lies in hypocrisy; with which men that lie in wait to deceive would, if it were possible, deceive the very elect: Agur conscious of his own weakness, and proneness to evil, desires the Lord would not lead him into temptation, but deliver him from all evil, doctrinal and practical. Some understand this of the forgiveness of sin; which is sometimes expressed by a putting or removing it away, 2Sa 7:13, Psa 103:12;

give me neither poverty nor riches; this is the "second" request, not to be extremely poor nor too rich; but to be in a middle state between both, neither rich nor poor; which Horace ^b calls the golden mean, and which Agur wisely judged to be the happiest state; most free from care, least liable to temptation, and the best situation to serve the Lord in: a like wish was made by Theognis ^c, I neither love to be rich,

"nor desire it; but to live on a little, having no evil;''

so Martial ^d. Both riches and poverty are of God; men are rich or poor, as the Lord pleases; he suffers poverty in some, and gives riches to others: Agur deprecates both, as having their separate, peculiar, snares and temptations; though no doubt this request was made with submission to the will of God; and not as considering either of them as evils in themselves, but as they might be attended with bad consequences, and what is next mentioned being more eligible;

feed me with food convenient for me; not merely what was agreeable to his palate, suitable to his constitution, and sufficient for nature; nor for him personally, but for his family also; and what was proper and suitable to the condition and circumstances in which he was, and to the rank and quality he held, whether in a more private or in a more public capacity. Some render it, "the food of my allowance" ^e; what is allotted and appointed for me It seems to be the same which Job calls his "necessary food", and Christ "our daily bread": it takes in both food and raiment, which having, men should be contented with; see Job 23:12. The allusion seems to be to the stated measure of food allowed to servants by the day, or rather by the month, called "demensum", and which was but small and scanty ^f; yet with this Agur could be content.

Gill: Pro 30:9 - Lest I be full, and deny thee // and say, Who is the Lord // or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain

Lest I be full, and deny thee,.... This is the dangerous consequence of riches, and the temptation they expose men unto; who, being full of the things of this world, are tempted to deny the Lord; not his being and perfections directly, but chiefly his providence; to deny that what they have, they have received of him, but attribute it to their own care, diligence, and industry; and now think they can live without him, without any dependence on his providence, having a large affluence of the things of life: yea, they may be said to deny him, when they forget the bounties of his providence; are not thankful to him for them; that flatter themselves with a continuance of them, without any regard to him, as if he had no concern in the affairs of life; see Deu 32:15;

and say, Who is the Lord? as Pharaoh did, Exo 5:2. I am not obliged to him; I can live without him, I have enough of my own;

or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain; this is the snare that attends poverty; men, for want of food and raiment, are tempted to steal from their neighbours, which is a sin against the law of God, the eighth command; and then to cover the theft, when an oath is offered to purge them from the charge and suspicion of it, they take it, and so are guilty of false swearing, or taking the name of God not only in vain, but falsely, and so become guilty of the breach of the third command. Agur, a good man, is desirous he might not be exposed to temptations to such evils, and especially which so affected the honour and glory of God.

Gill: Pro 30:10 - Accuse not a servant unto his master // lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty

Accuse not a servant unto his master,.... Wrongly, rashly, and without any foundation, nor for any trifling thing; unless it be in a case of moment and importance, when his master's business is sadly neglected, or he is injured in his property by him: especially care should be taken not to calumniate a servant, to abuse him with the tongue, as the word ^g signifies; the circumstance he is in should be considered, as a servant; and how severe masters are apt to be towards them, and therefore little matters should be hid from them; and much less should they be aggravated, and least of all should falsehoods be told of them. So Doeg the Edomite accused David to Saul, and the Pharisees accused the disciples of Christ to their Master, 1Sa 22:9; the apostle's advice is good, and agrees with Agur's, Rom 14:4;

lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty; or, "and thou shouldest sin" ^h; that is, afterwards; and so the curse come upon thee he has wished for: or the sense is, lest he should curse thee before men, and hurt thy character and reputation; or imprecate a curse from the Lord, which he may suffer to come upon thee for sin. Aben Ezra interprets this of a servant, that flies from Heathen countries to the land of Israel, to be made a proselyte of; who should not be discovered, and returned to his old master.

Gill: Pro 30:11 - There is a generation that curseth their father // and doth not bless their mother

There is a generation that curseth their father,.... A sort of men that neither fear God nor regard men; and are so inhuman as to be without natural affections to their parents; have no reverence of them, love to them, nor give them any honour or obedience; so far from it, that they curse their father that begot them; imprecate on him all the evils in life they can think of, and wish him out of the world;

and doth not bless their mother; cannot give her a good word, who bore them, and brought them up in the most tender and indulgent manner; yea, so unnatural as to curse her also, for that is intended by this way of speaking; see Pro 30:17.

Gill: Pro 30:12 - There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes // and yet is not washed from their filthiness

There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes,.... Not in the eyes of God, who sees the heart, and all the impurities of it, as well as of life and conversation; nor in the eyes of others, though such may appear outwardly righteous before men; but in their own eyes, in their own conceit and imagination, trusting in themselves that they are righteous: but such have not their eyes opened or enlightened to see the plague of their own hearts, the spirituality of the law of God, the perfection of righteousness that requires; nor the righteousness and holiness of God himself; nor the imperfection and insufficiency of their own; did they, they would not seem pure and righteous to themselves. No man is pure by nature, or through anything done by them; but by the grace of God, and through the blood and righteousness of Christ; and such are far from being pure in their own eyes, or as considered in themselves: but those who are pure neither by nature nor by grace, yet think they are so. There were some such in Agur's time, and such were the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time; there were a generation of them; and there are of the same sort in our days, as Papists, Perfectionists, and all self-justiciaries; see Luk 18:9;

and yet is not washed from their filthiness; their native, original, and universal pollution by sin they have from their birth, and which is increased by numerous actual transgressions; and from which none are or can be washed but those who are born of water and of the Spirit, or are washed with the washing of regeneration; and are washed from their sins in the blood of the Lamb, whose blood cleanses from all sin; and are arrayed with the fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of the saints, which is the righteousness of Christ imputed to them: whatsoever is short of these leaves men unwashed from their filthiness, whatever opinion they may have of themselves; see Job 9:30, Jer 2:22.

Gill: Pro 30:13 - There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.

There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. Above others, on whom they look with scorn and contempt; as those do who have more riches than others, and boast of them; they despise their poor neighbours, and disdain to look upon them: and such also who have more knowledge and wisdom than others, or at least think so; they are puffed up in their fleshly minds, and say of the illiterate or less knowing, as the proud Pharisees did, "this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed": and likewise those who fancy themselves more holy and righteous than others; these, in a scornful manner, say, "stand by thyself, I am holier than thou"; and thank God they are not as other men are, as publicans and sinners; see Pro 19:4. Hence Pliny ⁱ says, that in the eyebrows there is a part of the mind; those especially show haughtiness; that pride has a receptacle elsewhere, but here it has its seat; it is bred in the heart, but here it comes and here it hangs: wherefore Juvenal ^k calls pride and haughtiness, "grande supercilium"; and proud haughty persons are said to be supercilious.

Gill: Pro 30:14 - 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

There is a generation whose teeth are as swords,.... As sharp as swords; like such the beasts of prey have; cruel, barbarous, and inhuman creatures; see Psa 57:4;

and their jaw teeth as knives; exceeding sharp and biting:

to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men: by their tyranny, oppression, and cruelty, to deprive them of the little they have; and even to take away their lives from them, and utterly destroy them; of this disposition are all tyrants and persecutors: such were Rome Pagan, compared to a red dragon in the times of the ten Heathen persecutions; and such is Rome Papal, signified by a beast, like a leopard, bear, and lion; and which has been drunk with the blood of the saints.

Gill: Pro 30:15 - The horse leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give // there are three things // that are never satiated: yea, four things say not, It is enough

The horse leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give,.... Or "the blood sucker" ^l; so it began to be called in the times of Pliny ^m, to which the last generation of men may well be compared; blood thirsty creatures, that never have enough, and are not satisfied with the flesh of men, nor with their blood; and such particularly the Papists are: and not only this generation of men, but there are three or four things besides, which resemble the horse leech for its insatiableness; for the horse leech has not two daughters only, but more. Some, by her two daughters, understand the two forks of its tongue, which some naturalists say it has; though later ones, and more diligent inquirers into those things, find it has not; but either with its three teeth, or by the compression of its mouth on all sides, sucks the blood, and will not let go until it is filled with it ⁿ: others have proposed the two sorts of leeches as its daughters, the sea leech, and that which is found in fenny and marshy places. But it is best, by its daughters, to understand such that resemble it, and are like unto it; as those that are of like nature and quality, and do the same things as others, are called their children; see Mat 23:31, 1Jo 3:10; and so the number of its daughters, which are always craving and asking for more, and are never satisfied, are not only two, but more, as follows;

there are three things; or, " yea, there are three things"

that are never satiated: yea, four things say not, It is enough; not two only, but three, and even four, that are quite insatiable and are as follow. The Syriac version renders the whole thus,

"the horse leech hath three beloved daughters; three, "I say", they are, which are not satisfied; and the fourth says not, It is enough.''

Some, as Abendana observes, interpret it of hell, by a transposition of the letters; because everyone that perverts his ways descends thither. Bochart ^o interprets it of fate, and so Noldius ^p: and Schultens renders the word, the most monstrous of evils; it signifying in the Arabic language, as he observes, anything monstrous and dreadful; such as wood demons, serpents, and dragons, which devour men and beasts. Suidas ^q, by the "horse leech", understands sin, whose daughters are fornication, envy, and idolatry, which are never satisfied by evil actions, and the fourth is evil concupiscence.

Gill: Pro 30:16 - The grave // and the barren womb // the earth that is not filled with water // and the fire that saith not, It is enough

The grave,.... Which is the first of the four daughters, or insatiable things, which resemble the horse leech: the grave is the house appointed for all living; it stands ready for them, it is open to receive them when dead; and though such multitudes have been put into it, since death reigned in the world, yet it is not full, it waits for more; nor will its mouth be shut till the last enemy, death, is destroyed; see Pro 27:20; This is an emblem of a covetous man, who enlarges his desire as hell or the grave; and is never satisfied with gold, silver, and increase of substance he has, but is always craving more;

and the barren womb; the second daughter, that cries, Give, give, as Rachel, "give me children, or I die", Gen 30:1, barren women are oftentimes impatient for children, as she was; and importunate, as Hannah; and as the Israelitish women were before the coming of the Messiah, each hoping he might be born of them; especially before it was so clearly known that he should be born of a virgin: though it may be rather the barren womb of harlots is here meant, and who are generally barren, and whose lust is insatiable; and this may be an emblem of lust, which is never satisfied; whether it be a lust of riches, or of honour, or of uncleanness, or of sensual pleasures;

the earth that is not filled with water; which is dry and parched, and opens and gapes; and though large quantities of rain may fall upon it, which it greedily drinks in; yet is not seen, nor is it filled with it, but it thirsts for more: this may be an emblem of good men, that have received abundance of the grace of God; and though they thirst not after sin, as they before did, and others do; yet thirst after God, more knowledge of him, and communion with him, and for more grace, like the dry and thirsty land, and cannot have enough of it; see Joh 4:13; or rather of wicked men, who drink up iniquity like water, and yet never have their fill of it to their satisfaction. This is the third thing, and the fourth follows:

and the fire that saith not, It is enough; but let what fuel will be cast into it, it devours it, and still wants more: by the Egyptians, as Herodotus ^r relates, fire is reckoned an animated beast, which devours all it can lay hold on; and when it is filled with food, it dies with that which is devoured by it. Such is the fire of divine wrath, hell fire, in which sinners are, as thorns and briers; and which is unquenchable, everlasting, burns for ever and ever; the Tophet, ordained of old, deep and large, the pile thereof is fire and much wood, kindled by the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, Isa 30:33. These are the four daughters of the horse leech which resemble that in its insatiableness. Jarchi makes mention of some that interpret the horse leech of "sheol", or the state of the dead; and the two daughters, of paradise and hell; the one says, "Give me the righteous"; and the other says, "Give me the wicked." Aben Ezra applies these four to the four generations before spoken of; the grave, into which are cast the generation of those that curse their father, and die before their time; the barren womb, the generation of those that are not washed from the filthiness of whoredom, and have no children; the earth not filled with water, the proud and haughty, who are humbled by famine; and the fire is that which descends from heaven, to consume the generation that destroy the poor and oppress the needy, as fire came down upon them in the days of Elijah. Jarchi takes notice of a Midrash, which applies these four things to the four monarchies; as it does also all the four things after mentioned.

Gill: Pro 30:17 - The eye that mocketh at his father // and despiseth to obey his mother // the ravens of the valley, shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it

The eye that mocketh at his father,.... At his advice, admonitions, and instructions; looks upon him with scorn and disdain, and treats him as a weak, silly, old man: here Agur returns to the first generation he had observed;

and despiseth to obey his mother; her orders and commands: or, "the obedience of his mother" ^s; her discipline and instruction, having no regard to it. The word is rendered "gathering" in Gen 49:10; and Jarchi interprets it of the gathering of wrinkles in her face: and so the Targum, Arabic, and Syriac versions render it, "the old age of his mother"; despising her as an old foolish woman; see Pro 23:22; להק, in the Ethiopic language, signifies to "grow old", from whence the word here used, by a transposition of letters, may be derived; and Mr. Castell ^t observes, that the royal prophet, among others, seems to have taken this word from the queen of Sheba;

the ravens of the valley, shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it; it signifies, that such persons shall come to an untimely end, and an ignominious death; either be drowned in a river, when floating upon it, or cast upon the banks of it, the ravens that frequent such places, and are most cruel and voracious, should feed upon them: or they should be hanged on a tree, or be crucified ^u, where birds of prey would light upon them; and particularly pick out their eyes and eat them, as being softest and sweetest to them; therefore first aim at them, and of which birds, and especially ravens, are very fond ^w; and is a just retaliation for their scornful and disdainful looks at their parent. This may figuratively design the black devils of hell, the posse of them in the air, who are sometimes compared to the fowls thereof; to whom such unnatural and disobedient children shall become a prey; see Mat 13:4.

Gill: Pro 30:18 - There be three things which are too wonderful for me // yea, four things which I know not

There be three things which are too wonderful for me,.... Which were above his reach and comprehension; what he could not find out, nor account for, nor sufficiently admire;

yea, four things which I know not; the way of them; as follows.

Gill: Pro 30:19 - The way of an eagle in the air // the way of a serpent upon a rock // the way of a ship in the midst of the sea // and the way of a man with a maid

The way of an eagle in the air,.... And so of any other bird; but this is mentioned, because it flies swiftest, and soars highest: but the way in which it goes is not known, nor can it be seen with the eye; it cuts the air, and passes through it, but leaves no track behind it which may be pointed to, and it may be said, that is the way the eagle took and flew towards heaven out of sight;

the way of a serpent upon a rock; a smooth hard rock; and wonderful it is that it should creep up it without legs; and where it leaves no impression, no footsteps by which it can be traced, as it may in soft and sandy places;

the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; it is marvellous that such a vessel should be supported upon the sea; that it should weather the storms and tempests of it; that it should be steered through the trackless ocean to distant countries; and, particularly, though it makes furrows in the waters, and divides the waves; yet these quickly close again, and there is no path to be seen in which it goes; there is no beaten road made by it, nor by the vast numbers which go the same way, which a man can see with his eyes or follow;

and the way of a man with a maid; or "to a maid" ^x; the many artful ways and methods he uses to get into her company, who is kept recluse; and to convey the sentiments and affections of his heart unto her, to gain her love to him, and obtain her in an honourable way of marriage; or to decoy and deceive her, and draw her into impure and unlawful embraces: it may design the private and secret way of committing fornication with her; which sense seems to be confirmed by Pro 30:20. Some of the ancients, particularly Ambrose ^y, interpreted the whole of this verse of Christ: "the way of an eagle in the air", of his ascension to heaven, with men his prey, taken out of the jaws of the enemy; and which is such as is beyond the comprehension of men, that one of so great majesty should vouchsafe to come down from heaven, or ascend thither: "the way of a serpent upon a rock" he understands of the temptations of Satan, the old serpent, with which he attacked Christ, the Rock; but could imprint no footsteps of his malice and wickedness on him; could find nothing in him to work upon, nor leave any sign behind him, as upon Adam: "the way of a ship in the midst of the sea" he interprets of the church; which though distressed with storms and tempests of persecution and false doctrine, yet cannot suffer shipwreck, Christ being in it: and the last clause he renders as the Vulgate Latin version does, "and the way of a man in youth"; which he explains of the journeys which Christ took, and the ways of virtue he pursued, to do good to the bodies and souls of men, which are so many as not to be numbered. But it may be better interpreted of the wonderful incarnation of Christ, his conception and birth of a virgin; which was a new and unheard of thing, and the way and manner of it quite inscrutable, and more hard and difficult to be understood than any of the rest; for the words may be rendered, "the way of a man in a maid" or "virgin"; that is, the conception of Geber, the mighty man, in the virgin; see Jer 31:22. Gussetius ^z gives the mystical sense of the whole, as referring to the ascension of Christ; his coming out of the stony grave; his conversation among the people, like the tumultuous waves; and his incarnation of a virgin.

Gill: Pro 30:20 - Such is the way of an adulterous woman // she eateth, and wipeth her mouth // and saith, I have done no wickedness

Such is the way of an adulterous woman,.... It is equally unknown as the way of a man with a maid; it is difficult to detect her, she takes so much care and caution, and uses so many artful methods to conceal her wickedness from her husband; though she lives in adultery, it is in a most private manner, and carried on so secretly and artfully that she is not easily discovered;

she eateth, and wipeth her mouth; like one that eats what he should not, wipes his mouth that it might not be known or suspected he had ate anything; so such an adulteress commits the sin of adultery; and when she has done looks as grave and demure, and carries it so to her husband and all her friends, as if she was the chastest person upon earth. The allusion may be to harlots, who after an impure congress used to wash themselves ^a, and had servants to wait upon them and serve them with water, called from hence "aquarioli" ^b;

and saith, I have done no wickedness; she says by her behaviour, by her demure looks; and if suspected and challenged with it utterly denies it. This is an emblem of the antichristian whore of Rome, who, though the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth; though guilty of the foulest adultery, that is, the grossest idolatry, yet pretends to be the pure and chaste spouse of Christ; and, under the guise of purity and holiness, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, seduces the minds of many; see Rev 17:1.

Gill: Pro 30:21 - For three things the earth is disquieted // and for four which it cannot bear

For three things the earth is disquieted,.... The inhabitants of it are made very uneasy;

and for four which it cannot bear; they are a load and burden upon it, and are intolerable to those that dwell on it, and make them very uncomfortable.

Gill: Pro 30:22 - For a servant, when he reigneth // and a fool, when he is filled with meat

For a servant, when he reigneth,.... Being unfit for it through his education, not having been trained up in and learned the arts of government and maxims of it; and through the disposition of his mind, which is mean, abject, and servile; and as he has been used himself when a servant, so he will use others ^c and through his circumstances, being poor, he will take oppressive methods to become rich; and being raised from a low estate, he is the more imperious, proud, and haughty ^d; all which and more make his reign intolerable; see Pro 19:10. This may be applied to antichrist, the "servus servorum", who in a haughty, tyrannical, and insolent manner, exalts himself above all that is called God: and reigns over the kings of the earth, at least has done so, and that in such a manner as was unbearable; deposing kings at pleasure, disposing of their kingdoms, and trampling upon their necks, and making their subjects his vassals; see 2Th 2:4;

and a fool, when he is filled with meat; as Nabal at his feast, when he behaved so intolerably in his cups towards David and his messengers, that he determined on his destruction, had not Abigail interposed, 1Sa 25:10; and there are many such fools, who having their bellies full of food, and their heads full of liquor, are very overbearing in company, and give their tongues such a loose as is very disturbing: or this may intend such fools, or wicked men, who are full of wealth and riches, and being purse proud, are exceeding haughty and insolent; set their mouths against the heaven, and blaspheme God that is in it; and their tongues walk through the earth, and spare none, but lash all in an insufferable manner. These disquiet families, neighbourhoods, communities, and commonwealths; see Psa 73:7.

Gill: Pro 30:23 - For an odious woman, when she is married // and an handmaid, that is heir to her mistress

For an odious woman, when she is married,.... Odious for her person, her ugliness, and the deformity of her body; or rather for the ill qualities of her mind, which, while single, she endeavours to conceal, but, being married, hides them no longer; but becomes imperious, proud, scornful, and malicious, and behaves in an ill natured way to her husband and all about her, to such a degree, that there is no bearing the place where she is;

and an handmaid, that is heir to her mistress; that has got so much into her affections that she leaves all she has to her when she dies, which makes her insufferably proud and vain; or she marries her master after the death of her mistress, and so coming into her place enjoys all she had, but only her wisdom and humility; which being wanting, she behaves in such a manner as to make the whole family uneasy. This might be exemplified in the case of Hagar, the bondmaid of Sarah, a type of those that are under the law of works, and seek the inheritance by it; and who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others, Gen 16:4.

Gill: Pro 30:24 - There be four things which are little upon the earth // but they are exceeding wise

There be four things which are little upon the earth,.... Small in bulk, that have little bodies, are the lesser sort of animals;

but they are exceeding wise; show a great deal of art and wisdom in what they do; or "but they are wise, made wise" ^e by the instinct of nature, by the direction of Providence, by which they do things that are surprising. Some versions, that have no regard to the points, read the words, "but their are wiser than the wise" ^f; than even wise men; wise men may learn much from the least of creatures; see Job 12:7.

Gill: Pro 30:25 - The ants are a people not strong // yet their prepare their meat in the summer

The ants are a people not strong,.... Far from it; what is weaker than an ant? a multitude of them may be destroyed at once, with the crush of a foot. Pliny calls it "minimum animal", the least animal; and the Arabians use it as a proverb, to call a weak man one weaker than an ant: and there is one sort of ants called "dsar", so small that one hundred of them will not weigh more than a barley corn ^g: they are called a people, because they associate together in great numbers; though small in bulk, and weak as to power and strength; and which is a figure elsewhere used in the sacred Scriptures; see Joe 1:6; and by profane writers, as Homer and Virgil, who speak of bees as a people and nation ^h; and of nations of flies, and of flying birds, geese, cranes, and swans ⁱ;

yet their prepare their meat in the summer; build granaries with great art and wisdom, carry in grains of corn with great labour and industry, in the summer season, when only to be got, and lay them up against winter. Phocylides ^k the poet says much the same things of them; he calls them a tribe or nation, small but laborious, and says, they gather and carry in their food in summer for the winter, which is a proof of their wisdom. Cicero ^l says, the ant has not only sense, but mind, reason, and memory. Aelianus ^m ascribes unspeakable wisdom to it; and Pliny ⁿ discourse and conversation; See Gill on Pro 6:6; see Gill on Pro 6:7; See Gill on Pro 6:8. It is a pattern of industry and diligence both as to temporal and spiritual things, Ecc 9:10.

Gill: Pro 30:26 - The coneys are but a feeble folk // yet make they their houses in the rocks

The coneys are but a feeble folk,.... Or "rabbits"; though some think these creatures are not intended, because they are not so little as those with which they are ranked, the ant, the locust, and spider; and because of the places in which they burrow and make their houses, which though in holes and caverns of the earth, yet not in rocky but sandy places; rather therefore it is thought that the mountain mouse, or bear mouse ^o, as Jerom calls it, is meant; of which, he says ^p, there were great numbers in Palestine, and which had their habitations in the holes of rocks; though if Spain has its name from שפן, as some say, because of the multitudes of coneys in it; and hence that part of Spain called Celtiberia is called by Catullus ^q Cuniculosa; the coney may be thought to be meant by this word, and so it is translated in Lev 11:5; the only places where it is elsewhere used; and the word may be derived either from ספן, to "cover", by a change of the letters ש and ס; or from שוף, which has the signification both of breaking, and of hiding and covering, Gen 3:15; and this creature breaks the earth and hides itself in it ^r;

yet make they their houses in the rocks; it is usual with other writers to call the receptacles of any creatures, beasts, birds, or insects, their houses so we read of the house of the ant, and of the tortoise and snail ^s; and which, because it carries its house era its back, it is called by Cicero ^t "domiporta"; see Psa 104:17; the coneys make theirs in the rocks, to cure themselves from their more potent enemies; and thus what they want in strength is made up in sagacity, and by their wise conduct they provide for their safety and protection. These are an emblem of the people of God, who are a weak and feeble people, unable of themselves to perform spiritual duties, to exercise grace, to withstand the corruptions of their nature, resist the temptations of Satan, bear up under afflictive providences, and grapple with spiritual enemies, or defend themselves from them: but such heavenly wisdom is given them, as to betake themselves for refuge and shelter to Christ, the Rock of Israel; the Rock of salvation, the Rock that is higher than they; a strong one, on which the church is built, and against which the gates of hell cannot prevail: and here they are safe from the storms of divine wrath, and the avenging justice of God; from the rage and fury of men, and the fiery darts of Satan; here they dwell safely and delightfully, and have all manner of provision at hand for them; they are the inhabitants of that Rock, who have reason to sing indeed! see Isa 33:16.

Gill: Pro 30:27 - The locusts have no king // yet they go forth all of them by bands

The locusts have no king,.... These are small creatures also, yet very devouring ones; and consume the fruits of the earth, wherever they come and light; see Exo 10:13; they are very numerous, and move in large bodies, and yet with great regularity and order; which shows the wisdom there is in them by natural instinct, though they have no king to command, guide, and direct them: in this the mystical locusts differ from them, who have a king, whose name is Abaddon, Rev 9:11;

yet they go forth all of them by bands; the Targum is,

"they are all gathered together as one.''

They get together in one place; they associate and join themselves in bands, and keep together, though they have no ruler over them; an emblem of unity, concord, and harmony, let the form of government be what it will, as the best security to a people: and these creatures, when they move from place to place, they move in a body, in a very regular manner; "in precise order" ^u, as the words may be rendered, with great exactness, everyone in his proper place, all in rank and file; and though they have no general to marshal them, yet are in, and march in as good order as the most regular army does. So the Arabic version,

"yet in their army, their affairs and manner are in a beautiful disposition;''

indeed they are God's army, as they are called, Joe 2:25; and it is he that gives them their wisdom, instructions, directions, and commission. It is rendered by some, "everyone cutting"; that is, as Kimchi ^w interprets it, cutting the green grass and trees; or, "every one dividing" ^x; that is, to himself, the prey or spoils, as kings do; see Isa 33:4.

Gill: Pro 30:28 - The spider taketh hold with her hands // and is in kings' palaces

The spider taketh hold with her hands,.... On the thread she spins, or on the flies and bees she catches in her web. This is a small creature, yet very wise; what a curious thread does she spin! what a fine web does she weave! with what exactness and proportion is it framed! as if she understood the rules of mathematics and architecture;

and is in kings' palaces; as well as in the houses of poor people, and in temples also; we read ^y of one in the temple of Ceres, which drew its web over the face of the image: and though her webs are oftentimes destroyed, especially in kings' palaces; yet such is her constancy and assiduity, and her unwearied application to business, that, as fast as they are destroyed, she attempts to restore them. This creature is an emblem of diligence in things temporal and spiritual; which those that use in the former sense shall stand before kings, and not before mean men; and in the latter sense shall have the presence of the King of kings, and dwell in his palace here and hereafter: also of worldly minded men, who labour to be rich; spend their time, and take a great deal of pains for mere trifles; weave curious webs, and, after all, only catch flies; and those they cannot hold, uncertain riches, which make themselves wings and fly away. Likewise this creature may resemble hypocrites, whose hope and trust are as the spider's web, built upon their own righteousness, spun out of their own hearts; a fine, thin, slender thread, which cannot bear one stroke of the besom of divine justice; such as these are in the palaces of Christ the King, are in his churches, hypocrites in Zion; see Job 8:13. Aben Ezra interprets it of the ape: the same David de Pomis ^z observes, and Mr. Weemse ^a, who seems to incline to this sense; and this creature King Solomon, no doubt, had in his palace, since his navy brought many of these, every three years, from those parts to which it was sent, 1Ki 10:22; and to these hands more properly belong than to spiders, and are taken into king's palaces for their pleasure and diversion; but to these there is one objection, that this creature is not a little one. Others understand it of the "lizard", that sort which is called "stellio"; but it is a question whether this is to be found in king's palaces. Bellonius ^b makes mention of a kind of lizard, which creeps into walls and catches flies, and is called by the Greeks "samiamiton", a name very near the Hebrew word here used: and Pliny ^c speaks of the "stellio", or lizard, as being in doors, windows, and chambers; and as a very fraudulent and deceitful creature to men, none more so; and also as poisonous, as this creature in the text by its name seems to be: and Austin ^d makes mention of the lizard as a domestic animal; which catches flies as the spider, with whom he joins it. The Targum, Jarchi, and Gersom, take it to be the spider, as we do; which may be thought most likely, since the creature here meant seems to have its name from the Arabic word "sam", which signifies poison ^e; though it is affirmed ^f the spider is not poisonous; as is well known by persons who have frequently swallowed them, without any more harm than happens to hens, robin red breasts, and other birds, who make them their daily food; and so men have been bit by them, without any ill consequence: wherefore it is still thought by some that the lizard is more probably meant; since some sorts of them are poisonous ^g, though not all, for some are eatable; See Gill on Lev 11:30.

Gill: Pro 30:29 - There be three things which go well // yea, four are comely in going

There be three things which go well,.... In a very orderly and composed manner; with constancy and cheerfulness, with great stateliness and majesty, intrepidly, and without fear;

yea, four are comely in going; very beautiful and lovely to look at as they walk.

Gill: Pro 30:30 - A lion, which is strongest among beasts // and turneth not away for any

A lion, which is strongest among beasts,.... For what is stronger than a lion, or more courageous and undaunted? it walks with great majesty, very slowly, step by step, the left foot first; shaking its shoulders as it goes, as the philosopher ^h describes its going, and as here intended, and this without fear;

and turneth not away for any; it does not go out of its way for any creature it meets with; nor does it hasten its pace when pursued, nor show the lest sign of fear; nor does it turn its back to any; which is observed and confirmed by Aristotle ⁱ, Aelianus ^k, Pliny ^l, and other naturalists; particularly what Homer ^m and Virgil ⁿ say of this animal agrees with this account of Solomon. This creature is an emblem of Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who is stronger than the strong man armed; who never turned his back to any of his enemies; nor turned aside from the way of his duty, or the work of his office, on account of any; not Herod the fox, who threatened to kill him; nor Satan, the roaring lion, when he knew he was on the march to meet him; nor any of those, who, though they had a band of soldiers, that came to take him; see Luk 13:31; and also it is an emblem of righteous men, who are as bold as a lion; and cannot be moved from their duty by anything they meet with, but remain steadfast and constant in it; see Pro 28:1.

Gill: Pro 30:31 - A greyhound // an he goat also // and a king, against whom there is no rising up

A greyhound,.... So Gersom interprets the word; but Jarchi owns he does not know what is meant; and Aben Ezra only says, it is the name of a living creature, but does not say what; but observes, that some interpret it of the "bee", and others of the "eagle". The words of the original text only describe something "girt about the loins" ^o: and Kimchi ^p observes, that some say it is a hunting dog so called, because it is thin about the loins, as if it was bound and girt; and Aristotle ^q describes hunting dogs as well girded about their loins: but others, as Kimchi in the same place observes, interpret it of the leopard, which is small, and strong in its loins; and others of a bird called the starling; but he owns he cannot understand the meaning of its loins being girt: David de Pomis ^r interprets it of a cock; others, he says, interpret it a hunting dog; others, a leopard; and some, a species of an unclean bird; perhaps he means the starling, as before; and so the word is used for that bird in the Talmud ^s, and in the Arabic language ^t. Most likely the "horse" is meant; which is a very stately and majestic creature in its going, and is very comely when it has its harness girt on; and especially a war horse, with all its warlike accoutrements, when it proceeds to battle, and stalks on in it; this creature, one should think, could not be omitted among the four, which is described in so magnificent a manner in Job 39:19; and is called the goodly horse in the battle, Zec 10:3; unless a fine slender bodied race horse should be meant: the horse bids fairer than any other creature named to be what is designed. The third creature follows, which goes well, and is comely in going:

an he goat also; which with its long beard walks very gravely, and in a stately manner, before the flock; and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions add, "going before the flock"; see Jer 50:8. This stately walk of the goat is very particularly taken notice of by, Aelian ^u; he observes, that the she goat disdains to be last in a flock of sheep, but declares by her walk that she ought to be first; he adds, that the he goat goes before the she goats, glorying in his beard; and, by a kind of wonderful instinct in nature, judges the male is to be preferred to the female ^w. Kings, rulers, and governors, are compared to this creature; as Alexander the great is in Dan 8:5; see Zec 10:3; especially such resemble it who rule well, and set good examples to their subjects: and to such, ministers of the Gospel are like; who go before their flocks, guide and direct them, and are examples to them: and likewise all believers; who strive to go before others in good works, and who then are comely in their going. The fourth is,

and a king, against whom there is no rising up; no insurrection, no opposition; who is not to be resisted or withstood; a lawful king, in the lawful administration of government, who rules in the fear of God, and according to his word, and the good and wholesome laws of a nation, ought not to be resisted, Rom 13:1; and a powerful, successful, and victorious king cannot be resisted, withstood, and prevailed over; he drives all before him, and subdues all under him, as David, Cyrus, Alexander, and others. But to none can this better be applied than to Christ, the King of kings; against whom there is no rising, before whom none can stand, against whom the gates of hell can never prevail; who, even in his state of humiliation, conquered and subdued all his and our enemies; destroyed the tyrant, sin; spoiled Satan, and his principalities and powers; overcame the world; abolished death, the last enemy; and delivered his people out of the hands of all, and made them more than conquerors: and who went forth in the ministry of the Gospel, into the Gentile world, conquering and to conquer; bearing down all opposition before him, and subduing the people under him; and who, in the latter day, will engage with his antichristian enemies, the beast, false prophet, and kings of the earth, and shall overcome them, and clear the world of them. And this is King who is comely in his going; as he was in his goings of old from everlasting; when he drew nigh to his divine. Father, and became the surety of his people; and in his coming into this world, by the assumption of our nature, to save lost perishing sinners: and so he is in his spiritual visits to his saints; in his goings in the sanctuary, and walks he takes amidst the golden candlesticks, his churches; as he will be also when he comes a second time in the clouds of heaven: it will be a glorious appearing; he will come with all the saints, and be attended with his mighty angels; he will come in their glory, in his own, and in the glory of his Father; and will be comely in his going indeed it will be with great stateliness and majesty. The learned Dr. Pococke ^x, from the use of the word "alkum" in the Arabic language, renders the words thus, "and a king with whom the people is"; who agree together; the one rules well, and the other obey cheerfully; such a king walking with majesty is comely to his people, and terrible to his enemies. The Targum is,

"and a king, who stands and speaks in the house of his people.''

Gill: Pro 30:32 - If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself // or if thou hast thought evil // lay thine hand upon thy mouth

If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself,.... Against a king, against whom there is no rising up; by speaking evil of him, or rebelling against him; which is acting a foolish part, since it brings a man into troubles and difficulties inextricable; or by self-commendation, which is the height of folly, and the fruit of pride; or carried it in such a haughty and overbearing manner to others, as to provoke to wrath and anger;

or if thou hast thought evil; purposed and designed it, and contrived the scheme of doing it, though not yet put in execution; though folly is not actually committed, yet since the thought of it is rain, care should be taken to prevent it;

lay thine hand upon thy mouth: think again before the thing resolved on is done; as studious and thoughtful men put their hand to their mouth, when they are deeply considering any affair before them: or put a stop to the design, let it go no further; what has been thought of in the mind, let it never come out of the mouth, nor be carried into execution; stifle it in the first motion: or if this respects a foolish action done, as it also may, since it stands connected with both clauses, then the sense is, be silent; do not pretend to deny the action, nor to excuse it; nor to say one word in the defence of it; nor to lay the blame upon others; and much less to calumniate and reproach such who faithfully reprove for it; take shame to thyself in silence, and repent of the iniquity done. Aben Ezra thinks these words are said to Ithiel and Ucal; but rather, to any and everyone, to all that should hear and read these proverbs. The Targum is,

"do not lift up thyself, lest thou be foolish; and do not stretch out thine hand to thy mouth.''

Gill: Pro 30:33 - 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

Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter,.... Or the pressing of it. This is a thing well known and certain, that of milk, when pressed out of the udder, and put into a churn, and there is shook together, by a constant violent agitation or motion, called churning, butter is produced; and cheese is sometimes called pressed milk ^y, and is pressed with the runnet, and by the hand also ^z;

and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: a too violent compression of it, or forcible blowing of it, in order to purge it from any impurity in it; instead of doing which it may break the tender skin, and bring forth blood, which may be of bad consequence;

so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife; irritating the passions of men, and provoking them by scurrilous and reproachful words to wrath and anger, produce contentions, feuds, and lawsuits, which are not soon and easily ended; and therefore such a conduct should be carefully avoided. The same word is used in the three clauses, and signifies pressing, squeezing, forcing.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Ayat / Catatan Kaki

NET Notes: Pro 30:1

¹ sn This chapter has a title (30:1), Agur’s confession and petition (30:2-9), and a series of Agur’s admonitions (30:10-33).

² tn The title הַמַּשָּׂא (hammasa’) means “the burden,” a frequently used title in prophetic oracles. It may be that the word is a place name, although it is more likely that it describes what follows as an important revelation.

³ tn The definite article is used here as a demonstrative, clarifying the reference to Agur.

⁴ sn The word translated “says” (נְאֻם, nÿ’um) is a verbal noun; it is also a term that describes an oracle. It is usually followed by the subjective genitive: “the oracle of this man to Ithiel.”

⁵ tn There have been numerous attempts to reinterpret the first two verses of the chapter. The Greek version translated the names “Ithiel” and “Ukal,” resulting in “I am weary, O God, I am weary and faint” (C. C. Torrey, “Proverbs Chapter 30,” JBL 73 [1954]: 93-96). The LXX’s approach is followed by some English versions (e.g., NRSV, NLT). The Midrash tried through a clever etymologizing translation to attribute the works to Solomon (explained by W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 299). It is most likely that someone other than Solomon wrote these sayings; they have a different, almost non-proverbial, tone to them. See P. Franklyn, “The Sayings of Agur in Proverbs 30: Piety or Skepticism,” ZAW 95 (1983): 239-52.

NET Notes: Pro 30:2

¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) functions in an asseverative sense, “surely; indeed; truly” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §449).

² tn The noun בַּעַר (ba’ar) means “brutishness”; here it functions as a predicate adjective. It is followed by מֵאִישׁ (me’ish) expressing comparative degree: “more than a man” or “more than any man,” with “man” used in a generic sense. He is saying that he has fallen beneath the level of mankind. Cf. NRSV “I am too stupid to be human.”

³ tn Heb “than man.” The verse is using hyperbole; this individual feels as if he has no intelligence at all, that he is more brutish than any other human. Of course this is not true, or he would not be able to speculate on the God of the universe at all.

⁴ tn Heb “the understanding of a man,” with “man” used attributively here.

NET Notes: Pro 30:3

¹ sn The construction uses repetition to make the point emphatically: “I do not know the knowledge of the Holy One.” Agur’s claim to being “brutish” is here clarified – he is not one of those who has knowledge or understanding of God. C. H. Toy thinks the speaker is being sarcastic in reference to others who may have claimed such knowledge (Proverbs [ICC], 521).

² tn The epithet “the Holy One” is the adjective “holy” put in the masculine plural (as in 9:10). This will harmonize with the plural of majesty used to explain the plural with titles for God. However, NRSV takes the plural as a reference to the “holy ones,” presumably referring to angelic beings.

NET Notes: Pro 30:4

¹ sn To make his point Agur includes five questions. These, like Job 38–41, or Proverbs 8:24-29, focus on the divine acts to show that it is absurd for a mere mortal to think that he can explain God’s work or compare himself to God. These questions display mankind’s limitations and God’s incomparable nature. The first question could be open to include humans, but may refer to God alone (as the other questions do).

² sn The questions are filled with anthropomorphic language. The questioner is asking what humans have ever done this, but the meaning is that only God has done this. “Gathering the wind in his fists” is a way of expressing absolute sovereign control over the forces of nature.

³ sn The question is comparing the clouds of the heavens to garments (e.g., Job 26:8). T. T. Perowne writes, “Men bind up water in skins or bottles; God binds up the rain-floods in the thin, gauzy texture of the changing clouds, which yet by his power does not rend under its burden of waters.”

⁴ sn The ends of the earth is an expression often used in scripture as a metonymy of subject referring to the people who live in the ends of the earth, the far off and remote lands and islands. While that is possible here as well, this may simply be a synecdoche saying that God created the whole world, even the most remote and distant places.

⁵ sn The reference to “son” in this passage has prompted many suggestions down through the years: It was identified as Israel in the Jewish Midrashim, the Logos or demiurge by some of the philosophers and allegorical writers, as simple poetic parallelism without a separate identity by some critical scholars, and as Jesus by Christian commentators. Parallels with Ugaritic are interesting, because Baal is referred to as a son; but that is bound up within the pantheon where there was a father god. Some of the Jewish commentators exhibit a strange logic in expressing what Christians would say is only their blindness to the full revelation: There is little cogency in this being a reference to Jesus because if there had been such a person at any time in the past he would have left some tradition about it through his descendants (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 317). But Judaism has taught from the earliest times that Messiah was preexistent (especially in view of Micah 5 and Daniel 7); and the claims of Jesus in the Gospels bear this out. It seems best to say that there is a hint here of the nature of the Messiah as Son, a hint that will later be revealed in full through the incarnation.

NET Notes: Pro 30:5

¹ sn The text here uses an implied comparison (a figure of speech known as hypocatastasis): It compares the perfection of every word from God with some precious metal that has been refined and purified (e.g., Ps 12:6). The point is that God’s word is trustworthy; it has no defects and flaws, nothing false or misleading. The second half of the verse explains the significance of this point – it is safe to trust the Lord.

² tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

³ sn The line uses two more figures of speech to declare that God can be trusted for security and salvation. “Shield” is a simple metaphor – God protects. “Take refuge” is another implied comparison (hypocatastasis) – God provides spiritual rest and security for those who put their trust in him.

NET Notes: Pro 30:6

¹ tn The form of the verb is a Niphal perfect tense with a vav consecutive from the root כָּזַב (kazav, “to lie”). In this stem it has the ideas of “been made deceptive,” or “shown to be false” or “proved to be a liar.” One who adds to or changes the word of the Lord will be seen as a liar.

NET Notes: Pro 30:7

¹ sn Wisdom literature often groups things in twos and fours, or in other numerical arrangements (e.g., Amos 1:3–2:6; Job 5:19; Prov 6:16-19).

² tn Assuming that the contents of vv. 7-9 are a prayer, several English versions have supplied a vocative phrase: “O Lord” (NIV); “O God” (NLT); others have supplied a similar phrase without the vocative “O”: NCV, CEV “Lord”; TEV “God.”

NET Notes: Pro 30:8

¹ tn The two words might form a hendiadys: “falsehood and lies” being equivalent to “complete deception.” The word שָׁוְא means “false; empty; vain; to a false purpose.” The second word means “word of lying,” thus “a lying word.” Taken separately they might refer to false intentions and false words.

² tn The word חֹק (khoq) means “statute”; it is also used of a definite assignment in labor (Exod 5:14; Prov 31:15), or of a set portion of food (Gen 47:22). Here it refers to food that is the proper proportion for the speaker.

³ sn Agur requested an honest life (not deceitful) and a balanced life (not self-sufficient). The second request about his provision is clarified in v. 9.

NET Notes: Pro 30:9

¹ tn The verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) means “to be disappointing; to deceive; to fail; to grow lean.” In the Piel stem it means “to deceive; to act deceptively; to cringe; to disappoint.” The idea of acting deceptively is illustrated in Hos 9:2 where it has the connotation of “disowning” or “refusing to acknowledge” (a meaning very close to its meaning here).

² tn The Hebrew verb literally means “to take hold of; to seize”; this produces the idea of doing violence to the reputation of God.

NET Notes: Pro 30:10

¹ tn The form תַּלְשֵׁן (talshen) is the Hiphil jussive (with the negative אַל, ’al); it is a denominative verb from the noun “tongue” (Heb “wag the tongue”). It means “to defame; to slander,” if the accusation is untrue. Some have suggested that the word might have the force of “denouncing” a slave to his master, accusing him before authorities (e.g., Deut 23:15-16). This proverb would then be a warning against meddling in the affairs of someone else.

² tn If what was said were true, then there would be no culpability. But the implication here is that it was slander. And the effect of that will be a curse – the person who is the target of the slander will “curse” the person who slandered him (קָלַל [qalal] in the Piel means “to treat lightly [or, with contempt]; to curse”), and culpability will result (the verb וֹשׁם means “to be guilty; to make a guilt offering [or, reparation offering]”). This word for guilt suggests a connection to the Levitical teaching that the guilty had to make reparation for damages done (Lev 5). Cf. NAB “you will have to pay the penalty”; NIV, NLT “you will pay for it.”

NET Notes: Pro 30:11

¹ sn The next four verses all start with the Hebrew expression translated “There is a generation.” This is a series of denunciations of things that are dangerous in society without mentioning specific punishments or proscriptions. The word “generation” as used in this passage refers to a class or group of people.

² sn The first observation is that there is a segment in society that lacks respect for parents. This uses the antonyms “curse” and [not] “bless” to make the point. To “curse” a parent could include treating them lightly, defaming them, or showing disrespect in general. To “bless” would mean to honor, respect, or enrich in some way, which is what should be done (e.g., Exod 21:17; Prov 20:20).

NET Notes: Pro 30:12

¹ tn The verb רָחַץ (rakhats) means “to wash; to wash off; to wash away; to bathe.” It is used of physical washing, ceremonial washings, and hence figuratively of removing sin and guilt through confession (e.g., Isa 1:16). Here the form is the Pual perfect (unless it is a rare old Qal passive, since there is no Piel and no apparent change of meaning from the Qal).

sn The point of the verse is that there are people who observe outer ritual and think they are pure (טָהוֹר [tahor] is the Levitical standard for entrance into the sanctuary), but who pay no attention to inner cleansing (e.g., Matt 23:27).

² sn Filthiness often refers to physical uncleanness, but here it refers to moral defilement. Zech 3:3-4 uses it metaphorically as well for the sin of the nation (e.g., Isa 36:12).

NET Notes: Pro 30:13

¹ tn Heb “how high are its eyes!” This is a use of the interrogative pronoun in exclamatory sentences (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 25, §127).

² tn Heb “its eyelids are lifted up,” a gesture indicating arrogance and contempt or disdain for others. To make this clear, the present translation supplies the adverb “disdainfully” at the end of the verse.

sn The verbs “to be high” (translated “are…lofty”) and “to be lifted up” depict arrogance and disdain for others. The emphasis on the eyes and eyelids (parasynonyms in poetry) is employed because the glance, the look, is the immediate evidence of contempt for others (e.g., also 6:17 and Ps 131:1).

NET Notes: Pro 30:14

¹ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

² sn There are two figures used in each of these lines: teeth/great teeth and “swords/knives.” The term “teeth” is a metonymy for the process of chewing and eating. This goes with the figure of the second half of the verse that speaks about “devouring” the poor – so the whole image of eating and chewing refers to destroying the poor (an implied comparison). The figures of “swords/knives” are metaphors within this image. Comparing teeth to swords means that they are sharp and powerful. The imagery captures the rapacity of their power.

³ tn Heb “teeth” (so NRSV) or “jaw teeth” (so KJV, ASV, NASB) or perhaps “jawbone.” This is a different Hebrew word for “teeth” than the one in the previous line; if it refers to “jaw teeth” then a translation like “molars” would be appropriate, although this image might not fit with the metaphor (“like knives”) unless the other teeth, the incisors or front teeth, are pictured as being even longer (“like swords”).

⁴ tn The Hebrew form לֶאֱכֹל (le’ekhol) is the Qal infinitive construct; it indicates the purpose of this generation’s ruthless power – it is destructive. The figure is an implied comparison (known as hypocatastasis) between “devouring” and “destroying.”

NET Notes: Pro 30:15

¹ sn The next two verses describe insatiable things, things that are problematic to normal life. The meaning of v. 15a and its relationship to 15b is debated. But the “leech” seems to have been selected to begin the section because it was symbolic of greed – it sucks blood through its two suckers. This may be what the reference to two daughters calling “Give! Give!” might signify (if so, this is an implied comparison, a figure known as hypocatastasis).

² sn As one might expect, there have been various attempts to identify the “two daughters.” In the Rabbinic literature some identified Alukah (the “leech”) with Sheol, and the two daughters with paradise and hell, one claiming the righteous and the other the unrighteous; others identified Alukah with Gehenna, and the two daughters with heresy and government, neither of which is ever satisfied (Midrash Tehillim quoted by Rashi, a Jewish scholar who lived a.d. 1040-1105, and in the Talmud, b. Avodah Zarah 17a). J. J. Glueck suggests that what is in view is erotic passion (and not a leech) with its two maidens of burning desire crying for more (“Proverbs 30:15a,” VT 14 [1964]: 367-70). F. S. North rightly criticizes this view as gratuitous; he argues for the view of a leech with two suckers (“The Four Insatiables,” VT 15 [1965]: 281-82).

³ tn The two imperatives הַב הַב (hav hav, “give, give,” from יָהַב, yahav) correspond to the two daughters, and form their appeal. This would then be a personification – it is as if the leech is crying out, “Give! Give!”

⁴ sn There is a noticeable rhetorical sequence here: two daughters, three things, four (see W. M. Roth, “The Numerical Sequence x / x +1 in the Old Testament,” VT 12 [1962]: 300-311, and “Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament,” VT 13 [1965]: 86). W. McKane thinks the series builds to a climax with the four, and in the four the barren woman is the focal point, the other three being metaphors for her sexual desire (Proverbs [OTL], 656). This interpretation is a minority view, however, and has not won widespread support.

⁵ tn Throughout the book of Proverbs הוֹן (hon) means “wealth”; but here it has the nuance of “sufficiency” (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT “satisfied”) or “enough” (BDB 223 s.v.).

NET Notes: Pro 30:16

¹ tn The term שְׁאוֹל (she’ol, “Sheol”) refers here to the realm of the dead: “the grave” (so KJV, NIV, NLT); cf. TEV, CEV “the world of the dead”; NAB “the nether world.”

² tn Heb “the closing of the womb,” a situation especially troubling for one who is consumed with a desire for children (e.g., Gen 16:2; 30:1).

³ sn There is no clear lesson made from these observations. But one point that could be made is that greed, symbolized by the leech, is as insatiable as all these other things. If that is the case, the proverb would constitute a warning against the insatiable nature of greed.

NET Notes: Pro 30:17

¹ sn The “eye” as the organ that exhibits the inner feelings most clearly, here represents a look of scorn or disdain that speaks volumes (a metonymy of cause or of adjunct). It is comparable to the “evil eye” which is stinginess (28:22).

² tn The Hebrew word לִיקֲּהַת (liqqahat, “obeying”) occurs only here and in Gen 49:10; it seems to mean “to receive” in the sense of “receiving instruction” or “obeying.” C. H. Toy suggests emending to “to old age” (לְזִקְנַת, lÿziqnat) of the mother (Proverbs [ICC], 530). The LXX with γῆρας (ghra", “old age”) suggests that a root lhq had something to do with “white hair.” D. W. Thomas suggests a corruption from lhyqt to lyqht; it would have read, “The eye that mocks a father and despises an aged mother” (“A Note on לִיקֲּהַת in Proverbs 30:17,” JTS 42 [1941]: 154-55); this is followed by NAB “or scorns an aged mother.”

³ sn The sternest punishment is for the evil eye. The punishment is talionic – eye for eye. The reference to “the valley” may indicate a place where people are not be given decent burials and the birds of prey pick the corpses clean. It is an image the prophets use in judgment passages.

NET Notes: Pro 30:18

¹ tn The form נִפְלְאוּ (niflÿ’u) is the Niphal perfect from פָּלָא (pala’); the verb means “to be wonderful; to be extraordinary; to be surpassing”; cf. NIV “too amazing.” The things mentioned are things that the sage finds incomprehensible (e.g., Gen 18:14; Judg 13:18; Ps 139:6; and Isa 9:6[5]). The sage can only admire these wonders – he is at a loss to explain them.

NET Notes: Pro 30:19

¹ sn It is difficult to know for certain what these four things had in common for the sage. They are all linked by the word “way” (meaning “a course of action”) and by a sense of mystery in each area. Suggestions for the connections between the four include: (1) all four things are hidden from continued observation, for they are in majestic form and then gone; (2) they all have a mysterious means of propulsion or motivation; (3) they all describe the movement of one thing within the sphere or domain of another; or (4) the first three serve as illustrations of the fourth and greatest wonder, which concerns human relationships and is slightly different than the first three.

² tn This last item in the series is the most difficult to understand. The MT reads וְדֶּרֶךְ גֶּבֶר בְּעַלְמָה (vÿderekh gever bÿ’almah, “and the way of a man with a maid,” so KJV, NASB). The last term does not in and of itself mean “virgin” but rather describes a young woman who is sexually ready for marriage. What is probably in view here is the wonder of human sexuality, for the preposition בְּ (bet) in this sequence indicates that the “way of the man” is “with” the woman. This mystery might begin with the manner of obtaining the love of the young woman, but focuses on the most intimate part of human relationships. And all of this was amazing to the sage. All of it is part of God’s creative plan and therefore can be enjoyed and appreciated without fully comprehending it.

NET Notes: Pro 30:20

¹ sn Equally amazing is the insensitivity of the adulterous woman to the sin. The use of the word “way” clearly connects this and the preceding material. Its presence here also supports the interpretation of the final clause in v. 19 as referring to sexual intimacy. While that is a wonder of God’s creation, so is the way that human nature has distorted it and ruined it.

² sn The word clearly indicates that the woman is married and unchaste; but the text describes her as amoral as much as immoral – she sees nothing wrong with what she does.

³ sn The acts of “eating” and “wiping her mouth” are euphemistic; they employ an implied comparison between the physical act of eating and wiping one’s mouth afterward on the one hand with sexual activity on the other hand (e.g., Prov 9:17).

⁴ sn This is the amazing part of the observation. It is one thing to sin, for everyone sins, but to dismiss the act of adultery so easily, as if it were no more significant than a meal, is incredibly brazen.

NET Notes: Pro 30:21

¹ sn The Hebrew verb means “to rage; to quake; to be in tumult.” The sage is using humorous and satirical hyperbole to say that the changes described in the following verses shake up the whole order of life. The sayings assume that the new, elevated status of the individuals was not accompanied by a change in nature. For example, it was not completely unknown in the ancient world for a servant to become king, and in the process begin to behave like a king.

NET Notes: Pro 30:22

¹ sn A servant coming to power could become a tyrant if he is unaccustomed to the use of such power, or he might retain the attitude of a servant and be useless as a leader.

² tn Heb “filled with food” (so ASV); NASB “satisfied with food”; NAB, NRSV “glutted with food”; CEV “who eats too much”; NLT “who prospers.”

sn The expression stuffed with food probably represents prosperity in general. So the line portrays someone who suddenly comes into wealth, but continues to be boorish and irreligious.

NET Notes: Pro 30:23

¹ tn The Hebrew term means “hated,” from שָׂנֵא (sane’), a feminine passive participle. The text does not say why she is hated; some have speculated that she might be odious (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB) or unattractive, but perhaps she is married to someone incapable of showing love (e.g., Gen 29:31, 33; Deut 21:15; Isa 60:5). Perhaps the strange situation of Jacob was in the mind of the sage, for Leah was described as “hated” (Gen 29:31).

² tn The verb יָרַשׁ (yarash) means either (1) “to possess; to inherit” or (2) “to dispossess.” Often the process of possessing meant the dispossessing of those already there (e.g., Hagar and Sarah in Gen 16:5; 21:10); another example is the Israelites’ wars against the Canaanites.

NET Notes: Pro 30:24

¹ tn Heb “Four are the small things of the earth.” TEV has “four animals,” though in the list of four that follows, two are insects and one is a reptile.

² tn The construction uses the Pual participle with the plural adjective as an intensive; these four creatures are the very embodiment of wisdom (BDB 314 s.v. חָכַם Pu).

NET Notes: Pro 30:25

¹ sn The wisdom of the ants is found in their diligent preparation (כּוּן, kun) of food supplies in the summer for times in the winter when food is scarce. See S. P. Toperoff, “The Ant in the Bible and Midrash,” Dor le Dor 13 (1985): 179-83. According to this, being prepared ahead of time is a mark of true wisdom.

NET Notes: Pro 30:26

¹ tn Or “hyraxes.” This is the Syrian Hyrax, also known as the rock badger. KJV, ASV has “conies” (alternately spelled “coneys” by NIV), a term usually associated with the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) but which can also refer to the pika or the hyrax. Scholars today generally agree that the Hebrew term used here refers to a type of hyrax, a small ungulate mammal of the family Procaviidae native to Africa and the Middle East which has a thick body, short legs and ears and a rudimentary tail. The simple “badger” (so NASB, NRSV, CEV) could lead to confusion with the badger, an entirely unrelated species of burrowing mammal related to weasels.

sn Modern scholars identify this creature with the rock badger (the Syrian hyrax), a small mammal that lives in the crevices of the rock. Its wisdom consists in its ingenuity to find a place of security.

NET Notes: Pro 30:27

¹ sn The Hebrew term means “divided”; they go forward in orderly divisions, or ranks (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 535). Joel 1:4 describes their order and uses it as a picture of a coming invasion (e.g., Joel 2:7, 8). Therefore the wisdom of the locust is in their order and cooperation.

NET Notes: Pro 30:28

¹ tn The KJV, agreeing with Tg. Prov 30:28, translated this term as “spider.” But almost all modern English versions and commentators, following the Greek and the Latin versions, have “lizard.”

sn The point of this saying is that a weak creature like a lizard, that is so easily caught, cannot be prevented from getting into the most significant places.

² tn Although the Hebrew noun translated “king” is singular here, it is traditionally translated as plural: “kings’ palaces” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

NET Notes: Pro 30:29

¹ tn The form מֵיטִיבֵי (metibe) is the Hiphil participle, plural construct. It has the idea of “doing good [in] their step.” They move about well, i.e., magnificently. The genitive would be a genitive of specification.

² tn The construction uses the Hiphil participle again (as in the previous line) followed by the infinitive construct of הָלַךְ (halakh). This forms a verbal hendiadys, the infinitive becoming the main verb and the participle before it the adverb.

NET Notes: Pro 30:30

¹ tn Heb “mighty among the beasts,” but referring to a superlative degree (“mightiest”).

NET Notes: Pro 30:31

¹ tn The Hebrew term זַרְזִיר (zarzir) means “girt”; it occurs only here with “loins” in the Bible: “that which is girt in the loins” (BDB 267 s.v.). Some have interpreted this to be the “greyhound” because it is narrow in the flanks (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 327); so KJV, ASV. Others have suggested the warhorse, zebra, raven, or starling. Tg. Prov 30:31 has it as the large fighting cock that struts around among the hens. There is no clear referent that is convincing, although most modern English versions use “strutting rooster” or something similar (cf. CEV “proud roosters”).

² tc This last line has inspired many suggestions. The MT has “with his army around him” (אַלְקוּם עִמּוֹ, ’alqum ’immo); so NIV. This has been emended to read “against whom there is no rising up” (so KJV, ASV) or “standing over his people.” The LXX has “a king haranguing his people.” Tg. Prov 30:31 has, “a king who stands up before his people and addresses them.” Some have attempted to identify this with Alcimus, the high priest who aspired to kingship (1 Macc 7:5-22), but such a suggestion is quite remote. Another interpretation sees the word for “God” in the line: “a king with whom God is.” Furthermore, C. H. Toy thinks the text is corrupt and must have at one time referred to some majestic animal (Proverbs [ICC], 537). While all these suggestions are fascinating, they have not improved or corrected the Hebrew text. At least one can say the focus is on the stately appearance of the king at some auspicious moment. The word occurs only here; but if it is interpreted with its Arabic cognate in mind, then it refers to a band of soldiers (BDB 39 s.v. אַלְקוּם).

NET Notes: Pro 30:32

¹ tn The construction has the בְּ (bet) preposition with the Hitpael infinitive construct, forming a temporal clause. This clause explains the way in which the person has acted foolishly.

² tn Heb “hand to mouth.” This express means “put your hand to your mouth” (e.g., Job 40:4, 5); cf. NIV “clap your hand over.”

NET Notes: Pro 30:33

¹ tn This line provides the explanation for the instruction to keep silent in the previous verse. It uses two images to make the point, and in so doing repeats two words throughout. The first is the word מִיץ (mits), which is translated (in sequence) “churning,” “punching,” and “stirring up.” The form is a noun, and BDB 568 s.v. suggests translating it as “squeezing” in all three places, even in the last where it describes the pressure or the insistence on strife. This noun occurs only here. The second repeated word, the verb יוֹצִיא (yotsir), also occurs three times; it is the Hiphil imperfect, meaning “produces” (i.e., causes to go out).

² sn There is a subtle wordplay here with the word for anger: It is related to the word for nose in the preceding colon.

³ sn The analogy indicates that continuously pressing certain things will yield results, some good, some bad. So pressing anger produces strife. The proverb advises people to strive for peace and harmony through humility and righteousness. To do that will require “letting up” on anger.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:1

The words of ^{( a )} Agur the son of Jakeh, [even] the prophecy: the man spoke to Ithiel, even to ^{( b )} Ithiel and Ucal,

^{( a )} Who was an excellent man in virtue and knowledge in the time of Solomon.

^{( b )} Who were Agur's scholars or friends.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:2

Surely I [am] more ^{( c )} senseless than [any] man, and have not the understanding of a man.

^{( c )} In this he declares his great humility who would not attribute any wisdom to himself but all to God.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:4

Who hath ascended into ^{( d )} 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?

^{( d )} Meaning, to know the secrets of God, as though he would say, "None".

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:7

Two ^{( e )} [things] have I required of thee; deny [them] not to me before I die:

^{( e )} He makes this request to God.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:9

Lest I be full, and deny [thee], and say, ^{( f )} Who [is] the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God [in vain].

^{( f )} Meaning, that they who put their trust in their riches forget God and that by too much wealth men have an opportunity to the same.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:10

Accuse not a servant to his master, lest he curse thee, ^{( g )} and thou be found guilty.

^{( g )} In accusing him without cause.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:15

The horseleach hath two ^{( h )} daughters, [crying], Give, give. There are three [things that] are never satisfied, [yea], four [things] say not, [It is] enough:

^{( h )} The leach has two forks in her tongue, which here he calls her two daughters, by which she sucks the blood, and is never satisfied: even so, the covetous extortioners are insatiable.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:17

The eye [that] mocketh at [its] father, and despiseth to obey [its] mother, the ravens ^{( i )} of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

^{( i )} Which hunt in the valley for carrion.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:20

Such [is] the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and ^{( k )} wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

^{( k )} She has her desires, and later counterfeits as though she were an honest woman.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:22

For ^{( l )} a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with food;

^{( l )} These commonly abuse the state to which they are called.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:23

For an odious [woman] when she is married; and an handmaid that is ^{( m )} heir to her mistress.

^{( m )} Who is married to her master after the death of her mistress.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:24

There are four [things which are] little upon the earth, but they [are] very ^{( n )} wise:

^{( n )} They contain great doctrine and wisdom.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:28

The spider taketh hold ^{( o )} with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.

^{( o )} If man is not able to compass these common things by his wisdom, we cannot attribute wisdom to man, but folly.

Geneva Bible: Pro 30:32

If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, [lay] thy hand ^{( p )} upon thy mouth.

^{( p )} Make a stay and continue not in doing evil.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Rentang Ayat

MHCC: Pro 30:1-6

Agur speaks of himself as wanting a righteousness, and having done very foolishly. And it becomes us all to have low thoughts of ourselves. He speaks of himself as wanting revelation to guide him in the ways of truth and wisdom. The more enlightened people are, the more they lament their ignorance; the more they pray for clearer, still clearer discoveries of God, and his rich grace in Christ Jesus. In Pro 30:4, there is a prophetic notice of Him who came down from heaven to be our Instructor and Saviour, and then ascended into heaven to be our Advocate. The Messiah is here spoken of as a Person distinct from the Father, but his name as yet secret. The great Redeemer, in the glories of his providence and grace, cannot be found out to perfection. Had it not been for Christ, the foundations of the earth had sunk under the load of the curse upon the ground, for man's sin. Who, and what is the mighty One that doeth all this? There is not the least ground to suspect anything wanting in the word of God; adding to his words opens the way to errors and corruptions.

MHCC: Pro 30:7-9

Agur wisely prayed for a middle state, that he might be kept at a distance from temptations; he asked daily bread suited to his station, his family, and his real good. There is a remarkable similarity between this prayer and several clauses of the Lord's prayer. If we are removed from vanity and lies; if we are interested in the pardoning love of Christ, and have him for our portion; if we walk with God, then we shall have all we can ask or think, as to spiritual things. When we consider how those who have abundance are prone to abuse the gift, and what it is to suffer want, Agur's prayer will ever be found a wise one, though seldom offered. Food convenient; what is so for one, may not be so for another; but we may be sure that our heavenly Father will supply all our need, and not suffer us to want anything good for us; and why should we wish for more?

MHCC: Pro 30:10

Slander not a servant to his master, accuse him not in small matters, to make mischief.

MHCC: Pro 30:11-14

In every age there are monsters of ingratitude who ill-treat their parents. Many persuade themselves they are holy persons, whose hearts are full of sin, and who practise secret wickedness. There are others whose lofty pride is manifest. There have also been cruel monsters in every age.

MHCC: Pro 30:15-17

Cruelty and covetousness are two daughters of the horseleech, that still cry, " Give, give," and they are continually uneasy to themselves. Four things never are satisfied, to which these devourers are compared. Those are never rich that are always coveting. And many who have come to a bad end, have owned that their wicked courses began by despising their parents' authority.

MHCC: Pro 30:18-20

Four things cannot be fully known. The kingdom of nature is full of marvels. The fourth is a mystery of iniquity; the cursed arts by which a vile seducer gains the affections of a female; and the arts which a vile woman uses to conceal her wickedness.

MHCC: Pro 30:21-23

Four sorts of persons are very troublesome. Men of low origin and base spirit, who, getting authority, become tyrants. Foolish and violent men indulging in excesses. A woman of a contentious spirit and vicious habits. A servant who has obtained undue influence. Let those whom Providence has advanced from low beginnings, carefully watch against that sin which most easily besets them.

MHCC: Pro 30:24-28

Four things that are little, are yet to be admired. There are those who are poor in the world, and of small account, yet wise for their souls and another world.

MHCC: Pro 30:29-33

We may learn from animals to go well; also to keep our temper under all provocations. We must keep the evil thought in our minds from breaking out into evil speeches. We must not stir up the passions of others. Let nothing be said or done with violence, but every thing with softness and calmness. Alas, how often have we done foolishly in rising up against the Lord our King! Let us humble ourselves before him. And having found peace with Him, let us follow peace with all men.

Matthew Henry: Pro 30:1-6

Some make Agur to be not the name of this author, but his character; he was a collector (so it signifies), a gatherer, one that did not compose things himself, but collected the wise sayings and observations of others, made abstracts of the writings of others, which some think is the reason why he says (Pro 30:3), " I have not learned wisdom myself, but have been a scribe, or amanuensis, to other wise and learned men."Note, We must not bury our talent, though it be but one, but, as we have received the gift, so minister the same, if it be but to collect what others have written. But we rather suppose it to be his name, which, no doubt, was well known then, though not mentioned elsewhere in scripture. Ithiel and Ucal are mentioned, either, 1. As the names of his pupils, whom he instructed, or who consulted him as an oracle, having a great opinion of his wisdom and goodness. Probably they wrote from him what he dictated, as Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah, and by their means it was preserved, as they were ready to attest it to be his, for it was spoken to them; they were two witnesses of it. Or, 2. As the subject of his discourse. Ithiel signifies God with me, the application of Immanuel, God with us. The word calls him God with us; faith appropriates this, and calls him " God with me, who loved me, and gave himself for me, and into union and communion with whom I am admitted." Ucal signifies the Mighty One, for it is upon one that is mighty that help is laid for us. Many good interpreters therefore apply this to the Messiah, for to him all the prophecies bear witness, and why not this then? It is what Agur spoke concerning Ithiel, even concerning Ithiel (that is the name on which the stress is laid) with us, Isa 7:14.

Three things the prophet here aims at: -

I. To abase himself. Before he makes confession of his faith he makes confession of his folly and the weakness and deficiency of reason, which make it so necessary that we be guided and governed by faith. Before he speaks concerning the Saviour he speaks of himself as needing a Saviour, and as nothing without him; we must go out of ourselves before we go into Jesus Christ. 1. He speaks of himself as wanting a righteousness, and having done foolishly, very foolishly. When he reflects upon himself he owns, Surely I am more brutish than any man. Every man has become brutish, Jer 10:14. But he that knows his own heart knows so much more evil of himself than he does of any other that he cries out, " Surely I cannot but think that I am more brutish than any man; surely no man has such a corrupt deceitful heart as I have. I have acted as one that has not the understanding of Adam, as one that is wretchedly degenerated from the knowledge and righteousness in which man was at first created; nay, I have not the common sense and reason of a man, else I should not have done as I have done."Agur, when he was applied to by others as wiser than most, acknowledged himself more foolish than any. Whatever high opinion others may have of us, it becomes us to have low thoughts of ourselves. 2. He speaks of himself as wanting a revelation to guide him in the ways of truth and wisdom. He owns (Pro 30:3) " I neither learned wisdom by any power of my own (the depths of it cannot be fathomed by my line and plummet) nor know I the knowledge of the holy ones, the angels, our first parents in innocency, nor of the holy things of God; I can get no insight into them, nor make any judgment of them, further than God is pleased to make them known to me."The natural man, the natural powers, perceive not, nay, they receive not, the things of the Spirit of God. Some suppose Agur to be asked, as Apollo's oracle was of old, Who was the wisest man? The answer is, He that is sensible of his own ignorance, especially in divine things. Hoc tantum scio, me nihil scire - All that I know is that I know nothing.

II. To advance Jesus Christ, and the Father in him (Pro 30:4): Who ascended up into heaven, etc. 1. Some understand this of God and of his works, which are both incomparable and unsearchable. He challenges all mankind to give an account of the heavens above, of the winds, the waters, the earth: "Who can pretend to have ascended up to heaven, to take a view of the orbs above, and then to have descended, to give us a description of them? Who can pretend to have had the command of the winds, to have grasped them in his hand and managed them, as God does, or to have bound the waves of the sea with a swaddling band, as God has done? Who has established the ends of the earth, or can describe the strength of its foundations or the extent of its limits? Tell me what is the man's name who can undertake to vie with God or to be of his cabinet-council, or, if he be dead, what is his name to whom he has bequeathed this great secret."2. Others refer it to Christ, to Ithiel and Ucal, the Son of God, for it is the Son's name, as well as the Father's, that is here enquired after, and a challenge given to any to vie with him. We must now exalt Christ as one revealed; they then magnified him as one concealed, as one they had heard something of but had very dark and defective ideas of. We have heard the fame of him with our ears, but cannot describe him (Job 28:22); certainly it is God that has gathered the wind in his fists and bound the waters as in a garment; but what is his name? It is, I am that I am (Exo 3:14), a name to be adored, not to be understood. What is his Son's name, by whom he does all these things? The Old Testament saints expected the Messiah to be the Son of the Blessed, and he is here spoken of as a person distinct from the Father, but his name as yet secret. Note, The great Redeemer, in the glories of his providence and grace, can neither be paralleled nor found out to perfection. (1.) The glories of the kingdom of his grace are unsearchable and unparalleled; for who besides has ascended into heaven and descended? Who besides is perfectly acquainted with both worlds, and has himself a free correspondence with both, and is therefore fit to settle a correspondence between them, as Mediator, as Jacob's ladder? He was in heaven in the Father's bosom (Joh 1:1, Joh 1:18); thence he descended to take our nature upon him; and never was there such condescension. In that nature he again ascended (Eph 4:9), to receive the promised glories of his exalted state; and who besides has done this? Rom 10:6. (2.) The glories of the kingdom of his providence are likewise unsearchable and unparalleled. The same that reconciles heaven and earth was the Creator of both and governs and disposes of all. His government of the three lower elements of air, water, and earth, is here particularized. [1.] The motions of the air are of his directing. Satan pretends to be the prince of the power of the air, but even there Christ has all power; he rebuked the winds and they obeyed him. [2.] The bounds of the water are of his appointing: He binds the waters as in a garment; hitherto they shall come, and no further, Job 38:9-11. [3.] The foundations of the earth are of his establishing. He founded it at first; he upholds it still. If Christ had not interposed, the foundations of the earth would have sunk under the load of the curse upon the ground, for man's sin. Who and what is the mighty He that does all this? We cannot find out God, nor the Son of God, unto perfection. Oh the depth of that knowledge!

III. To assure us of the truth of the word of God, and to recommend it to us, Pro 30:5, Pro 30:6. Agur's pupils expect to be instructed by him in the things of God. "Alas!"says he, "I cannot undertake to instruct you; go to the word of God; see what he has there revealed of himself, and of his mind and will; you need know no more than what that will teach you, and that you may rely upon as sure and sufficient. Every word of God is pure; there is not the least mixture of falsehood and corruption in it."The words of men are to be heard and read with jealousy and with allowance, but there is not the least ground to suspect any deficiency in the word of God; it is as silver purified seven times (Psa 12:6), without the least dross or alloy. Thy word is very pure, Psa 119:140. 1. It is sure, and therefore we must trust to it and venture our souls upon it. God in his word, God in his promise, is a shield, a sure protection, to all those that put themselves under his protection and put their trust in him. The word of God, applied by faith, will make us easy in the midst of the greatest dangers, Psa 46:1, Psa 46:2. 2. It is sufficient, and therefore we must not add to it (Pro 30:6): Add thou not unto his words, because they are pure and perfect. This forbids the advancing of any thing, not only in contradiction to the word of God, but in competition with it; though it be under the plausible pretence of explaining it, yet, if it pretend to be of equal authority with it, it is adding to his words, which is not only a reproach to them as insufficient, but opens a door to all manner of errors and corruptions; for, that one absurdity being granted, that the word of any man, or company of men, is to be received with the same faith and veneration as the word of God, a thousand follow. We must be content with what God has thought fit to make known to us of his mind, and not covet to be wise above what is written; for, (1.) God will resent it as a heinous affront: " He will reprove thee, will reckon with thee as a traitor against his crown and dignity, and lay thee under the heavy doom of those that add to his words, or diminish from them,"Deu 4:2; Deu 12:32. (2.) We shall run ourselves into endless mistakes: "Thou wilt be found a liar, a corrupter of the word of truth, a broacher of heresies, and guilty of the worst of forgeries, counterfeiting the broad seal of heaven, and pretending a divine mission and inspiration, when it is all a cheat. Men may be thus deceived, but God is not mocked. "

Matthew Henry: Pro 30:7-9

After Agur's confession and creed, here follows his litany, where we may observe,

I. The preface to his prayer: Two things have I required (that is, requested ) of thee, O God! Before we go to pray it is good to consider what we need, and what the things are which we have to ask of God. - What does our case require? What do our hearts desire? What would we that God should do for us? - that we may not have to seek for our petition and request when we should be presenting it. He begs, Deny me not before I die. In praying, we should think of dying, and pray accordingly. "Lord, give me pardon, and peace, and grace, before I die, before I go hence and be no more; for, if I be not renewed and sanctified before I die, the work will not be done after; if I do not prevail in prayer before I die, prayers afterwards will not prevail, no, not Lord, Lord. There is none of this wisdom or working in the grave. Deny me not thy grace, for, if thou do, I die, I perish; if thou be silent to me, I am like those that go down to the pit, Psa 28:1. Deny me not before I die; as long as I continue in the land of the living, let me continue under the conduct of thy grace and good providence."

II. The prayer itself. The two things he requires are grace sufficient and food convenient. 1. Grace sufficient for his soul: " Remove from me vanity and lies; deliver me from sin, from all corrupt principles, practices, and affections, from error and mistake, which are at the bottom of all sin, from the love of the world and the things of it, which are all vanity and a lie. "Some understand it as a prayer for the pardon of sin, for, when God forgives sin, he removes it, he takes it away. Or, rather, it is a prayer of the same import with that, Lead us not into temptation. Nothing is more mischievous to us than sin, and therefore there is nothing which we should more earnestly pray against than that we may do no evil. 2. Food convenient for his body. Having prayed for the operations of divine grace, he here begs the favours of the divine Providence, but such as may tend to the good and not to the prejudice of the soul. (1.) He prays that of God's free gift he might receive a competent portion of the good things of this life: " Feed me with the bread of my allowance, such bread as thou thinkest fit to allow me."As to all the gifts of the divine Providence, we must refer ourselves to the divine wisdom. Or, " the bread that is fit for me, as a man, a master of a family, that which is agreeable to my rank and condition in the world."For as is the man so is his competency. Our Saviour seems to refer to this when he teaches us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread, as this seems to refer to Jacob's vow, in which he wished for no more than bread to eat and raiment to put on. Food convenient for us is what we ought to be content with, though we have not dainties, varieties, and superfluities - what is for necessity, though we have not for delight and ornament; and it is what we may in faith pray for and depend upon God for. (2.) He prays that he may be kept from every condition of life that would be a temptation to him. [1.] He prays against the extremes of abundance and want: Give me neither poverty nor riches. He does not hereby prescribe to God, nor pretend to teach him what condition he shall allot to him, nor does he pray against poverty or riches absolutely, as in themselves evil, for either of them, by the grace of God, may be sanctified and be a means of good to us; but, First, He hereby intends to express the value which wise and good men have for a middle state of life, and, with submission to the will of God, desires that that might be his state, neither great honour nor great contempt. We must learn how to manage both (as St. Paul, Phi 4:12), but rather wish to be always between both. Optimus pecuniae modus qui nec in paupertatem cedit nec procul à paupertate discedit - The best condition is that which neither implies poverty nor yet recedes far from it. Seneca. Secondly, He hereby intimates a holy jealousy he had of himself, that he could not keep his ground against the temptations either of an afflicted or a prosperous condition. Others may preserve their integrity in either, but he is afraid of both, and therefore grace teaches him to pray against riches as much as nature against poverty; but the will of the Lord be done. [2.] He gives a pious reason for his prayer, Pro 30:9. He does not say, " Lest I be rich, and cumbered with care, and envied by my neighbours, and eaten up with a multitude of servants, or, lest I be poor and trampled on, and forced to work hard and fare hard;"but, " Lest I be rich and sin, or poor and sin."Sin is that which a good man is afraid of in every condition and under every event; witness Nehemiah (Neh 6:13), that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin. First, He dreads the temptations of a prosperous condition, and therefore even deprecates that: Lest I be full and deny thee (as Jeshurun, who waxed fat and kicked, and forsook God who made him, Deu 32:15), and say, as Pharaoh in his pride, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? Prosperity makes people proud and forgetful of God, as if they had no need of him and were therefore under no obligation to him. What can the Almighty do for them? Job 22:17. And therefore they will do nothing for him. Even good men are afraid of the worst sins, so deceitful do they think their own hearts to be; and they know that the greatest gains of the world will not balance the least guilt. Secondly, He dreads the temptations of a poor condition, and for that reason, and no other, deprecates that: Lest I be poor and steal. Poverty is a strong temptation to dishonesty, and such as many are overcome by, and they are ready to think it will be their excuse; but it will not bear them out at God's bar any more than at men's to say, "I stole because I was poor;"yet, if a man steal for the satisfying of his soul when he is hungry, it is a case of compassion (Pro 6:30) and what even those that have some principles of honesty in them may be drawn to. But observe why Agur dreads this, not because he should endanger himself by it, "Lest I steal, and be hanged for it, whipped or put in the stocks, or sold for a bondman,"as among the Jews poor thieves were, who had not wherewithal to make restitution; but lest he should dishonour God by it: " Lest I should steal, and take the name of my God in vain, that is, discredit my profession of religion by practices disagreeable to it."Or, "Lest I steal, and, when I am charged with it, forswear myself."He therefore dreads one sin, because it would draw on another, for the way of sin is downhill. Observe, He calls God his God, and therefore he is afraid of doing any thing to offend him because of the relation he stands in to him.

Matthew Henry: Pro 30:10-14

Here is, I. A caution not to abuse other people's servants any more than our own, nor to make mischief between them and their masters, for it is an ill office, invidious, and what will make a man odious, Pro 30:10. Consider, 1. It is an injury to the servant, whose poor condition makes him an object of pity, and therefore it is barbarous to add affliction to him that is afflicted: Hurt not a servant with thy tongue (so the margin reads it); for it argues a sordid disposition to smite any body secretly with the scourge of the tongue, especially a servant, who is not a match for us, and whom we should rather protect, if his master be severe with him, than exasperate him more. 2. "It will perhaps be an injury to thyself. If a servant be thus provoked, perhaps he will curse thee, will accuse thee and bring thee into trouble, or give thee an ill word and blemish thy reputation, or appeal to God against thee, and imprecate his wrath upon thee, who is the patron and protector of oppressed innocency."

II. An account, upon occasion of this caution, of some wicked generations of men, that are justly abominable to all that are virtuous and good. 1. Such as are abusive to their parents, give them bad language and wish them ill, call them bad names and actually injure them. There is a generation of such; young men of that black character commonly herd together, and irritate one another against their parents. A generation of vipers those are who curse their natural parents, or their magistrates, or their ministers, because they cannot endure the yoke; and those are near of kin to them who, though they have not yet arrived at such a pitch of wickedness as to curse their parents, yet do not bless them, cannot give them a good word, and will not pray for them. 2. Such as are conceited of themselves, and, under a show and pretence of sanctity, hide from others, and perhaps from themselves too, abundance of reigning wickedness in secret (Pro 30:12); they are pure in their own eyes, as if they were in all respects such as they should be. They have a very good opinion of themselves and their own character, that they are not only righteous, but rich and increased with goods (Rev 3:17), and yet are not cleansed from their filthiness, the filthiness of their hearts, which they pretend to be the best part of them. They are, it may be, swept and garnished, but they are not washed, nor sanctified; as the Pharisees that within were full of all uncleanness, Mat 23:25, Mat 23:26. 3. Such as are haughty and scornful to those about them, Pro 30:13. He speaks of them with amazement at their intolerable pride and insolence: " Oh how lofty are their eyes! With what disdain do they look upon their neighbours, as not worthy to be set with the dogs of their flock! What a distance do they expect every body should keep; and, when they look upon themselves, how do they strut and vaunt like the peacock, thinking they make themselves illustrious when really they make themselves ridiculous!"There is a generation of such, on whom he that resists the proud will pour contempt. 4. Such as are cruel to the poor and barbarous to all that lie at their mercy (Pro 30:14); their teeth are iron and steel, swords and knives, instruments of cruelty, with which they devour the poor with the greatest pleasure imaginable, and as greedily as hungry men cut their meat and eat it. God has so ordered it that the poor we shall always have with us, that they shall never cease out of the land; but there are those who, because they hate to relieve them, would, if they could, abolish them from the earth, from among men, especially God's poor. Some understand it of those who wound and ruin others by slanders and false accusations, and severe censures of their everlasting state; their tongues, and their teeth too (which are likewise organs of speech), are as swords and knives, Psa 57:4.

Matthew Henry: Pro 30:15-17

He had spoken before of those that devoured the poor (Pro 30:14), and had spoken of them last, as the worst of all the four generations there mentioned; now here he speaks of their insatiableness in doing this. The temper that puts them upon it is made up of cruelty and covetousness. Now those are two daughters of the horse-leech, its genuine offspring, that still cry, " Give, give, give more blood, give more money;"for the bloody are still blood-thirsty; being drunk with blood, they add thirst to their drunkenness, and will seek it yet again. Those also that love silver shall never be satisfied with silver. Thus, while from these two principles they are devouring the poor, they are continually uneasy to themselves, as David's enemies, Psa 59:14, Psa 59:15. Now, for the further illustration of this,

I. He specifies four other things which are insatiable, to which those devourers are compared, which say not, It is enough, or It is wealth. Those are never rich that are always coveting. Now these four things that are always craving are, 1. The grave, into which multitudes fall, and yet still more will fall, and it swallows them all up, and returns none, Hell and destruction are never full, Pro 27:20. When it comes to our turn we shall find the grave ready for us, Job 17:1. 2. The barren womb, which is impatient of its affliction in being barren, and cries, as Rachel did, Give me children. 3. The parched ground in time of drought (especially in those hot countries), which still soaks in the rain that comes in abundance upon it and in a little time wants more. 4. The fire, which, when it has consumed abundance of fuel, yet still devours all the combustible matter that is thrown into it. So insatiable are the corrupt desires of sinners, and so little satisfaction have they even in the gratification of them.

II. He adds a terrible threatening to disobedient children (Pro 30:17), for warning to the first of those four wicked generations, that curse their parents (Pro 30:11), and shows here,

1. Who they are that belong to that generation, not only those that curse their parents in heat and passion, but, (1.) Those that mock at them, though it be but with a scornful eye, looking with disdain upon them because of their bodily infirmities, or looking sour or dogged at them when they instruct or command, impatient at their checks and angry at them. God takes notice with what eye children look upon their parents, and will reckon for the leering look and the casts of the evil eye as well as for the bad language given them. (2.) Those that despise to obey them, that think it a thing below them to be dutiful to their parents, especially to the mother, they scorn to be controlled by her; and thus she that bore them in sorrow in greater sorrow bears their manners.

2. What their doom will be. Those that dishonour their parents shall be set up as monuments of God's vengeance; they shall be hanged in chains, as it were, for the birds of prey to pick out their eyes, those eyes with which they looked so scornfully on their good parents. The dead bodies of malefactors were not to hang all night, but before night the ravens would have picked out their eyes. If men do not punish undutiful children, God will, and will load those with the greatest infamy that conduct themselves haughtily towards their parents. Many who have come to an ignominious end have owned that the wicked courses that brought them to it began in a contempt of their parents' authority.

Matthew Henry: Pro 30:18-23

Here is, I. An account of four things that are unsearchable, too wonderful to be fully known. And here,

1. The first three are natural things, and are only designed as comparisons for the illustration of the last. We cannot trace, (1.) An eagle in the air. Which way she has flown cannot be discovered either by the footstep or by the scent, as the way of a beast may upon ground; nor can we account for the wonderful swiftness of her flight, how soon she has gone beyond our ken. (2.) A serpent upon a rock. The way of a serpent in the sand we may find by the track, but not of a serpent upon the hard rock; nor can we describe how a serpent will, without feet, in a little time creep to the top of a rock. (3.) A ship in the midst of the sea. The leviathan indeed makes a path to shine after him, one would think the deep to be hoary (Job 41:32), but a ship leaves no mark behind it, and sometimes it is so tossed upon the waves that one would wonder how it lives at sea and gains its point. The kingdom of nature is full of wonders, marvellous things which the God of nature does, past finding out.

2. The fourth is a mystery of iniquity, more unaccountable than any of these; it belongs to the depths of Satan, that deceitfulness and that desperate wickedness of the heart which none can know, Jer 17:9. It is twofold: - (1.) The cursed arts which a vile adulterer has to debauch a maid, and to persuade her to yield to his wicked and abominable lust. This is what a wanton poet wrote a whole book of, long since, De arte amandi - On the art of love. By what pretensions and protestations of love, and all its powerful charms, promises of marriage, assurances of secresy and reward, is many an unwary virgin brought to sell her virtue, and honour, and peace, and soul, and all to a base traitor; for so all sinful lust is in the kingdom of love. The more artfully the temptation is managed the more watchful and resolute ought every pure heart to be against it. (2.) The cursed arts which a vile adulteress has to conceal her wickedness, especially from her husband, from whom she treacherously departs; so close are her intrigues with her lewd companions, and so craftily disguised, that it is as impossible to discover her as to track an eagle in the air. She eats the forbidden fruit, after the similitude of Adam's transgression, and then wipes her mouth, that it may not betray itself, and with a bold and impudent face says, I have done no wickedness. [1.] To the world she denies the fact, and is ready to swear it that she is as chaste and modest as any woman, and never did the wickedness she is suspected of. Those are the works of darkness which are industriously kept from coming to the light. [2.] To her own conscience (if she have any left) she denies the fault, and will not own that that great wickedness is any wickedness at all, but an innocent entertainment. See Hos 12:7, Hos 12:8. Thus multitudes ruin their souls by calling evil good and out-facing their convictions with a self-justification.

II. An account of four things that are intolerable, that is, four sorts of persons that are very troublesome to the places where they live and the relations and companies they are in; the earth is disquieted for them, and groans under them as a burden it cannot bear, and they are all much alike: - 1. A servant when he is advanced, and entrusted with power, who is, of all others, most insolent and imperious; witness Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, Neh 2:10. 2. A fool, a silly, rude, boisterous, vicious man, who when he has grown rich, and is partaking of the pleasures of the table, will disturb all the company with his extravagant talk and the affronts he will put upon those about him. 3. An ill-natured, cross-grained, woman, when she gets a husband, one who, having made herself odious by her pride and sourness, so that one would not have thought any body would ever love her, yet, if at last she be married, that honourable estate makes her more intolerably scornful and spiteful than ever. It is a pity that that which should sweeten the disposition should have a contrary effect. A gracious woman, when she is married, will be yet more obliging. 4. An old maid-servant that has prevailed with her mistress, by humouring her, and, as we say, getting the length of her foot, to leave her what she has, or is as dear to her as if she was to be her heir, such a one likewise will be intolerably proud and malicious, and think all too little that her mistress gives her, and herself wronged if any thing be left from her. Let those therefore whom Providence has advanced to honour from mean beginnings carefully watch against that sin which will most easily beset them, pride and haughtiness, which will in them, of all others, be most insufferable and inexcusable; and let them humble themselves with the remembrance of the rock out of which they were hewn.

Matthew Henry: Pro 30:24-28

I. Agur, having specified four things that seem great and yet are really contemptible, here specifies four things that are little and yet are very admirable, great in miniature, in which, as bishop Patrick observes, he teaches us several good lessons; as, 1. Not to admire bodily bulk, or beauty, or strength, nor to value persons or think the better of them for such advantages, but to judge of men by their wisdom and conduct, their industry and application to business, which are characters that deserve respect. 2. To admire the wisdom and power of the Creator in the smallest and most despicable animals, in an ant as much as in an elephant. 3. To blame ourselves who do not act so much for our own true interest as the meanest creatures do for theirs. 4. Not to despise the weak things of the world; there are those that are little upon the earth, poor in the world and of small account, and yet are exceedingly wise, wise for their souls and another world, and those are exceedingly wise, wiser than their neighbours. Margin, They are wise, made wise by the special instinct of nature. All that are wise to salvation are made wise by the grace of God.

II. Those he specifies are, 1. The ants, minute animals and very weak, and yet they are very industrious in gathering proper food, and have a strange sagacity to do it in the summer, the proper time. This is so great a piece of wisdom that we may learn of them to be wise for futurity, Pro 6:6. When the ravening lions lack, and suffer hunger, the laborious ants have plenty, and know no want. 2. The conies, or, as some rather understand it, the Arabian mice, field mice, weak creatures, and very timorous, yet they have so much wisdom as to make their houses in the rocks, where they are well guarded, and their feebleness makes them take shelter in those natural fastnesses and fortifications. Sense of our own indigence and weakness should drive us to him that is a rock higher than we for shelter and support; there let us make our habitation. 3. The locusts; they are little also, and have no king, as the bees have, but they go forth all of them by bands, like an army in battle-array; and, observing such good order among themselves, it is not any inconvenience to them that they have no king. They are called God's great army (Joe 2:25); for, when he pleases, he musters, he marshals them, and wages war by them, as he did upon Egypt. They go forth all of them gathered together (so the margin); sense of weakness should engage us to keep together, that we may strengthen the hands of one another. 4. The spider, an insect, but as great an instance of industry in our houses as the ants are in the field. Spiders are very ingenious in weaving their webs with a fineness and exactness such as no art can pretend to come near: They take hold with their hands, and spin a fine thread out of their own bowels, with a great deal of art; and they are not only in poor men's cottages, but in kings' palaces, notwithstanding all the care that is there taken to destroy them. Providence wonderfully keeps up those kinds of creatures, not only which men provide not for, but which every man's hand is against and seeks the destruction of. Those that will mind their business, and take hold of it with their hands, shall be in kings' palaces; sooner or later, they will get preferment, and may go on with it, notwithstanding the difficulties and discouragements they meet with. If one well-spun web be swept away, it is but making another.

Matthew Henry: Pro 30:29-33

Here is, I. An enumeration of four things which are majestic and stately in their going, which look great: - 1. A lion, the king of beasts, because strongest among beasts. Among beasts it is strength that gives the pre-eminence, but it is a pity that it should do so among men, whose wisdom is their honour, not their strength and force. The lion turns not away, nor alters his pace, for fear of any pursuers, since he knows he is too hard for them. Herein the righteous are bold as a lion, that they turn not away from their duty for fear of any difficulty they meet with in it. 2. A greyhound that is girt in the loins and fit for running; or (as the margin reads it) a horse, which ought not to be omitted among the creatures that are comely in going, for so he is, especially when he is dressed up in his harness or trappings. 3. A he-goat, the comeliness of whose going is when he goes first and leads the flock. It is the comeliness of a Christian's going to go first in a good work and to lead others in the right way. 4. A king, who, when he appears in his majesty, is looked upon with reverence and awe, and all agree that there is no rising up against him; none can vie with him, none can contend with him, whoever does it, it is at his peril. And, if there is no rising up against an earthly prince, woe to him then that strives with his Maker. It is intended that we should learn courage and fortitude in all virtuous actions from the lion and not to turn away for any difficulty we meet with; from the greyhound we may learn quickness and despatch, from the he-goat the care of our family and those under our charge, and from a king to have our children in subjection with all gravity, and from them all to go well, and to order the steps of our conversation so as that we may not only be safe, but comely, in going.

II. A caution to us to keep our temper at all times and under all provocations, and to take heed of carrying our resentments too far upon any occasion, especially when there is a king in the case, against whom there is no rising up, when it is a ruler, or one much our superior, that is offended; nay, the rule is always the same.

1. We must bridle and suppress our own passion, and take shame to ourselves, whenever we are justly charged with a fault, and not insist upon our own innocency: If we have lifted up ourselves, either in a proud conceit of ourselves or a peevish opposition to those that are over us, if we have transgressed the laws of our place and station, we have therein done foolishly. Those that magnify themselves over others or against others, that are haughty and insolent, do but shame themselves and betray their own weakness. Nay, if we have but thought evil, if we are conscious to ourselves that we have harboured an ill design in our minds, or it has been suggested to us, we must lay our hand upon our mouth, that is, (1.) We must humble ourselves for what we have done amiss, and even lie in the dust before God, in sorrow for it, as Job did, when he repented of what he had said foolishly (Job 40:4, I will lay my hand upon my mouth ), and as the convicted leper, who put a covering upon his upper lip. If we have done foolishly, we must not stand to it before men, but by silence own our guilt, which will be the best way of appeasing those we have offended. 2. We must keep the evil thought we have conceived in our minds from breaking out in any evil speeches. Do not give the evil thought an imprimatur - a license; allow it not to be published; but lay thy hand upon thy mouth; use a holy violence with thyself, if need be, and enjoin thyself silence; as Christ suffered not the evil spirits to speak. It is bad to think ill, but it is much worse to speak it, for that implies a consent to the evil thought and a willingness to infect others with it.

2. We must not irritate the passions of others. Some are so very provoking in their words and conduct that they even force wrath, they make those about them angry whether they will or no, and put those into a passion who are not only not inclined to it, but resolved against it. Now this forcing of wrath brings forth strife, and where that is there is confusion and every evil work. As the violent agitation of the cream fetches all the good out of the milk, and the hard wringing of the nose will extort blood from it, so this forcing of wrath wastes both the body and spirits of a man, and robs him of all the good that is in him. Or, as it is in the churning of milk and the wringing of the nose, that is done by force which otherwise would not be done, so the spirit is heated by degrees with strong passions; one angry word begets another, and that a third; one passionate debate makes work for another, and so it goes on till it ends at length in irreconcilable feuds. Let nothing therefore be said or done with violence, but every thing with softness and calmness.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:1

The title of this first appendix, according to the text lying before us, is:

"The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the utterance."

This title of the following collection of proverbs is limited by Olewejored ; and המּשּׂא , separated from the author's name by Rebia , is interpreted as a second inscription, standing on one line with דּברי , as particularizing that first. The old synagogue tradition which, on the ground of the general title Pro 1:1, regarded the whole Book of Proverbs as the work of Solomon, interpreted the words, "Agur the son of Jakeh,"as an allegorical designation of Solomon, who appropriated the words of the Tôra to the king, Deu 17:17, and again rejected them, for he said: God is with me, and I shall not do it (viz., take many wives, without thereby suffering injury), Schemôth rabba , c. 6. The translation of Jerome: Verba congregantis filii Vomentis , is the echo of this Jewish interpretation. One would suppose that if "Agur"were Solomon's name, "Jakeh"must be that of David; but another interpretation in Midrash Mishle renders בן ("son") as the designation of the bearer of a quality, and sees in "Agur"one who girded ( אגר = חגר ) his loins for wisdom; and in "son of Jakeh"one free from sin ( חטא ועון נקי מכל ). In the Middle Ages this mode of interpretation, which is historically and linguistically absurd, first began to prevail; for then the view was expressed by several (Aben Ezra, and Meîri the Spaniard) that Agur ben Jakeh was a wise man of the time of Solomon. That of Solomon's time, they thence conclude (blind to Pro 25:1) that Solomon collected together these proverbs of the otherwise unknown wise man. In truth, the age of the man must remain undecided; and at all events, the time of Hezekiah is the fixed period from which, where possible, it is to be sought. The name "Agur"means the gathered (Pro 6:8; Pro 10:5), or, after the predominant meaning of the Arab. âjar , the bribed, mercede conductum ; also the collector (cf. יקוּשׁ , fowler); or the word might mean, perhaps, industrious in collecting (cf. 'alwaḳ , attached to, and other examples in Mühlau, p. 36). Regarding בּן = binj (usual in בּן־נּוּן ), and its relation to the Arab. ibn , vid ., Genesis , p. 555. The name Jakeh is more transparent . The noun יקהה , Pro 30:17; Gen 49:10, means the obedient, from the verb יקהּ ; but, formed from this verbal stem, the form of the word would be יקהּ (not יקה ). The form יקה is the participial adj. from יקה , like יפה from יפה ; and the Arab. waḳay , corresponding to this יקה , viii. ittaḳay , to be on one's guard, particularly before God; the usual word fore piety regarded as εὐλάβεια . Mühlau (p. 37) rightly sees in the proper names Eltekeh [Jos 19:44] and Eltekon [Jos 15:59] the secondary verbal stem תּקה , which, like e.g. , תּוה ( תּאה ), תּאב , עתד , has originated from the reflexive, which in these proper names, supposing that אל is subj., means to take under protection; not: to give heed = cavere. All these meanings are closely connected. In all these three forms - יקהּ , יקה , תּקה - the verb is a synonym of שׁמר ; so that יקה denotes

(Note: According to the Lex. 'Gezerî (from the Mesopotamian town of 'Geziret ibn 'Amr ), the word wakihon is, in the Mesopotamian language, "the overseer of the house in which is the cross of the Christians;"and accordingly, in Muhammed's letter to the Christians of Negran, after they became subject to him, "a monk shall not be removed from his monastery, nor a presbyter from his presbyterate, (waḳâhtah ) wala watah wakahyttah "(this will be the correct phrase), "nor an overseer from his office."The verbal stem waḳ -ah ( יקהּ ) is, as it appears, Northern Semitic; the South Arabian lexicographer Neshwan ignores it (Wetzstein in Mühlau).)

the pious, either as taking care, εὐλαβής , or as keeping, i.e. , observing, viz., that which is commanded by God.

In consequence of the accentuation, המשּׂא is the second designation of this string of proverbs, and is parallel with דברי . But that is absolutely impossible. משּׂא (from נשׂא , to raise, viz., the voice, to begin to express) denotes the utterance, and according to the usage of the words before us, the divine utterance, the message of God revealed to the prophet and announced by him, for the most part, if not always ( vid ., at Isa 13:1), the message of God as the avenger. Accordingly Jewish interpreters ( e.g. , Meîri and Arama) remark that משׂא designates what follows, as דבר נבוּאיּי , i.e. , an utterance of the prophetic spirit. But, on the other hand, what follows begins with the confession of human weakness and short-sightedness; and, moreover, we read proverbs not of a divine but altogether of a human and even of a decaying spiritual stamp, besides distinguished from the Solomonic proverbs by this, that the I of the poet, which remains in the background, here comes to the front. This משׂא of prophetic utterances does not at all harmonize with the following string of proverbs. It does not so harmonize on this account, because one theme does not run through these proverbs which the sing. משׂא requires. It comes to this, that משׂא never occurs by itself in the sense of a divine, a solemn utterance, without having some more clearly defining addition, though it should be only a demonstrative הזּה (Isa 14:28). But what author, whether poet or prophet, would give to his work the title of משׂא , which in itself means everything, and thus nothing! And now: the utterance - what can the article at all mean here? This question has remained unanswered by every interpreter. Ewald also sees himself constrained to clothe the naked word; he does it by reading together המשׂא נאם , and translating the "sublime saying which he spoke."But apart from the consideration that Jer 23:31 proves nothing for the use of this use of נאם , the form ( הגבר ) נאם is supported by 2Sa 23:1 (cf. Pro 30:5 with 2Sa 22:31); and besides, the omission of the אשׁר , and in addition of the relative pronoun ( נאמו ), would be an inaccuracy not at all to be expected on the brow of this gnomology ( vid ., Hitzig). If we leave the altogether unsuspected נאם undisturbed, המשׂא will be a nearer definition of the name of the author. The Midrash has a right suspicion, for it takes together Hamassa and Agur ben Jakeh , and explains: of Agur the son of Jakeh, who took upon himself the yoke of the most blessed. The Graecus Venetus comes nearer what is correct, for it translates: λόγοι Ἀγούρου υἱέως Ἰακέως τοῦ Μασάου . We connect Pro 31:1, where למוּאל מלך , "Lemuel (the) king,"is a linguistic impossibility, and thus, according to the accentuation lying before us, מלך משּׂא also are to be connected together; thus it appears that משׂא must be the name of a country and a people. It was Hitzig who first made this Columbus-egg to stand. But this is the case only so far as he recognised in למואל מלך משׂא a Lemuel, the king of Massa, and recognised this Massa also in Pro 30:1 ( vid ., his dissertation: Das Königreich Massa [the kingdom of Massa], in Zeller's Theolog. Jahrbb . 1844, and his Comm .), viz., the Israelitish Massa named in Gen 25:14 (= 1Ch 1:30) along with Dumah and Tema . But he proceeds in a hair-splitting way, and with ingenious hypothesis, without any valid foundation. That this Dumah is the Dumat el-jendel (cf. under Isa 21:11) lying in the north of Nejed, near the southern frontiers of Syria, the name and the founding of which is referred by the Arabians to Dûm the son of Ishmael, must be regarded as possible, and consequently Massa is certainly to be sought in Northern Arabia. But if, on the ground of 1Ch 4:42., he finds there a Simeonitic kingdom, and finds its origin in this, that the tribe of Simeon originally belonging to the ten tribes, and thus coming from the north settled in the south of Judah, and from thence in the days of Hezekiah, fleeing before the Assyrians, were driven farther and farther in a south-east direction towards Northern Arabia; on the contrary, it has been shown by Graf ( The Tribe of Simeon , a contribution to the history of Israel, 1866) that Simeon never settled in the north of the Holy Land, and according to existing evidences extended their settlement from Negeb partly into the Idumean highlands, but not into the highlands of North Arabia. Hitzig thinks that there are found traces of the Massa of Agur and Lemuel in the Jewish town

(Note: Cf. Blau's Arab. im sechsten Jahrh . in the Deutsch. Morgl. Zeits . xxxiii. 590, and also p. 573 of the same, regarding a family of proselytes among the Jews in Taima.)

of טילמאס , of Benjamin of Tudela, lying three days' journey from Chebar, and in the proper name (Arab.) Malsā (smooth), which is given to a rock between Tema and Wady el-Kora ( vid ., Kosegarten's Chestom . p. 143); but how notched his ingenuity here is need scarcely be shown. By means of more cautious combinations Mühlau has placed the residence of Agur and Lemuel in the Hauran mountain range, near which there is a Dumah , likewise a Têmâ ; and in the name of the town Mismîje , lying in the Lejâ, is probably found the Mishma which is named along with Massa , Gen 25:14; and from this that is related in 1Ch 5:9., 1Ch 5:18-22, of warlike expeditions on the part of the tribes lying on the east of the Jordan against the Hagarenes and their allies Jetur , Nephish , and Nodab ,

(Note: Mühlau combines Nodab with Nudêbe to the south-east of Bosra; Blau ( Deut. Morg. Zeit . xxv. 566), with the Ναβδαῖοι of Eupolemos named along with the Ναβατοῖοι . The Kamûs has Nadab as the name of a tribe.)

it is with certainty concluded that in the Hauran, and in the wilderness which stretches behind the Euphrates towards it, Israelitish tribes have had their abode, whose territory had been early seized by the trans-Jordanic tribes, and was held "until the captivity,"1Ch 5:22, i.e. , till the Assyrian deportation. This designation of time is almost as unfavourable to Mühlau's theory of a Massa in the Hauran, inhabited by Israelitish tribes from the other side, as the expression " to Mount Seir "(1Ch 4:42) is to Hitzig's North Arabian Massa inhabited by Simeonites. We must leave it undecided whether Dumah and Têmâ , which the Toledoth of Ismael name in the neighbourhood of Massa , are the east Hauran districts now existing; or as Blau ( Deut. Morgl. Zeit . xxv. 539), with Hitzig, supposes, North Arabian districts (cf. Genesis . p. 377, 4th ed.).

(Note: Dozy ( Israeliten in Mecca , p. 89f.) connects Massa with Mansâh , a pretended old name of Mecca.)

"Be it as it may, the contents and the language of this difficult piece almost necessarily point to a region bordering on the Syro-Arabian waste. Ziegler's view ( Neue Uebers. der Denksprüche Salomo's , 1791, p. 29), that Lemuel was probably an emir of an Arabian tribe in the east of Jordan, and that a wise Hebrew translated those proverbs of the emir into Hebrew, is certainly untenable, but does not depart so far from the end as may appear at the first glance"(Mühlau).

(Note: These German quotations with the name of Mühlau are taken from the additions to his book, which he placed at my disposal.)

If the text-punctuation lying before us rests on the false supposition that Massa , Pro 30:1; Pro 31:1, is a generic name, and not a proper name, then certainly the question arises whether משׂא should not be used instead of משּׂא , much more משׂא , which is suggested as possible in the article "Sprüche,"in Herzog's Encycl . xiv. 694. Were משׁא , Gen 10:30, the region Μεσήνη , on the northern border of the Persian Gulf, in which Apamea lay, then it might be said in favour of this, that as the histories of Muhammed and of Benjamin of Tudela prove the existence of an old Jewish occupation of North Arabia, but without anything being heard of a משּׂא , the Talmud bears testimony

(Note: Vid ., Neubauer's Le Géographie du Talmud , pp. 325, 329, 382.)

to a Jewish occupation of Mesene, and particularly of Apamea; and by the mother of Lemuel, the king of Mesha , one may think

(Note: Derenbourg's Essai sur l'Hist. et la Géog. de la Palestine , i. p. 224.)

of Helena, celebrated in Jewish writings, queen of Adiabene, the mother of Monabaz and Izates. But the identity of the Mesha of the catalogue of nations with Μεσήνη is uncertain, and the Jewish population of that place dates at least from the time of the Sassanides to the period of the Babylonian exile. We therefore hold by the Ishmaelite Massa , whether North Arabian or Hauranian; but we by no means subscribe Mühlau's non possumus non negare, Agurum et Lemuëlem proseytos e paganis, non Israelitas fuisse . The religion of the tribes descended from Abraham, so far as it had not degenerated, was not to be regarded as idolatrous. It was the religion which exists to the present day among the great Ishmaelite tribes of the Syrian desert as the true tradition of their fathers under the name of Dîn Ibrâhîm (Abraham's religion); which, as from Wetzstein, we have noted in the Commentary on Job (p. 387 and elsewhere), continues along with Mosaism among the nomadic tribes of the wilderness; which shortly before the appearance of Christianity in the country beyond the Jordan, produced doctrines coming into contact with the teachings of the gospel; which at that very time, according to historic evidences ( e.g. , Mêjâsinî's chronicles of the Ka'be ), was dominant even in the towns of Higâz; and in the second century after Christ, was for the first time during the repeated migration of the South Arabians again oppressed by Greek idolatry, and was confined to the wilderness; which gave the mightiest impulse to the rise of Islam, and furnished its best component part; and which towards the end of the last century, in the country of Neged, pressed to a reform of Islam, and had as a result the Wahabite doctrine. If we except Pro 30:5., the proverbs of Agur and Lemuel contain nothing which may not be conceived from a non-Israelitish standpoint on which the author of the Book of Job placed himself. Even Job 30:5. is not there (cf. Job 6:10; Job 23:12) without parallels. When one compares Deu 4:2; Deu 13:1, and 2Sa 22:31 = Psa 18:31 (from which Pro 30:5 of the proverbs of Agur is derived, with the change of יהוה into אלוהּ ), Agur certainly appears as one intimately acquainted with the revealed religion of Israel, and with their literature. But must we take the two Massites therefore, with Hitzig, Mühlau, and Zöckler, as born Israelites? Since the Bible history knows no Israelitish king outside of the Holy Land, we regard it as more probable that King Lemuel and his countryman Agur were Ishmaelites who had raised themselves above the religion of Abraham, and recognised the religion of Israel as its completion.

If we now return to the words of Pro 30:1, Hitzig makes Agur Lemuel's brother, for he vocalizes אגוּר בּן־יקההּ משּׂא , i.e. , Agur the son of her whom Massa obeys. Ripa and Björck of Sweden, and Stuart of America, adopt this view. But supposing that יקהּ is connected with the accusative of him who is obeyed, בן , as the representative of such an attributive clause, as of its virtual genitive, is elsewhere without example; and besides, it is unadvisable to explain away the proper name יקה , which speaks for itself. There are two other possibilities of comprehending המּשּׁא , without the change, or with the change of a single letter. Wetzstein, on Pro 31:1, has said regarding Mühlau's translation "King of Massa:""I would more cautiously translate, 'King of the Massans,' since this interpretation is unobjectionable; while, on the contrary, this is not terra Massa , nor urbs Massa . It is true that the inhabitants of Massa were not pure nomads, after 30 and 31, but probably, like the other tribes of Israel, they were half nomads, who possessed no great land as exclusive property, and whose chief place did not perhaps bear their name. The latter may then have been as rare in ancient times as it is in the present day. Neither the Sammar , the Harb , the Muntefik , nor other half nomads whom I know in the southern parts of the Syrian desert, have any place which bears their name. So also, it appears, the people of Uz ( עוץ ), which we were constrained to think of as a dominant, firmly-settled race, since it had so great a husbandman as Job, possessed no קרית עוּץ . Only in certain cases, where a tribe resided for many centuries in and around a place, does the name of this tribe appear to have remained attached to it. Thus from גוּף דּוּמה , 'the low-country of the Dumahns,' or קרית דּוּמה , 'the city of Dumahns,' as also from קרית תּימא , 'the city of the Temans,' gradually there arose (probably not till the decline and fall of this tribe) a city of Dumah , a haven of Midian , and the like, so that the primary meaning of the name came to be lost."It is clear that, from the existence of an Ishmaelite tribe משּׂא , there does not necessarily follow a similar name given to a region. The conj. ממּשּׂא , for המשּׂא ( vid ., Herzog's Encycl . xiv. 702), has this against it, that although it is good Heb., it directly leads to this conclusion ( e.g. , 2Sa 23:20, 2Sa 23:29, cf. 1Ki 17:1). Less objectionable is Bunsen's and Böttcher's המּשּׂאי . But perhaps המשׂא may also have the same signification; far rather at least this than that which Malbim, after השּׂר המשּׂא , 1Ch 15:27, introduced with the lxx ἄρχων τῶν ᾠδῶν : "We ought then to compare 2Sa 23:24, דודו בּית לחם , a connection in which, after the analogy of such Arabic connections as ḳaysu'aylana , Kais of the tribe of 'Ailân ( Ibn Coteiba , 13 and 83), or Ma'nu Ṭayyin , Ma'n of the tribe of Tay, i.e. , Ma'n belonging to this tribe, as distinguished from other men and families of this name (Schol. Hamasae 144. 3), בית לחם is thought of as genit"

(Note: In ' העם וגו , Jer 8:5, ' ירושׁ is though of as genit., although it may be also nom., after the scheme of apposition instead of annexion. That it is genit., cf. Philippi's St. Const . pp. 192-195.)

(Mühlau). That בית לחם (instead of בּית הלּחמי ) is easily changed, with Thenius and Wellhausen, after 1Ch 11:26, into מבּית לחם , and in itself it is not altogether homogeneous, because without the article. Yet it may be supposed that instead of משׂא , on account of the appelat. of the proper name (the lifting up, elatio ), the word המשׂא might be also employed. And since בן־יקה , along with אגור , forms, as it were, one compositum , and does not at all destroy

(Note: We say, in Arab., without any anomaly, e.g. , Alı̂ju -bnu -Muḥammadin Tajjiïn , i.e. , the Ali son of Muhammed, of the tribe (from the tribe) of Tay; cf. Jos 3:11; Isa 28:1; Isa 63:11; and Deu 3:13.)

the regulating force of אגור , the expression is certainly, after the Arabic usus loq ., to be thus explained: The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, of the tribe (the country) of Massa.

The second line of this verse, as it is punctuated, is to be rendered:

The saying of the man to Ithîel, to Ithîel and Uchal,

not Ukkal ; for, since Athias and van der Hooght, the incorrect form ואכּל has become current. J. H. Michaelis has the right form of the word ואכל . Thus, with כ raphatum , it is to be read after the Masora, for it adds to this word the remark לית וחסר , and counts it among the forty-eight words sometimes written defectively without ו ( vid ., this list in the Masora finalis , 27b, Col); and since it only remarks the absence of the letter lengthening the word where no dagesh follows the vocal, it thus supposes that the כ has no dagesh , as it is also found in Codd. (also Jaman .) written with the Raphe . לאיתיאל is doubly accentuated; the Tarcha represents the Metheg , after the rule Thorath Emeth , p. 11. The ל after נאם is, in the sense of the punctuation, the same dat. as in לאדני , Psa 110:1, and has an apparent right in him who asks כּי תדע in the 4th verse. Ithîel and Uchal must be, after an old opinion, sons, or disciples, or contemporaries, of Agur. Thus, e.g. , Gesenius, in his Lex . under איתיאל , where as yet his reference to Neh 11:7 is wanting. איתיאל is rendered by Jefet and other Karaites, "there is a God"= איתי אל ; but it is perhaps equivalent to אתּי אל , "God is with me;"as for אתּי rof sa ";e , the form איתי is also found. אכל ( אכל ) nowhere occurs as a proper name; but in the region of proper names, everything, or almost everything, is possible.

(Note: Vid., Wetzstein's Inschriften aus den Trachonen und dem Haurangebirge (1864), p. 336f.)

Ewald sees in 1b-14 a dialogue: in Pro 30:2-4 the הגּבר , i.e. , as the word appears to him, the rich, haughty mocker, who has worn out his life, speaks; and in Pro 30:5-14 the "steplang7 Mitmirgott "[= God with me], or, more fully, "steplang7 Mitmirgott-sobinichstark "[= God with me, so am I strong], i.e. , the pious, humble man answers. "The whole,"he remarks, "is nothing but poetical; and it is poetical also that this discourse of mockery is called an elevated strain."But (1) גּבר is a harmless word; and in נאם הגּבר , Num 24:3, Num 24:15; 2Sa 23:1, it is a solemn, earnest one; (2) a proper name, consisting of two clauses connected by Vav , no matter whether it be an actual or a symbolical name, is not capable of being authenticated; Ewald, §274b, recognises in ' גּדּלתּי וגו , 1Ch 25:4, the naming, not of one son of Heman, but of two; and (3) it would be a very forced, inferior poetry if the poet placed one half of the name in one line, and then, as if constrained to take a new breath, gave the other half of it in a second line. But, on the other hand, that איתיאל and אכל are the names of two different persons, to whom the address of the man is directed, is attested by the, in this case aimless, anadiplosis , the here unpoetical parallelism with reservation. The repetition, as Fleischer remarks, of the name Ithîel, which may rank with Uchal, as the son or disciple of Agur, has probably its reason only as this, that one placed a second more extended phrase simply along with the shorter. The case is different; but Fleischer's supposition, that the poet himself cannot have thus written, is correct. We must not strike out either of the two לאיתיאל ; but the supposed proper names must be changed as to their vocalization into a declaratory clause. A principal argument lies in Pro 30:2, beginning with כּי : this כי supposes a clause which it established; for, with right, Mühlau maintains that כי , in the affirmative sense, which, by means of aposiopesis , proceeds from the confirmative, may open the conclusion and enter as confirmatory into the middle of the discourse ( e.g. , Isa 32:13), but cannot stand abruptly at the commencement of a discourse (cf. under Isa 15:1 and Isa 7:9). But if we now ask how it is to be vocalized, there comes at the same time into the sphere of investigation the striking phrase נאם הגּבר . This phrase all the Greek interpreters attest by their rendering, τάδε λέγει ὁ ἀνήρ ( Venet . φησὶν ἀνήρ ); besides, this is to be brought forward from the wilderness of the old attempts at a translation, that the feeling of the translators strives against the recognition in ואכל of a second personal name: the Peshito omits it; the Targ. translates it, after the Midrash, by ואוּכל (I may do it); as Theodotion, καὶ δυνήσομαι , which is probably also meant by the καὶ συνήσομαι (from συνείναι , to be acquainted with) of the Venet .; the lxx with καὶ παύομαι ; and Aquila, καὶ τέλεσον (both from the verb כלה ). As an objection to נאם הגבר is this, that it is so bald without being followed, as at Num 24:3, Num 24:15; 2Sa 23:1, with the attributive description of the man. Luther was determined thereby to translate: discourse of the man Leithiel.... And why could not לאיתיאל be a proper-name connection like שׁאלתּיאל ( שׁלתּיאל )? Interpreted in the sense of "I am troubled concerning God,"is might be a symbolical name of the φιλόσοφος , as of one who strives after the knowledge of divine things with all his strength. But (1) לאה , with the accus. obj., is not established, and one is rather inclined to think of a name such as כּליתיאל , after Psa 84:3; (2) moreover, לאיתיאל cannot be at one time a personal name, and at another time a declarative sentence - one must both times transform it into לאיתי אל ; but אל has to be taken as a vocative, not as accus., as is done by J. D. Michaelis, Hitzig, Bunsen, Zöckler, and others, thus: I have wearied myself, O God!... The nakedness of הגבר is accordingly not covered by the first Leithiel . Mühlau, in his work, seeks to introduce המשׂא changed into ממשׂא : "The man from Massa,"and prefers to interpret הגבר generically:

(Note: Thus, viz., that הגבר denotes, not the man as he ought to be, but the man as he usually is (the article, as the Arabic grammarians say, "not for the exhaustion of the characteristic marks of the genus,"but for the expression of "the quality mâhîje of the genus").)

"proverb (confession) of the man ( i.e. , the man must confess): I have wearied myself, O God!..."Nothing else in reality remains. The article may also be retrospective: the man just now named, whose "words"are announced, viz., Agur. But why was not the expression נאם אגור then used? Because it is not poetical to say: "the (previously named) man."On the other hand, what follows applies so that one may understand, under הגבר , any man you choose. There are certainly among men more than too many who inquire not after God (Psa 14:2.). But there are also not wanting those who feel sorrowfully the distance between them and God. Agur introduces such a man as speaking, for he generalizes his own experience. Psa 36:2 ( vid ., under this passage) shows that a proper name does not necessarily follow נאם . With נאם הגבר Agur then introduces what the man has to confess - viz. a man earnestly devoted to God; for with נאם the ideas of that which comes from the heart and the solemnly earnest are connected. If Agur so far generalizes his own experience, the passionate anadiplosis does not disturb this. After long contemplation of the man, he must finally confess: I have troubled myself, O God! I have troubled myself, O God!... That the trouble was directed toward God is perhaps denoted by the alliteration of לאיתי with אל . But what now, further? ואכל is read as ואכל , ואכל , ואכל , ואכל , ואכל , and it has also been read as ואכל . The reading ואכל no one advocates; this that follows says the direct contrary, et potui ( pollui ). Geiger ( Urschrift , p. 61) supports the reading ואכל , for he renders it interrogatively: "I wearied myself in vain about God, I wearied myself in vain about God; why should I be able to do it?"But since one may twist any affirmative clause in this way, and from a yes make a no, one should only, in cases of extreme necessity, consent to such a question in the absence of an interrogative word. Böttcher's לאיתי אל , I have wearied myself out in vain, is not Hebrew. But at any rate the expression might be אל־אכל , if only the Vav did not stand between the words! If one might transpose the letters, then we might gain ולא אכל , according to which the lxx translates: οὐ δυνήσομαι . At all events, this despairing as to the consequence of further trouble, "I shall be able to do nothing (shall bring it to nothing),"would be better than ואכל (and I shall withdraw - become faint), for which, besides, ואכלה should be used (cf. Pro 22:8 with Job 33:21). One expects, after לאיתי , the expression of that which is the consequence of earnest and long-continued endeavour. Accordingly Hitzig reads ואכל , and I have become dull - suitable to the sense, but unsatisfactory on this account, because כּלל , in the sense of the Arab. kall , hebescere , is foreign to the Heb. usus loq . Thus ואכל will be a fut. consec . of כלה . J. D. Michaelis, and finally Böttcher, read it as fut. consec . Piel ואכל or ואכל ( vid ., regarding this form in pause under Pro 25:9), "and I have made an end;"but it is not appropriate to the inquirer here complaining, when dissatisfaction with his results had determined him to abandon his research, and let himself be no more troubled. We therefore prefer to read with Dahler, and, finally, with Mühlau and Zöckler, ואכל , and I have withdrawn. The form understood by Hitzig as a pausal form is, in the unchangeableness of its vocals, as accordant with rule as those of יחד , Pro 27:17, which lengthen the a of their first syllables in pause. And if Hitzig objects that too much is said, for one of such meditation does not depart, we answer, that if the inquiry of the man who speaks here has completed itself by the longing of his spirit and his soul (Psa 84:3; Psa 143:7), he might also say of himself, in person, כליתי or ואכל . An inquiry proceeding not merely from intellectual, but, before all, from practical necessity, is meant - the doubled לאיתי means that he applied thereto the whole strength of his inner and his outer man; and ואכל , that he nevertheless did not reach his end, but wearied himself in vain. By this explanation which we give to 1a, no change of its accents is required; but 1b has to be written:

נאם הגּבר לאיתי אל

לאיתי אל ואכל

(Note: The Munach is the transformation of Mugrash , and this sequence of accents - Tarcha , Munach , Silluk - remains the same, whether we regard אל as the accusative or as the vocative.)

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:2-3

The כי now following confirms the fruitlessness of the long zealous search:

2 For I am without reason for a man,

And a man's understanding I have not.

3 And I have not learned wisdom,

That I may possess the knowledge of the All-Holy.

He who cannot come to any fixed state of consecration, inasmuch as he is always driven more and more back from the goal he aims at, thereby brings guilt upon himself as a sinner so great, that every other man stands above him, and he is deep under them all. So here Agur finds the reason why in divine things he has failed to attain unto satisfying intelligence, not in the ignorance and inability common to all men - he appears to himself as not a man at all, but as an irrational beast, and he misses in himself the understanding which a man properly might have and ought to have. The מן of מאישׁ is not the partitive, like Isa 44:11, not the usual comparative: than any one (Böttcher), which ought to be expressed by מכּל־אישׁ , but it is the negative, as Isa 52:14; Fleischer: rudior ego sum quam ut homo appeller , or: brutus ego, hominis non similis . Regarding בּער , vid ., under Pro 12:1.

(Note: According to the Arab. בעיר is not a beast as grazing, but as dropping stercus (ba'r , camel's or sheep's droppings); to the R. בר , Mühlau rightly gives the meanings of separating, whence are derived the meanings of grazing as well as of removing (cleansing) (cf. Pers. thak karadn , to make clean = to make clean house, tabula rasa ).)

Pro 30:3 now says that he went into no school of wisdom, and for that reason in his wrestling after knowledge could attain to nothing, because the necessary conditions to this were wanting to him. But then the question arises: Why this complaint? He must first go to school in order to obtain, according to the word "To him who hath is given,"that for which he strove. Thus למדתּי refers to learning in the midst of wrestling; but למד , spiritually understood, signifies the acquiring of a steplang7 kennens [knowledge] or steplang7 könnens [knowledge = ability]: he has not brought it out from the deep point of his condition of knowledge to make wisdom his own, so that he cannot adjudge to himself knowledge of the all-holy God (for this knowledge is the kernel and the star of true wisdom). If we read 3b לא אדע , this would be synchronistic, nesciebam , with למדתי standing on the same line. On the contrary, the positive אדע subordinates itself to ולא־למדתי , as the Arab. fâa' lama , in the sense of ( ita ) ut scirem scientiam Sanctissimi , thus of a conclusion, like Lam 1:19, a clause expressive of the intention, Ewald, §347a. קדשׁים is, as at Pro 9:10, the name of God in a superlative sense, like the Arab. el -kuddûs .

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:4

4 Who hath ascended to the heavens and descended?

Who hath grasped the wind in his fists?

Who hath bound up the waters in a garment?

Who hath set right all the ends of the earth?

What is his name, and what his son's name, if thou knowest?

The first question here, ' מי וגו , is limited by Pazer ; עלה־שׁמים has Metheg in the third syllable before the tone. The second question is at least shut off by Pazer , but, contrary to the rule, that Pazer does not repeat itself in a verse; Cod. Erfurt. 2, and several older editions, have for בחפניו more correctly בחפניו with Rebia . So much for the interpunction. חפנים are properly not the two fists, for the fist - that is, the hand gathered into a ball, pugnus - is called אגרף ; while, on the contrary, חפן (in all the three dialects) denotes the palm of the hand, vola ( vid ., Lev 16:12); yet here the hands are represented after they have seized the thing as shut, and thus certainly as fists. The dual points to the dualism of the streams of air produced by the disturbance of the equilibrium; he who rules this movement has, as it were, the north or east wind in one first, and the south or west wind in the other, to let it forth according to his pleasure from this prison (Isa 24:22). The third question is explained by Job 26:8; the שׂמלה (from שׂמל , comprehendere ) is a figure of the clouds which contain the upper waters, as Job 38:37, the bottles of heaven. "All the ends of the earth"are as at five other places, e.g. , Psa 22:28, the most distant, most remote parts of the earth; the setting up of all these most remote boundaries ( margines ) of the earth is equivalent to the making fast and forming the limits to which the earth extends (Psa 74:17), the determining of the compass of the earth and the form of its figures. כּי תדע is in symphony with Job 38:5, cf. Job 38:18. The question is here formed as it is there, when Jahve brings home to the consciousness of Job human weakness and ignorance. But there are here two possible significations of the fourfold question. Either it aims at the answer: No man, but a Being highly exalted above all creatures, so that the question מה־שּׁמו [what his name?] refers to the name of this Being. Or the question is primarily meant of men: What man has the ability? - if there is one, then name him! In both cases מי עלה is not meant, after Pro 24:28, in the modal sense, quis ascenderit , but as the following ויּרד requires, in the nearest indicative sense, quis ascendit . But the choice between these two possible interpretations is very difficult. The first question is historical: Who has gone to heaven and (as a consequence, then) come down from it again? It lies nearest thus to interpret it according to the consecutio temporum . By this interpretation, and this representation of the going up before the descending again, the interrogator does not appear to think of God, but in contrast to himself, to whom the divine is transcendent, of some other man of whom the contrary is true. Is there at all, he asks, a man who can comprehend and penetrate by his power and his knowledge the heavens and the earth, the air and the water, i.e. , the nature and the inner condition of the visible and invisible world, the quantity and extent of the elements, and the like? Name to me this man, if thou knowest one, by his name, and designate him to me exactly by his family - I would turn to him to learn from him what I have hitherto striven in vain to find. But there is not such an one. Thus: as I fell myself limited in my knowledge, so there is not at all any man who can claim limitless steplang7 können and steplang7 kennen ability and knowledge. Thus casually Aben Ezra explains, and also Rashi, Arama, and others, but without holding fast to this in its purity; for in the interpretation of the question, "Who hath ascended?"the reference to Moses is mixed up with it, after the Midrash and Sohar (Parasha, ויקהל , to Exo 35:1), to pass by other obscurities and difficulties introduced. Among the moderns, this explanation, according to which all aims at the answer, "there is no man to whom this appertains,"has no exponent worth naming. And, indeed, as favourable as is the quis ascendit in coelos ac rursus descendit , so unfavourable is the quis constituit omnes terminos terrae , for this question appears not as implying that it asks after the man who has accomplished this; but the thought, according to all appearance, underlies it, that such an one must be a being without an equal, after whose name inquiry is made. One will then have to judge עלה and וירד after Gen 28:12; the ascending and descending are compared to our German "steplang7 auf und neider "up and down, for which we do not use the phrase "steplang7 nieder und auf ,"and is the expression of free, expanded, unrestrained presence in both regions; perhaps, since וירד is historical, as Psa 18:10, the speaker has the traditional origin of the creation in mind, according to which the earth arose into being earlier than the starry heavens above. Thus the four questions refer (as e.g. , also Isa 40:12) to Him who has done and who does all that, to Him who is not Himself to be comprehended as His works are, and as He shows Himself in the greatness and wonderfulness of these, must be exalted above them all, and mysterious. If the inhabitant of the earth looks up to the blue heavens streaming in the golden sunlight, or sown with the stars of night; if he considers the interchange of the seasons, and feels the sudden rising of the wind; if he sees the upper waters clothed in fleecy clouds, and yet held fast within them floating over him; if he lets his eye sweep the horizon all around him to the ends of the earth, built up upon nothing in the open world-space (Job 26:7): the conclusion comes to him that he has before him in the whole the work of an everywhere present Being, of an all-wise omnipotent Worker - it is the Being whom he has just named as אל , the absolute Power, and as the קדשׁים , exalted above all created beings, with their troubles and limitations; but this knowledge gained viâ causalitatis , viâ eminentiae , and viâ negationis , does not satisfy yet his spirit, and does not bring him so near to this Being as is to him a personal necessity, so that if he can in some measure answer the fourfold מי , yet there always presses upon him the question מה־שׁמו , what is his name, i.e. , the name which dissolves the secret of this Being above all beings, and unfolds the mystery of the wonder above all wonders. That this Being must be a person the fourfold מי presupposes; but the question, "What is his name?"expresses the longing to know the name of this supernatural personality, not any kind of name which is given to him by men, but the name which covers him, which is the appropriate personal immediate expression of his being. The further question, "And what the name of his son?"denotes, according to Hitzig, that the inquirer strives after an adequate knowledge, such as one may have of a human being. But he would not have ventured this question if he did not suppose that God was not a monas unity who was without manifoldness in Himself. The lxx translates: ἣ τί ὄνομα τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτοῦ ( בּנו ), perhaps not without the influence of the old synagogue reference testified to in the Midrash and Sohar of בנו to Israel, God's first-born; but this interpretation is opposed to the spirit of this חידה (intricate speech, enigma). Also in general the interrogator cannot seek to know what man stands in this relation of a son to the Creator of all things, for that would be an ethical question which does not accord with this metaphysical one. Geier has combined this ומה־שׁם־בנו with viii.; and that the interrogator, if he meant the חכמה , ought to have used the phrase ומה־שׁם־בּתּו , says nothing against this, for also in אמון , Pro 8:30, whether it means foster-child or artifex , workmaster, the feminine determination disappears. Not Ewald alone finds here the idea of the Logos, as the first-born Son of God, revealing itself, on which at a later time the Palestinian doctrine of מימרא דיהוה imprinted itself in Alexandria;

(Note: Vid ., Apologetik (1869), p. 432ff.)

but also J. D. Michaelis felt himself constrained to recognise here the N.T. doctrine of the Son of God announcing itself from afar. And why might not this be possible? The Rig-Veda contains two similar questions, x. 81, 4: "Which was the primeval forest, or what the tree from which one framed the heavens and the earth? Surely, ye wise men, ye ought in your souls to make inquiry whereon he stood when he raised the wind!"And i. 164, 4: "Who has seen the first-born? Where was the life, the blood, the soul of the world? Who came thither to ask this from any one who knew it?"

(Note: Cited by Lyra in Beweis des Glaubens Jahrg . 1869, p. 230. The second of these passages is thus translated by Wilson ( Rig-Veda-Sanhitá , London, 1854, vol. ii. p. 127): "Who has seen the primeval (being) at the time of his being born? What is that endowed with substance which the unsubstantial sustains? From earth are the breath and blood, but where is the soul? Who may repair to the sage to ask this?")

Jewish interpreters also interpret בנו of the causa media of the creation of the world. Arama, in his work עקדת יצחק , sect . xvi., suggests that by בנו we are to understand the primordial element, as the Sankhya-philosophy understands by the first-born there in the Rig, the Prakṛiti , i.e. , the primeval material. R. Levi b. Gerson (Ralbag) comes nearer to the truth when he explains בנו as meaning the cause caused by the supreme cause, in other words: the principium principaiatum of the creation of the world. We say: the inquirer meant the demiurgic might which went forth from God, and which waited on the Son of God as a servant in the creation of the world; the same might which in chap. 8 is called Wisdom, and is described as God's beloved Son. But with the name after which inquiry is made, the relation is as with the "more excellent name than the angels,"Heb 1:4.

(Note: The Comm . there remarks: It is the heavenly whole name of the highly exalted One, the שׁם המפורשׁ , nomen explicitum , which here on this side has entered into no human heart, and can be uttered by no human tongue, the ὄνομα ὁ οὑδεὶς οῖδεν εἰ μὴ ὁ αὐτός , Rev 19:12.)

It is manifestly not the name בן , since the inquiry is made after the name of the בן ; but the same is the case also with the name חכמה , or, since this does not harmonize, according to its grammatical gender, with the form of the question, the name דבר ( מימר ); but it is the name which belongs to the first and only-begotten Son of God, not merely according to creative analogies, but according to His true being. The inquirer would know God, the creator of the world, and His Son, the mediator in the creation of the world, according to their natures. If thou knowest, says he, turning himself to man, his equal, what the essential names of both are, tell them to me! But who can name them! The nature of the Godhead is hidden, as from the inquirer, so from every one else. On this side of eternity it is beyond the reach of human knowledge.

The solemn confession introduced by נאם is now closed. Ewald sees herein the discourse of a sceptical mocker at religion; and Elster, the discourse of a meditating doubter; in Pro 30:5, and on, the answer ought then to follow, which is given to one thus speaking: his withdrawal from the standpoint of faith in the revelation of God, and the challenge to subordinate his own speculative thinking to the authority of the word of God. But this interpretation of the statement depends on the symbolical rendering of the supposed personal names איתיאל and אכל , and, besides, the dialogue is indicated by nothing; the beginning of the answer ought to have been marked, like the beginning of that to which it is a reply. The confession, 1b-4, is not that of a man who does not find himself in the right condition, but such as one who is thirsting after God must renounce: the thought of a man does not penetrate to the essence of God (Job 11:7-9); even the ways of God remain inscrutable to man (Sir. 18:3; Rom 11:33); the Godhead remains, for our thought, in immeasurable height and depth; and though a relative knowledge of God is possible, yet the dogmatic thesis, Deum quidem cognoscimus, sed non comprehendimus , i.e. , non perfecte cognoscimus quia est infinitus ,

(Note: Vid ., Luthardt's Kimpendium der Dogmatik , §27.)

even over against the positive revelation, remains unchanged. Thus nothing is wanting to make Pro 30:1-4 a complete whole; and what follows does not belong to that section as an organic part of it.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:5-6

5 Every word of Eloah is pure;

A shield is He for those who hide themselves in Him.

6 Add thou not to His words,

Lest He convict thee and thou becomest a liar.

Although the tetrastich is an independent proverb, yet it is connected to the foregoing N^e ûm [utterance, Pro 30:1]. The more limited a man is in his knowledge of God - viz. in that which presents itself to him lumine naturae , - so much the more thankful must he be that God has revealed Himself in history, and so much the more firmly has he to hold fast by the pure word of the divine revelation. In the dependent relation of Pro 30:5 to Psa 18:31 (2Sa 22:31), and of Pro 30:6 to Deu 4:2, there is no doubt the self-testimony of God given to Israel, and recorded in the book of the Tôra , is here meant. כּל־אמרת is to be judged after πᾶσα γραφή , 2Ti 3:16, not: every declaration of God, wherever promulgated, but: every declaration within the revelation lying before us. The primary passage Psa 18:31 has not כל here, but, instead of it, לכל החסים , and instead of אמרת אלוהּ it has יהוה ' אם ; his change of the name of Jahve is also not favourable to the opinion that Pro 30:5. is a part of the N^e ûm , viz., that it is the answer thereto. The proverb in this contains traces of the Book of Job, with which in many respects that N^e ûm harmonizes; in the Book of Job, אלוהּ (with שׁדּי ) is the prevailing name of God; whereas in the Book of Proverbs it occurs only in the passage before us. Mühlau, p. 41, notes it as an Arabism. צרף (Arab. ṣaraf , to turn, to change) is the usual word for the changing process of smelting; צרוּף signifies solid, pure, i.e. , purified by separating: God's word is, without exception, like pure, massive gold. Regarding חסה , to hide oneself, vid ., under Psa 2:12;: God is a shield for those who make Him, as revealed in His word, their refuge. The part. חסה occurs, according to the Masora, three times written defectively, - Pro 14:32; 2Sa 22:31; Neh 1:7; in the passage before us it is to be written לחוסים ; the proverbs of Agur and Lemuel have frequently the plena scriptio of the part. act . Kal , as well as of the fut . Kal , common to the Book of Job ( vid ., Mühlau, p. 65).

In 6a, after Aben Ezra's Moznajim 2b (11b of Heidenheim's edition), and Zachoth 53a (cf. Lipmann's ed.), and other witnesses ( vid ., Norzi), t sp (the ף with dagesh ) is to be written, - the Cod. Jaman . and others defect . without ו , - not tôsf ; for, since תּוסף (Exo 10:28) is yet further abbreviated in this way, it necessarily loses

(Note: That both Shevas in tôsp are quiesc., vid ., Kimchi, Michlol 155 a b, who is finally decided as to this. That the word should be read tôsp^e 'al is the opinion of Chagûg in הנוח ' ס (regarding the quiesc. letters), p. 6 of the Ed. by Dukes-Ewald.)

the aspiration of the tenuis , as in ילדתּ (= ילדת ). The words of God are the announcements of His holy will, measured by His wisdom; they are then to be accepted as they are, and to be recognised and obeyed. He who adds anything to them, either by an overstraining of them or by repressing them, will not escape the righteous judgment of God: God will convict him of falsifying His word ( הוכיח , Psa 50:21; only here with ב of the obj.), and expose him as a liar - viz. by the dispensations which unmask the falsifier as such, and make manifest the falsehood of his doctrines as dangerous to souls and destructive to society. An example of this is found in the kingdom of Israel, in the destruction of which the curse of the human institution of its state religion, set up by Jeroboam, had no little share. Also the Jewish traditional law, although in itself necessary for the carrying over of the law into the praxis of private and public life, falls under the Deuteron. prohibition - which the poet here repeats - so far as it claimed for itself the same divine authority as that of the written law, and so far as it hindered obedience to the law - by the straining-at-a-gnat policy - and was hostile to piety. Or, to adduce an example of an addition more dogmatic than legal, what a fearful impulse was given to fleshly security by that overstraining of the promises in Gen 17, which were connected with circumcision by the tradition, "the circumcised come not into hell,"or by the overstraining of the prerogative attributed by Paul, Rom 9:4., to his people according to the Scriptures, in the principle, "All Israelites have a part in the future world!"Regarding the accentuation of the perf. consec . after פּן , vid ., at Psa 28:1. The penultima accent is always in pausa (cf. Pro 30:9 and Pro 30:10).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:7-9

In what now follows, the key-note struck in Pro 30:1 is continued. There follows a prayer to be kept in the truth, and to be preserved in the middle state, between poverty and riches. It is a Mashal-ode, vid ., vol. i. p. 12. By the first prayer, "vanity and lies keep far from me,"it is connected with the warning of Pro 30:6.

7 Two things I entreat from Thee,

Refuse them not to me before I die.

8 Vanity and lies keep far away from me

Poverty and riches give me not:

Cause me to eat the bread which is allotted to me,

9 Lest in satiety I deny,

And say: Who is Jahve?

And lest, in becoming poor, I steal,

And profane the name of my God.

We begin with the settlement and explanation of the traditional punctuation. A monosyllable like שׁוא receives, if Legarmeh , always Mehuppach Legarmeh , while, on the contrary, the poly-syllable אשׂבּע has Asla Legarmeh . אל־תּתּן־לי , with double Makkeph and with Gaja in the third syllable before the tone (after the Metheg - Setzung , §28), is Ben-Asher's; whereas Ben-Naphtali prefers the punctuation אל־תּתּן לי ( vid ., Baer's Genesis , p. 79, note 3). Also פּן־אשׂבּע has (cf. פּן־ישׁתּה , Pro 31:5) Makkeph , and on the antepenultima Gaja ( vid ., Thorath Emeth , p. 32). The perf. consec . וכחשׁתּי has on the ult . the disjunctive Zinnor ( Sarka ), which always stands over the final letter; but that the ult . is also to be accented, is shown by the counter-tone Metheg , which is to be given to the first syllable. Also ואמרתּי has in correct Codd., e.g. , Cod. 1294, the correct ultima toning of a perf. consec .; Kimchi in the Michlol 6b, as well as Aben Ezra in both of his Grammars, quotes only וגנבתּי ותפשׂתּי as toned on the penult . That וגנבתּי cannot be otherwise toned on account of the pausal accent, has been already remarked under 6b; the word, besides, belongs to the סף '' פתתין בא , i.e. , to those which preserve their Pathach unlengthened by one of the greater disjunctives; the Athnach has certainly in the three so-called metrical books only the disjunctive form of the Zakeph of the prose books. So much as to the form of the text.

As to its artistic form, this prayer presents itself to us as the first of the numerical proverbs, under the "Words"of Agur, who delighted in this form of proverb. The numerical proverb is a brief discourse, having a didactic end complete in itself, which by means of numerals gives prominence to that which it seeks to bring forward. There are two kinds of these. The more simple form places in the first place only one numeral, which is the sum of that which is to be brought forth separately: the numerical proverb of one cipher; to this class belong, keeping out of view the above prayer, which if it did not commence a series of numerical proverbs does not deserve this technical name on account of the low ciphers: Pro 30:24-28, with the cipher 4; Sir. 25:1 and 2, with the cipher 3. Similar to the above prayer are Job 13:20., Isa 51:19; but these are not numerical proverbs, for they are not proverbs. The more artistic kind of numerical proverb has two ciphers: the two-ciphered numerical proverb we call the sharpened (pointed) proverb. Of such two-ciphered numerical proverbs the "words"of Agur contain four, and the whole Book of Proverbs, reckoning Pro 6:16-19, five - this ascending numerical character belongs to the popular saying, 2Ki 9:32; Job 33:29; Isa 16:6, and is found bearing the stamp of the artistic distich outside of the Book of Proverbs, Psa 62:12; Job 33:14; Job 40:5; Job 5:19, and particularly Amos 1:3-2:6. According to this scheme, the introduction of Agur's prayer should be:

אחת שׁאלתּי מאתּך

וּשׁתּים אל־תּמנע ממּנּי בּטרם אמוּת

and it could take this form, for the prayer expresses two requests, but dwells exclusively on the second. A twofold request he presents to God, these two things he wishes to be assured of on this side of death; for of these he stands in need, so as to be able when he dies to look back on the life he has spent, without the reproaches of an accusing conscience. The first thing he asks is that God would keep far from him vanity and lying words. שׁוא (= שׁוא , from שׁוא = שׁאה , to be waste, after the form מות ) is either that which is confused, worthless, untrue, which comes to us from without ( e.g. , Job 31:5), or dissoluteness, hollowness, untruthfulness of disposition ( e.g. , Psa 26:4); it is not to be decided whether the suppliant is influenced by the conception thus from within or from without, since דבר־כּזב [a word of falsehood] may be said by himself as well as to him, a falsehood can intrude itself upon him. It is almost more probable that by שׁוא he thought of the misleading power of God-estranged, idolatrous thought and action; and by דבר־כזב , of lying words, with which he might be brought into sympathy, and by which he might ruin himself and others. The second petition is that God would give him neither poverty ( ראשׁ , vid ., Pro 10:4) nor riches, but grant him for his sustenance only the bread of the portion destined for him. The Hiph . הטריף (from טרף , to grind, viz., the bread with the teeth) means to give

(Note: The Venet . translates, according to Villoison, θέρψον με ; but the MS has, according to Gebhardt, θρέψον .)

anything, as טרף , with which, 31:15, נתן חק is parallel: to present a fixed piece, a definite portion of sustenance. חק , Gen 47:22, the portion assigned as nourishment; cf. Job 23:14 חקּי , the decree determined regarding me. Accordingly, חקּי לחם does not mean the bread appropriately measured out for me (like ἄρτος ἐπιούσιος , that which is required for οὐσία , subsistence), but the bread appropriate for me, determined for me according to the divine plan. Fleischer compares (Arab.) ratab and marsaum , which both in a similar way designate a fixed sustentation portion. And why does he wish to be neither poor nor rich? Because in both extremes lie moral dangers: in riches, the temptation to deny God (which ' כּחשׁ בּה signifies, in the later Heb. כּפר בּעקּר , to deny the fundamental truth; cf. (Arab.) kafar , unbelieving), whom one flowing in superabundance forgets, and of whom one in his self-indulgence desires to know nothing (Job 21:14-16; Job 22:16.); in poverty, the temptation is to steal and to blaspheme the name of God, viz., by murmuring and disputing, or even by words of blasphemy; for one who is in despair directs the outbreaks of his anger against God (Isa 8:21), and curses Him as the cause of His misfortune (Rev 16:11, Rev 16:21). The question of godless haughtiness, מי יהוח , the lxx improperly change into מי יראה , τίς με ὁρᾶ . Regarding נורשׁ , to grow poor, or rather, since only the fut. Niph . occurs in this sense, regarding יוּרשׁ , vid ., at Pro 20:13.

That the author here, by blaspheming (grasping at) the name of God, especially thinks on that which the Tôra calls "cursing ( קלּל ) God,"and particularly "blaspheming the name of the Lord,"Lev 24:15-16, is to be concluded from the two following proverbs, which begin with the catchword קלל :

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:10

10 Calumniate not a servant with his master,

Lest he curse thee, and thou must atone for it.

Incorrectly Ewald: entice not a servant to slander against his master; and Hitzig: "Make not a servant tattle regarding his master."It is true that the Poel לושׁן (to pierce with the tongue, linguâ petere ) occurs twice in the sense of to calumniate; but that הלשׁין means nothing else, is attested by the post-bibl. Hebrew; the proverb regarding schismatics ( בּרכּת המּינים ) in the Jewish Schemone-Esre (prayer of the eighteen benedictions) began with ולמלשינים , "and to the calumniators"( delatoribus ). Also in the Arab. âlsana signifies pertulit verba alicujus ad alterum , to make a babbler, rapporteur (Fleischer). That the word also here is not to be otherwise interpreted, is to be concluded from אל with the causative rendering. Rightly Symmachus, μὴ διαβάλῃς ; Theodotion, μὴ καταλαλήσῃς ; and according to the sense also, Jerome, ne accuses ; the Venet . μὴ καταμηνύσῃς (give not him); on the contrary, Luther, steplang7 verrate nicht [betray not], renders הלשׁין with the lxx, Syr. in the sense of the Aram. אשׁלם and the Arab. âslam ( tradere, prodere ). One should not secretly accuse (Psa 101:5) a servant with his master, and in that lies the character of slander ( לשׁון הרע ) when one puts suspicion upon him, or exaggerates the actual facts, and generally makes the person suspected - one thereby makes a man, whose lot in itself is not a happy one, at length and perhaps for ever unhappy, and thereby he brings a curse on himself. But it is no matter of indifference to be the object of the curse of a man whom one has unrighteously and unjustly overwhelmed in misery: such a curse is not without its influence, for it does not fruitlessly invoke the righteous retribution of God, and thus one has sorrowfully to atone for the wanton sins of the tongue (veaschāmta , for ve -aschamtá as it is would be without pause).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:11-14

There now follows a Priamel ,

(Note: Cf. vol. i. p. 13. The name (from praeambulum ) given to a peculiar form of popular gnomic poetry which prevailed in Germany from the 12th ( e.g. , the Meistersinger or Minstrel Sparvogel) to the 16th century, but was especially cultivated during the 14th and 15th centuries. Its peculiarity consisted in this, that after a series of antecedents or subjects, a briefly-expressed consequent or predicate was introduced as the epigrammatic point applicable to all these antecedents together. Vid ., Erschenburg's Denkmälern altdeutscher Dichtkinst , Bremen 1799.)

the first line of which is, by יקלל , connected with the יקללך of the preceding distich:

11 A generation that curseth their father,

And doth not bless their mother;

12 A generation pure in their own eyes,

And yet not washed from their filthiness;

13 A generation - how haughty their eyes,

And their eyelids lift themselves up;

14 A generation whose teeth are swords and their jaw teeth knives

To devour the poor from the earth and the needy from the midst of men.

Ewald translates: O generation! but that would have required the word, 13a, הדּור (Jer 2:31), and one would have expected to have found something mentioned which the generation addressed were to take heed to; but it is not so. But if "O generation!"should be equivalent to "O regarding the generation!"then הוי ought to have introduced the sentence. And if we translate, with Luther: There is a generation, etc., then ישׁ is supplied, which might drop out, but could not be omitted. The lxx inserts after ἔκγονον the word κακόν , and then renders what follows as pred. - a simple expedient, but worthless. The Venet . does not need this expedient, for it renders γενεὰ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ βλασφημέσει ; but then the order of the words in 11a would have been דור יקלל אביו ; and in 12a, after the manner of a subst. clause, דור טהור בעיניו הוא , one sees distinctly, from Pro 30:13 and Pro 30:14, that what follows דור is to be understood, not as a pred., but as an attributive clause. As little can we interpret Pro 30:14, with Löwenstein, as pred. of the three subj., "it is a generation whose teeth are swords;"that would at least have required the words דור הוא ; but Pro 30:14 is not at all a judgment valid for all the three subjects. The Targ. and Jerome translate correctly, as we above;

(Note: The Syr. begins 11a as if הוי were to be supplied.)

but by this rendering there are four subjects in the preamble, and the whole appears, since the common pred. is wanting, as a mutilated Priamel. Perhaps the author meant to say: it is such a generation that encompasses us; or: such is an abomination to Jahve; for דור is a steplang7 Gesamtheit = totality, generation of men who are bound together by contemporary existence, or homogeneity, or by both, but always a totality; so that these Pro 30:11-14, might describe quatuor detestabilia genera hominum (C. B. Michaelis), and yet one generatio , which divide among themselves these four vices, of blackest ingratitude, loathsome self-righteousness, arrogant presumption, and unmerciful covetousness. Similar is the description given in the Mishna Sota ix. 14, of the character of the age in which the Messiah appeared. "The appearance of this age,"thus it concludes, "is like the appearance of a dog; a son is not ashamed before his father; to whom will we then look for help? To our Father in heaven!"

(Note: Cf. also Ali b. Abi Tâleb's dark description, beginning with hadha alzman (this age), Zur allg. Char. der arab. Poesie (1870), p. 54f.)

The undutifulness of a child is here placed first. To curse one's parents is, after Exo 21:17, cf. Pro 20:10, a crime worthy of death; "not to bless,"is here, per litoten , of the same force as קלּל to curse. The second characteristic, Pro 30:12, is wicked blindness as to one's judgment of himself. The lxx coarsely, but not bad: τὴν δ ̓ ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἀπένιψεν . Of such darkness one says: sordes suas putat olere cinnama . רחץ is not the abbreviated part. (Stuart), as e.g. , Exo 3:2, but the finite, as e.g. , Hos 1:6.

In 13a the attributive clause forms itself, so as to express the astonishing height of arrogance, into an exclamation: a generation, how lofty are their eyes (cf. e.g. , Pro 6:17, עינים רמות )! to which, as usual, it is simply added: and his eyelids ( palpebrae ) lift themselves up; in Lat., the lifting up of the eyebrow as an expression of haughtiness is described by elatum ( superbum ) supercilium .

The fourth characteristic is insatiable covetousness, which does not spare even the poor, and preys upon them, the helpless and the defenceless: they devour them as one eats bread, Psa 14:4. The teeth, as the instruments of eating, are compared to swords and knives, as at Psa 57:4 to spears and arrows. With שׁנּיו there is interchanged, as at Job 29:17; Jon 1:6, מתלּעתיו (not ' מת , as Norzi writes, contrary to Metheg - Setzung , §37, according to which Gaja , with the servant going before, is inadmissible), transposed from מלתּעתיו , Psa 58:7, from לתע , to strike, pierce, bite. The designation of place, מארץ , "from the earth"(which also, in pausa , is not modified into מארץ ), and מאדם , "from the midst of men,"do not belong to the obj.: those who belong to the earth, to mankind ( vid ., Psa 10:18), for thus interpreted they would be useless; but to the word of action: from the earth, out from the midst of men away, so that they disappear from thence (Amo 8:4). By means of fine but cobweb combinations, Hitzig finds Amalek in this fourfold proverb. But it is a portrait of the times, like Psa 14:1-7, and certainly without any national stamp.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:15-16

With the characteristic of insatiableness Pro 30:11-14 closes, and there follows an apophthegma de quatuor insatiabilibus quae ideo comparantur cum sanguisuga (C. B. Michaelis). We translate the text here as it lies before us:

15 The ‛Alûka hath two daughters: Give! Give!

Three of these are never satisfied;

Four say not: Enough!

16 The under-world and the closing of the womb;

The earth is not satisfied with water;

And the fire saith not: Enough!

We begin with Masoretic externalities. The first ב in הב is Beth minusculum ; probably it had accidentally this diminutive form in the original MSS, to which the Midrash (cf. Sepher Taghin ed. Bargès , 1866, p. 47) has added absurd conceits. This first הב has Pasek after it, which in this case is servant to the Olewejored going before, according to the rule Thorath Emeth , p. 24, here, as at Psa 85:9, Mehuppach . The second הב , which of itself alone is the representative of Olewejored , has in Hutter, as in the Cod. Erfurt 2, and Cod. 2 of the Leipzig Public Library, the pausal punctuation הב (cf. קח , 1Sa 21:10), but which is not sufficiently attested. Instead of לא־אמרוּ , 15b, לא אמרוּ , and instead of לא־אמרה f , 16b, לא אמרה are to be written; the Zinnorith removes the Makkeph , according to Thorath Emeth , p. 9, Accentuationssystem , iv. §2. Instead of מים , 16a, only Jablonski, as Mühlau remarks, has מים ; but incorrectly, since Athnach , after Olewejored , has no pausal force ( vid ., Thorath Emeth , p. 37). All that is without any weight as to the import of the words. But the punctuation affords some little service for the setting aside of a view of Rabbenu Tam ( vid ., Tosaphoth to Aboda zara 17a, and Erubin 19a), which has been lately advocated by Löwenstein. That view is, that ‛Alûka is the name of a wise man, not Solomon's, because the Pesikta does not reckon this among the names of Solomon, nor yet a name of hell, because it is not, in the Gemara, numbered among the names of Gehinnom. Thus לעלוּקה would be a superscription, like לדוד and לשׁלמה , Psa 26:1; Psa 72:1, provided with Asla Legarmeh . But this is not possible, for the Asla Legarmeh , at Psa 26:1 and Psa 72:1, is the transformation of Olewejored , inadmissible on the first word of the verse ( Accentuationssystem , xix. §1); but no Olewejored can follow such an Asla Legarmeh , which has the force of an Olewejored , as after this לעלוקה , which the accentuation then does not regard as the author's name given as a superscription. עלוּקה is not the name of a person, and generally not a proper name, but a generic name of certain traditional signification. "One must drink no water"- says the Gemara Aboda zara 12b - "out of a river or pond, nor (immediately) with his mouth, nor by means of his hand; he who, nevertheless, does it, his blood comes on his own head, because of the danger. What danger? סכּנת עלוּקה ," i.e. , the danger of swallowing a leech. The Aram. also designates a leech by עלוּקא (cf. e.g. , Targ. Ps. 12:9: hence the godless walk about like the leech, which sucks the blood of men), and the Arab. by 'alaḳ ( n. unit . 'alaḳat ), as the word is also rendered here by the Aram. and Arab. translators. Accordingly, all the Greeks render it by βδέλλη ; Jerome, by sanguisuga (Rashi, sangsue ); also Luther's steplang7 Eigel is not the Igel erinaceus [hedgehog], but the steplang7 Egel , i.e. , as we now designate it, the steplang7 Blutegel [leech], or (less correctly) steplang7 Blutigel . עלוּקה is the fem. of the adj. עלוּק , attached to, which meaning, together with the whole verbal stem, the Arab. has preserved ( vid ., Mühlau's Mittheilung des Art. 'aluka aus dem Kamus , p. 42).

(Note: Nöldeke has remarked, with reference to Mühlau's Monographie , that ‛aluḳa , in the sense of tenacious ( tenax ), is also found in Syr. ( Geopon . xiii. 9, xli. 26), and that generally the stem עלק , to cleave, to adhere, is more common in Aram. than one would suppose. But this, however common in Arab., is by no means so in Syr.; and one may affirm that, among other Arabisms found in the Proverbs of Agur, the word ‛Alûka has decidedly an Arab. sound.)

But if, now, the ‛Alûka is the leech,

(Note: In Sanscrit the leech is called galaukas (masc.) or galaukâ (fem.), i.e. , the inhabitant of the water (from gala , water, and ôkas , dwelling). Ewald regards this as a transformation of the Semitic name.)

which are then its two daughters, to which is here given the name הב הב , and which at the same time have this cry of desire in their mouths? Grotius and others understand, by the two daughters of the leech, the two branches of its tongue; more correctly: the double-membered overlip of its sucker. C. B. Michaelis thinks that the greedy cry, "Give! Give!"is personified: voces istae concipiuntur ut hirudinis filiae, quas ex se gignat et velut mater sobolem impense diligat . But since this does not satisfy, symbolical interpretations of ‛Aluka have been resorted to. The Talmud, Aboda zara 17a, regards it as a name of hell. In this sense it is used in the language of the Pijut (synagogue poetry).

(Note: So says e.g. , Salomo ha-Babli, in a Zulath of the first Chanukka-Sabbats (beginning אין צוּר חלף ): יקדוּ כּהבהבי עלק , they burn like the flames of hell.)

If ‛Alûka is hell, then fancy has the widest room for finding an answer to the question, What are the two daughters? The Talmud supposes that רשׁות (the worldly domination) and מינות (heresy) are meant. The Church-fathers also, understanding by ‛Alûka the power of the devil, expatiated in such interpretations. Of the same character are Calmet's interpretation, that sanguisuga is a figure of the mala cupiditas , and its twin-daughters are avaritia and ambitio . The truth lying in all these is this, that here there must be some kind of symbol. But if the poet meant, by the two daughters of the ‛Alûka , two beings or things which he does not name, then he kept the best of his symbol to himself. And could he use ‛Alûka , this common name for the leech, without further intimation, in any kind of symbolical sense? The most of modern interpreters do nothing to promote the understanding of the word, for they suppose that ‛Alûka , from its nearest signification, denotes a demoniacal spirit of the character of a vampire, like the Dakinî of the Indians, which nourish themselves on human flesh; the ghouls of the Arabs and Persians, which inhabit graveyards, and kill and eat men, particularly wanderers in the desert; in regard to which it is to be remarked, that (Arab.) ‛awlaḳ is indeed a name for a demon, and that al‛aluwaḳ , according to the Kamus, is used in the sense of alghwal . Thus Dathe, Döderlein, Ziegler, Umbreit; thus also Hitzig, Ewald, and others. Mühlau, while he concurs in this understanding of the word, and now throwing open the question, Which, then, are the two daughters of the demoness ‛Alûka ? finds no answer to it in the proverb itself, and therefore accepts of the view of Ewald, since 15b-16, taken by themselves, form a fully completed whole, that the line ' לעלוקה וגו is the beginning of a numerical proverb, the end of which is wanting. We acknowledge, because of the obscurity - not possibly aimed at by the author himself - in which the two daughters remain, the fragmentary characters of the proverb of the ‛Alûka ; Stuart also does this, for he regards it as brought out of a connection in which it was intelligible - but we believe that the line ' שׁלושׁ וגו is an original formal part of this proverb. For the proverb forming, according to Mühlau's judgment, a whole rounded off:

שׁלושׁ הנה לא תשׂבענה

ארבע לא אמרו הון

שׁאול ועצר רחם

ארץ לא שׂבעה מים

ואשׁ לא אמרה הון

contains a mark which makes the original combination of these five lines improbable. Always where the third is exceeded by the fourth, the step from the third to the fourth is taken by the connecting Vav : Pro 30:18, וארבע ; Pro 30:21, ותחת ארבע ; Pro 30:29, וארבעה . We therefore conclude that ' ארבע לא וגו is the original commencement of independent proverb. This proverb is:

Four things say not: Enough!

The under-world and the closing of the womb [i.e., unfruitful womb] -

The earth is not satisfied with water,

And the fire says not: Enough!

a tetrastich more acceptable and appropriate than the Arab. proverb (Freytag, Provv . iii. p. 61, No. 347): "three things are not satisfied by three: the womb, and wood by fire, and the earth by rain;"and, on the other hand, it is remarkable to find it thus clothed in the Indian language,

(Note: That not only natural productions, but also ideas and literary productions (words, proverbs, knowledge), were conveyed from the Indians to the Semites, and from the Semites to the Indians, on the great highways by sea and land, is a fact abundantly verified. There is not in this, however, any means of determining the situation of Massa.)

as given in the Hitopadesa (p. 67 of Lassen's ed.), and in Pantschatantra, i. 153 (ed. of Kosegarten):

nâgnis tṛpjati kâshṭhânân nâpagânân mahôdadhih

nântakah sarvabhûtânân na punsân vâmalocanâh .

Fire is not sated with wood, nor the ocean with the streams,

Nor death with all the living, nor the beautiful-eyed with men.

As in the proverb of Agur the 4 falls into 2 + 2, so also in this Indian sloka . In both, fire and the realm of death (ântaka is death as the personified "end-maker") correspond; and as there the womb and the earth, so here feminarium cupiditas and the ocean. The parallelizing of ארץ and רחם is after passages such as Psa 139:15; Job 1:21 (cf. also Pro 5:16; Num 24:7; Isa 48:1); that of שׁאול and אשׁ is to be judged of

(Note: The parallelizing of רחם and שׁאול , Berachoth 15b, is not directly aimed at by the poet.)

after passages such as Deu 32:22, Isa 56:1-12 :24. That לא אמרו הון repeats itself in לא אמרה הון is now, as we render the proverb independently, much more satisfactory than if it began with ' שׁלושׁ וגו : it rounds itself off, for the end returns into the beginning. Regarding הון , vid ., Pro 1:13. From הוּן , to be light, it signifies living lightly; ease, superabundance, in that which renders life light or easy. "Used accusatively, and as an exclamation, it is equivalent to plenty! enough! It is used in the same sense in the North African Arab. brrakat (spreading out, fulness). Wetzstein remarks that in Damascus lahôn i.e. , hitherto, is used in the sense of ḥajah , enough; and that, accordingly, we may attempt to explain הון of our Heb. language in the sense of (Arab.) hawn haddah , i.e. , here the end of it!"(Mühlau).

But what do we now make of the two remaining lines of the proverb of the ‛Alûka ? The proverb also in this division of two lines is a fragment. Ewald completes it, for to the one line, of which, according to his view, the fragment consists, he adds two:

The bloodsucker has two daughters, "Hither! hither!"

Three saying, "Hither, hither, hither the blood,

The blood of the wicked child."

A proverb of this kind may stand in the O.T. alone: it sounds as if quoted from Grimm's Mährchen , and is a side-piece to Zappert's altdeutsch. Schlummerliede . Cannot the mutilation of the proverb be rectified in a less violent way without any self-made addition? If this is the case, that in Pro 30:15 and Pro 30:16, which now form one proverb, there are two melted together, only the first of which lies before us in a confused form, then this phenomenon is explained by supposing that the proverb of the ‛Alûka originally stood in this form:

The ‛Alûka has two daughters: Give! give! -

The under-world and the closing of the womb;

There are three that are never satisfied.

Thus completed, this tristich presents itself as the original side-piece of the lost tetrastich, beginning with ארבע . One might suppose that if שׁאול and עצר רחם have to be regarded as the daughters of the ‛Alûka , which Hitzig and also Zöckler have recognised, then there exists no reason for dividing the one proverb into two. Yet the taking of them as separate is necessary, for this reason, because in the fourth, into which it expands, the ‛Alûka is altogether left out of account. But in the above tristich it is taken into account, as was to be expected, as the mother with her children. This, that sheol ( שׁאול is for the most part fem.), and the womb ( רחם = רחם , which is fem., Jer 20:17) to which conception is denied, are called, on account of their greediness, the daughters of the ‛Alûka , is to be understood in the same way as when a mountain height is called, Isa 5:1, a horn of the son of oil. In the Arab., which is inexhaustibly rich in such figurative names, a man is called "a son of the clay (limi );"a thief, "a son of the night;"a nettle, "the daughter of fire."The under-world and a closed womb have the ‛Alûka nature; they are insatiable, like the leech. It is unnecessary to interpret, as Zöckler at last does, ‛Alûka as the name of a female demon, and the לילית , "daughters,"as her companions. It may be adduced in favour of this view that לעלוּקה is without the article, after the manner of a proper name. But is it really without the article? Such a doubtful case we had before us at Pro 27:23. As yet only Böttcher, §394, has entered on this difficulty of punctuation. We compare Gen 29:27, בּעבדה ; 1Ki 12:32, לעגלים ; 1Ch 13:7, בּעגלה ; and consequently also Psa 146:7, לעשׁוּקים ; thus the assimilating force of the Chateph appears here to have changed the syntactically required ל and בּ into ל and בּ . But also supposing that עלוּקה in לעלוּקה is treated as a proper name, this is explained from the circumstance that the leech is not meant here in the natural history sense of the word, but as embodied greediness, and is made a person, one individual being. Also the symbol of the two daughters is opposed to the mythological character of the ‛Alûka . The imper. הב , from יהב , occurs only here and at Dan 7:17 (= תּן ), and in the bibl. Heb. only with the intentional āh , and in inflection forms. The insatiableness of sheol (Pro 27:20) is described by Isa; Isa 5:14; and Rachel, Gen 30:1, with her "Give me children,"is an example of the greediness of the "closed-up womb"(Gen 20:18). The womb of a childless wife is meant, which, because she would have children, the nuptiae never satisfy; or also of one who, because she does not fear to become pregnant, invites to her many men, and always burns anew with lust. "In Arab. 'aluwaḳ means not only one fast bound to her husband, but, according to Wetzstein, in the whole of Syria and Palestine, the prostitute, as well as the κίναιδοι , are called 'ulak (plur. 'alwak ), because they obtrude themselves and hold fast to their victim"(Mühlau). In the third line, the three: the leech, hell, and the shut womb, are summarized: tira sunt quae non satiantur . Thus it is to be translated with Fleischer, not with Mühlau and others, tira haec non satiantur . "These three"is expressed in Heb. by שׁלשׁ־אלּה , Exo 21:11, or אלּה ( ה ) שׁלשׁת , 2Sa 21:22; הנּה (which, besides, does not signify haec , but illa ) is here, taken correctly, the pred., and represents in general the verb of being (Isa 51:19), vid ., at Pro 6:16. Zöckler finds the point of the proverb in the greediness of the unfruitful womb, and is of opinion that the poet purposely somewhat concealed this point, and gave to his proverb thereby the enhanced attraction of the ingenious. But the tetrastich ' אברע וגו shows that hell, which is compared to fire, and the unfruitful womb, to which the parched and thirsty earth is compared, were placed by the poet on one and the same line; it is otherwise with Pro 30:18-20, but where that point is nothing less than concealed.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:17

The proverb of the ‛Alûka is the first of the proverbs founded on the figure of an animal among the "words"of Agur. It is now followed by another of a similar character:

17 An eye that mocketh at his father,

And despiseth obedience to his mother:

The ravens of the brook shall pluck it out,

And the young eagles shall eat it.

If "an eye,"and not "eyes,"are spoken of here, this is accounted for by the consideration that the duality of the organ falls back against the unity of the mental activity and mental expression which it serves (cf. Psychol . p. 234). As haughtiness reveals itself (Pro 30:13) in the action of the eyes, so is the eye also the mirror of humble subordination, and also of malicious scorn which refuses reverence and subjection to father and mother. As in German the verbs [steplang7 verspotten, spotten, höhnen, hohnsprechen signifying to mock at or scorn may be used with the accus., genit., or dat., so also לעג [to deride] and בּוּז [to despise] may be connected at pleasure with either an accusative object or a dative object. Ben-Chajim, Athias, van der Hooght, and others write תּלעג ; Jablonski, Michaelis, Löwenstein, תּלעג , Mühlau, with Norzi, accurately, תּלעג , with Munach , like תּבחר , Psa 65:5; the writing of Ben-Asher

(Note: The Gaja has its reason in the Zinnor that follows, and the Munach in the syllable beginning with a moveable Sheva ; תּלעג with Scheva quiesc . must, according to rule, receive Mercha , vid ., Thorath Emeth , p. 26.)

is תּלעג , with Gaja , Chateph , and Munach . The punctuation of ליקהת is more fluctuating. The word לקהת ( e.g. , Cod. Jaman .) may remain out of view, for the Dag. dirimens in ק stands here as firmly as at Gen 49:10, cf. Psa 45:10. But it is a question whether one has to write ליקּהת with Yod quiesc . (regarding this form of writing, preferred by Ben-Naphtali, the Psalmen-Comm . under Psa 45:10, in both Edd.; Luzzatto's Gramm . §193; Baer's Genesis , p. 84, note 2; and Heidenheim's Pentateuch , with the text-crit. Comm . of Jekuthiël ha-Nakdans, under Gen 47:17; Gen 49:10), as it is found in Kimchi, Michlol 45a, and under יקה , and as also Norzi requires, or ליקּהת (as e.g. , Cod. Erfurt 1), which appears to be the form adopted by Ben-Asher, for it is attested

(Note: Kimchi is here no authority, for he contradicts himself regarding such word-forms. Thus, regarding ויללת , Jer 25:36, in Michlol 87b, and under ילל . The form also wavers between כּיתרון and כּיתרון , Ecc 2:13. The Cod. Jaman . has here the Jod always quiesc .)

as such by Jekuthiël under Gen 49:10, and also expressly as such by an old Masora-Cod. of the Erfurt Library. Löwenstein translates, "the weakness of the mother."Thus after Rashi, who refers the word to קהה , to draw together, and explains it, Gen 49:10, "collection;"but in the passage before us, understands it of the wrinkles on the countenance of the aged mother. Nachmani (Ramban) goes still further, giving to the word, at Gen 49:10, everywhere the meaning of weakness and frailty. Aben Ezra also, and Gersuni (Ralbag), do not go beyond the meaning of a drawing together; and the lxx, with the Aram., who all translate the word by senectus , have also קהה in the sense of to become dull, infirm (certainly not the Aethiopic leh^e ḳa , to become old, weak through old age). But Kimchi, whom the Venet . and Luther

(Note: Jerome translates, et qui despicit partum matris suae . To partus there separates itself to him here the signification expectatio , Gen 49:10, resting on a false combination with קוה . To think of pareo, parui, paritum (Mühlau), was not yet granted to him.)

follow, is informed by Abulwalîd, skilled in the Arab., of a better: יקהה (or יקּהה , cf. נצּרה , Psa 141:3) is the Arab. wakhat , obedience ( vid ., above יקה under 1a). If now it is said of such a haughty, insolent eye, that the ravens of the brook (cf. 1Ki 17:4) will pluck it out, and the בני־נשׁר eat it, they, the eagle's children, the unchildlike human eye: it is only the description of the fate that is before such an one, to die a violent death, and to become a prey to the fowls of heaven (cf. e.g. , Jer 16:3., and Passow's Lex . under κόραξ ); and if this threatening is not always thus literally fulfilled, yet one has not on that account to render the future optatively, with Hitzig; this is a false conclusion, from a too literal interpretation, for the threatening is only to be understood after its spirit, viz., that a fearful and a dishonourable end will come to such an one. Instead of יקּרוּה , as Mühlau reads from the Leipzig Cod., יקרוה , with Mercha (Athias and Nissel have it with Tarcha ), is to be read, for a word between Olewejored and Athnach must always contain a conjunctive accent ( Thorath Emeth , p. 51; Accentuationssystem , xviii. §9). ערבי־נחל is also irregular, and instead of it ערבי־נחל is to be written, for the reason given above under Pro 30:16 ( מים ).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:18-20

The following proverb, again a numerical proverb, begins with the eagle, mentioned in the last line of the foregoing:

18 Three things lie beyond me,

And four I understand not:

19 The way of the eagle in the heavens,

The way of a serpent over a rock,

The way of a ship on the high sea,

And the way of a man with a maid.

20 Thus is the way of the adulterous woman:

She eateth and wipeth her mouth, and saith:

I have done no iniquity.

נפלאוּ ממּנּי , as relative clause, like 15b (where Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion rightly: τρία δέ ἐστιν ἃ οὐ πλησθήσεται ), is joined to שׁלשׁה המּה . On the other hand, ארבע ( τέσσαρα , for with the Kerı̂ , conforming to 18a, ארבּעה , τέσσαρας ) has to be interpreted as object. accus. The introduction of four things that are not known is in expressions like Job 42:3; cf. Psa 139:6. The turning-point lies in the fourth; to that point the other three expressions gravitate, which have not an object in themselves, but are only as folie to the fourth. The articles wanting after הנּשׁר : they would be only the marks of the gender, and are therefore unnecessary; cf. under Pro 29:2. And while בּשּׁמים , in the heavens, and בלב־ים , in the sea, are the expressions used, עלי צוּר is used for on the rock, because here "on"is not at the same time "in,""within,"as the eagle cleaves the air and the ship the waves. For this same reason the expression, "the way of a man בּעלמה ,"is not to be understood of love unsought, suddenly taking possession of and captivating a man toward this or that maid, so that the principal thought of the proverb may be compared to the saying, "marriages are made in heaven;"but, as in Kidduschin 2b, with reference to this passage, is said coitus via appellatur . The ב refers to copula carnalis . But in what respect did his understanding not reach to this? "Wonderful,"thus Hitzig explains as the best interpreter of this opinion elsewhere (cf. Psychol . p. 115) propounded, "appeared to him the flying, and that how a large and thus heavy bird could raise itself so high in the air (Job 39:27); then how, over the smooth rock, which offers no hold, the serpent pushes itself along; finally, how the ship in the trackless waves, which present nothing to the eye as a guide, nevertheless finds its way. These three things have at the same time this in common, that they leave no trace of their pathway behind them. But of the fourth way that cannot be said; for the trace is left on the substrat , which the man דּרך , and it becomes manifest, possibly as pregnancy, keeping out of view that the עלמה may yet be בתולה . That which is wonderful is consequently only the coition itself, its mystical act and its incomprehensible consequences."But does not this interpretation carry in itself its own refutation? To the three wonderful ways which leave no traces behind them, there cannot be compared a fourth, the consequences of which are not only not trackless, but, on the contrary, become manifest as proceeding from the act in an incomprehensible way. The point of comparison is either the wonderfulness of the event or the tracklessness of its consequences. But now "the way of a man בתולה "is altogether inappropriate to designate the wonderful event of the origin of a human being. How altogether differently the Chokma expresses itself on this matter is seen from Job 10:8-12; Ecc 11:5 (cf. Psychol . p. 210). That "way of a man with a maid"denotes only the act of coition, which physiologically differs in nothing from that of the lower animals, and which in itself, in the externality of its accomplishment, the poet cannot possibly call something transcendent. And why did he use the word בעלמה , and not rather בּנקבה [with a female] or בּאשּׁה [ id .]? For this reason, because he meant the act of coition, not as a physiological event, but as a historical occurrence, as it takes place particularly in youth as the goal of love, not always reached in the divinely-appointed way. The point of comparison hence is not the secret of conception, but the tracelessness of the carnal intercourse. Now it is also clear why the way of the serpent עלי צור was in his eye: among grass, and still more in sand, the trace of the serpent's path would perhaps be visible, but not on a hard stone, over which it has glided. And it is clear why it is said of the ship בלב־ים [in the heart of the sea]: while the ship is still in sight from the land, one knows the track it follows; but who can in the heart of the sea, i.e. , on the high sea, say that here or there a ship has ploughed the water, since the water-furrows have long ago disappeared? Looking to the heavens, one cannot say that an eagle has passed there; to the rock, that a serpent has wound its way over it; to the high sea, that a ship has been steered through it; to the maid, that a man has had carnal intercourse with her. That the fact might appear on nearer investigation, although this will not always guide to a certain conclusion, is not kept in view; only the outward appearance is spoken of, the intentional concealment (Rashi) being in this case added thereto. Sins against the sixth [= seventh] commandment remain concealed from human knowledge, and are distinguished from others by this, that they shun human cognition (as the proverb says: אין אפיטרופוס לעריות , there is for sins of the flesh no ἐπίτροπος ) - unchastity can mask itself, the marks of chastity are deceitful, here only the All-seeing Eye ( עין ראה כּל , Aboth ii. 1) perceives that which is done. Yet it is not maintained that "the way of a man with a maid"refers exclusively to external intercourse; but altogether on this side the proverb gains ethical significance. Regarding עלמה (from עלם , pubes esse et caeundi cupidus , not from עלם , to conceal, and not, as Schultens derives it, from עלם , signare , to seal) as distinguished from בּתוּלה , vid ., under Isa 7:14. The mark of maidenhood belongs to עלמה not in the same way as to בתולה (cf. Gen 24:43 with 16), but only the marks of puberty and youth; the wife אשּׁה (viz., אושׁת אישׁ ) cannot as such be called עלמה . Ralbag's gloss עלמה שׁהיא בעולה is incorrect, and in Arama's explanation ( Akeda , Abschn. 9): the time is not to be determined when the sexual love of the husband to his wife flames out, ought to have been ודרך אישׁ בּאשׁתּו ne . One has therefore to suppose that Pro 30:20 explains what is meant by "the way of a man with a maid"by a strong example (for "the adulterous woman"can mean only an old adulteress), there not inclusive, for the tracklessness of sins of the flesh in their consequences.

This 20th verse does not appear to have been an original part of the numerical proverb, but is an appendix thereto (Hitzig). If we assume that כּן points forwards: thus as follows is it with the... (Fleischer), then we should hold this verse as an independent cognate proverb; but where is there a proverb (except Pro 11:19) that begins with כּן ? כן , which may mean eodem modo (for one does not say כּן גּם ) as well as eo modo , here points backwards in the former sense. Instead of וּמחתה פּיה (not פּיה ; for the attraction of that which follows, brought about by the retrogression of the tone of the first word, requires dageshing, Thorath Emeth , p. 30) the lxx has merely ἀπονιψαμένη , i.e. , as Immanuel explains: מקנּחה עצמה , abstergens semet ipsam , with Grotius, who to tergens os suum adds the remark: σεμνολογία ( honesta elocutio ). But eating is just a figure, like the "secret bread,"Pro 9:17, and the wiping of the mouth belongs to this figure. This appendix, with its כן , confirms it, that the intention of the four ways refers to the tracklessness of the consequences.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:21-23

It is now not at all necessary to rack one's brains over the grounds or the reasons of the arrangement of the following proverb ( vid ., Hitzig). There are, up to this point, two numerical proverbs which begin with שׁתּים , Pro 30:7, and שׁתּי , Pro 30:15; after the cipher 2 there then, Pro 30:18, followed the cipher 3, which is now here continued:

21 Under three things doth the earth tremble,

And under four can it not stand:

22 Under a servant when he becomes king,

And a profligate when he has bread enough;

23 Under an unloved woman when she is married,

And a maid-servant when she becomes heiress to her mistress.

We cannot say here that the 4 falls into 3 + 1; but the four consists of four ones standing beside one another. ארץ is here without pausal change, although the Athnach here, as at Pro 30:24, where the modification of sound occurs, divides the verse into two; מארץ , 14b (cf. Psa 35:2), remains, on the other hand, correctly unchanged. The "earth"stands here, as frequently, instead of the inhabitants of the earth. It trembles when one of the four persons named above comes and gains free space for acting; it feels itself oppressed as by an insufferable burden (an expression similar to Amo 7:10); - the arrangement of society is shattered; an oppressive closeness of the air, as it were, settles over all minds. The first case is already designated, Pro 19:10, as improper: under a slave, when he comes to reign ( quum rex fit ); for suppose that such an one has reached the place of government, not by the murder of the king and by the robbery of the crown, but, as is possible in an elective monarchy, by means of the dominant party of the people, he will, as a rule, seek to indemnify himself in his present highness for his former lowliness, and in the measure of his rule show himself unable to rise above his servile habits, and to pass out of the limited circle of his earlier state. The second case is this: a נבל , one whose mind is perverted and whose conduct is profligate - in short, a low man ( vid ., Pro 17:17) - ישׂבּע־לחם (cf. Metheg - Setzung , §28), i.e. , has enough to eat (cf. to the expression Pro 28:19; Jer 44:17); for this undeserved living without care and without want makes him only so much the more arrogant, and troublesome, and dangerous. The שׂנוּאה , in the second case, is not thought of as a spouse, and that, as in supposed polygamy, Gen 29:31; Deu 21:15-17, as fallen into disfavour, but who again comes to favour and honour (Dathe, Rosenmüller); for she can be שׂנואה without her own fault, and as such she is yet no גּרוּשׁה ; and it is not to be perceived why the re-assumption of such an one should shatter social order. Rightly Hitzig, and, after his example, Zöckler: an unmarried lady, an old spinster, is meant, whom no one desired because she had nothing attractive, and was only repulsive (cf. Grimm, under Sir. 7:26b). If such an one, as כּי תבעל says, at length, however, finds her husband and enters into the married relation, then she carries her head so much the higher; for she gives vent to ill-humour, strengthened by long restraint, against her subordinates; then she richly requites her earlier and happily married companions for their depreciation of her, among whom she had to suffer, as able to find no one who would love her. In the last case it is asked whether כּי־תירשׁ is meant of inheriting as an heiress (Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, the Targ., Jerome, the Venet ., and Luther), or supplanting (Euchel, Gesenius, Hitzig), i.e. , an entering into the inheritance of the dead, or an entering into the place of a living mistress. Since ירשׁ , with the accus. of the person, Gen 15:3-4, signifies to be the heir of one, and only with the accus. of peoples and lands signifies, "to take into possession (to seize) by supplanting,"the former is to be preferred; the lxx (Syr.), ὅταν ἐκβάλῃ , appear to have read כּי־תגרשׁ . This גּרשׁ would certainly be, after Gen 21:10, a piece of the world turned upside down; but also the entering, as heiress, into the inheritance, makes the maid-servant the reverse of that which she was before, and brings with it the danger that the heiress, notwithstanding her want of culture and dignity, demean herself also as heiress of the rank. Although the old Israelitish law knew only intestate succession to an inheritance, yet there also the case might arise, that where there were no natural or legal heirs, the bequest of a wife of rank passed over to her servants and nurses.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:24-28

Another proverb with the cipher 4, its first line terminating in ארץ :

24 Four are the little things of the earth,

And yet they are quick of wit - wise:

25 The ants - a people not strong,

And yet they prepare in summer their food;

26 Conies - a people not mighty,

And yet set their dwelling on the rocks;

27 No king have the locusts,

And yet they go forth in rank and file, all of them together;

28 The lizard thou canst catch with the hands,

And yet it is in the king's palaces.

By the disjunctive accent, ארבּעה , in spite of the following word toned on the beginning, retains its ultima -toning, 18a; but here, by the conjunctive accent, the tone retrogrades to the penult ., which does not elsewhere occur with this word. The connection קטנּי־ארץ is not superlat. (for it is impossible that the author could reckon the שׁפנים , conies, among the smallest of beasts), but, as in the expression נכבּדּי־ארץ , the honoured of the earth, Isa 23:8. In 24b, the lxx, Syr., Jerome, and Luther see in מ the comparative: σοφώτερα τῶν σοφῶν ( מחכמים ), but in this connection of words it could only be partitive (wise, reckoning among the wise); the part. Pual מחכּמים (Theodotion, the Venet . σεσοφισμένα ) was in use after Psa 88:6, and signified, like בּשׁל מבשּׁל , Exo 12:9, boiled well; thus חכמים מחכמים , taught wit, wise, cunning, prudent (cf. Psa 64:7, a planned plan = a cunningly wrought out plan; Isa 28:16, and Vitringa thereto: grounded = firm, grounding), Ewald, §313c. The reckoning moves in the contrasts of littleness to power, and of greatness to prudence. The unfolding of the ארבעה [four] begins with the הנּמלים [the ants] and שׁפנּים [conies], subject conceptions with apposit. joined; 26a, at least in the indetermination of the subject, cannot be a declaration. Regarding the fut. consec . as the expression, not of a causal, but of a contrasted connection, vid ., Ewald, §342, 1a. The ants are called עם , and they deserve this name, for they truly form communities with well-ordered economy; but, besides, the ancients took delight in speaking of the various classes of animals as peoples and states.

(Note: Vid ., Walter von der Vogelweide , edited by Lachmann, p. 8f.)

That which is said, 25b, as also Pro 6:8, is not to be understood of stores laid up for the winter. For the ants are torpid for the most part in winter; but certainly the summer is their time for labour, when the labourers gather together food, and feed in a truly motherly way the helpless. שׁפן , translated arbitrarily in the Venet . by ἐχῖνοι , in the lxx by χοιρογρύλλιοι , by the Syr. and Targ. here and at Ps 104 by חגס , and by Jerome by lepusculus (cf. λαγίδιον ), both of which names, here to be understood after a prevailing Jewish opinion, denote the Caninichen

(Note: The steplang7 kaninchen as well as the steplang7 klippdachs [cliff-badgers] may be meant, Lev 11:5 (Deu 14:7); neither of these belong to the bisulca , nor yet, it is true, to the ruminants, though to the ancients (as was the case also with hares) they seemed to do. The steplang7 klippdach is still, in Egypt and Syria, regarded as unclean.)

(Luther), Latin cuniculus ( κόνικλος ), is not the steplang7 kaninchen [rabbit], nor the marmot, χοιρογρύλλιος (C. B. Michaelis, Ziegler, and others); this is called in Arab. yarbuw' ; but שׁפן is the wabr , which in South Arab. is called thufun , or rather thafan , viz., the steplang7 klippdachs ( hyrax syriacus ), like the marmot, which lives in societies and dwells in the clefts of the mountains, e.g. , at the Kedron, the Dead Sea, and at Sinai ( vid ., Knobel on Lev 11:5; cf. Brehm's Thierleben , ii. p. 721ff., the Illustrirte Zeitung , 1868, Nr. 1290). The steplang7 klippdachs are a weak little people, and yet with their weakness they unite the wisdom that they establish themselves among the rocks. The ants show their wisdom in the organization of labour, here in the arranging of inaccessible dwellings.

Pro 30:27

Thirdly, the locusts belong to the class of the wise little folk: these have no king, but notwithstanding that, there is not wanting to them guidance; by the power and foresight of one sovereign will they march out as a body, חצץ , dividing, viz., themselves, not the booty (Schultens); thus: dividing themselves into companies, ordine dispositae , from חצץ , to divide, to fall into two (cogn. חצה , e.g. , Gen 32:7) or more parts; Mühlau, p. 59-64, has thoroughly investigated this whole wide range of roots. What this חצץ denotes is described in Joe 2:7 : "Like mighty men they hunt; like men of war they climb the walls; they march forward every one on his appointed way, and change not their paths."Jerome narrates from his own observation: tanto ordine ex dispositione jubentis (lxx at this passage before us: ἀφ ̓ ἑνὸς κελεύσματος εὐτάκτως ) volitant, ut instar tesserularum, quae in pavimentis artificis figuntur manu, suum locum teneant et ne puncto quidem et ut ita dicam ungue transverso declinent ad alterum . Aben Ezra and others find in חצץ the idea of gathering together in a body, and in troops, according to which also the Syr., Targ., Jerome, and Luther translate; Kimchi and Meîri gloss חצץ by חותך and כורת , and understand it of the cutting off, i.e. , the eating up, of plants and trees, which the Venet . renders by ἐκτέμνουσα .

Pro 30:28

In this verse the expression wavers in a way that is with difficulty determinable between שׂממית and שׁממית . The Edd. of Opitz Jablonski and Van der Hooght have ' שׂם , but the most, from the Venetian 1521 to Nissel, have ' שׁם ( vid ., Mühlau, p. 69). The Codd. also differ as to the reading of the word; thus the Codd. Erfurt 2 and 3 have ' שׂם , but Cod. 1294 has ' שׁם . Isaak Tschelebi and Moses Algazi, in their writings regarding words with שׁ and שׂ (Constant. 1723 and 1799), prefer ' שׂם , and so also do Mordecai Nathan in his Concordance (1563-4), David de Pomis (1587), and Norzi. An important evidence is the writing סממית , Schabbath 77b, but it is as little decisive as סריון [coat of mail], used by Jer 44:4, is decisive against the older expression שׁריון . But what kind of a beast is meant here is a question. The swallow is at once to be set aside, as the Venet . translates ( χελιδών ) after Kimchi, who explains after Abulwalîd, but not without including himself, that the Heb. word for (Arab.) khuttaf (which is still the name given to the swallow from its quickness of motion), according to Haja's testimony, is much rather סנוּנית , a name for the swallow; which also the Arab. (Freytag, ii. p. 368) and the modern Syriac confirm; besides, in old Heb. it has the name of סוּס or סיס (from Arab. shash , to fly confusedly hither and thither). In like manner the ape (Aben Ezra, Meîri, Immanuel) is to be set aside, for this is called קוף (Indian kapi , kap , kamp , to move inconstantly and quickly up and down),

(Note: Vid ., A Weber's Indische Studien , i. pp. 217, 343.)

and appears here admissible only on the ground that from בידים תתפשׂ they read that the beast had a resemblance to man. There remains now only the lizard (lxx, Jerome) and the spider (Luther) to be considered. The Talmud, Schabbath 77b, reckons five instances in which fear of the weaker pursues the stronger: one of these instances is אימת סנוניתעל הנשׁר , another אימת סממית על העקרב . The swallow, thus Rashi explains, creeps under the wings of the eagle and hinders it from spreading them out in its flight; and the spider ( araigne ) creeps into the ear of the scorpion; or also: a bruised spider applied heals the scorpion's sting. A second time the word occurs, Sanhedrin 103b, where it is said of King Amon that he burnt the Tôra , and that over the altar came a שממית (here with ש ), which Rashi explains of the spider (a spider's web). But Aruch testifies that in these two places of the Talmud the explanation is divided between ragnatelo (spider) and (Ital.) lucêrta (lizard). For the latter, he refers to Lev 11:30, where לטאה (also explained by Rashi by lézard ) in the Jerus. Targ. is rendered

(Note: The Samaritan has, Lev 11:30, שממית for אנקה , and the Syr. translates the latter word by אמקתא , which is used in the passage before us (cf. Geiger's Urschrift , p. 68f.) for שממית ; omakto (Targ. akmetha ) appears there to mean, not a spider, but a lizard.)

by שממיתא (the writing here also varies between שׁ and שׂ or ס ). Accordingly, and after the lxx and Jerome, it may be regarded as a confirmed tradition that שממית means not the spider, for which the name עכּבישׁ is coined, but the lizard, and particularly the stellion (spotted lizard). Thus the later language used it as a word still living (plur. סממיּות , Sifre , under Deu 33:19). The Arab. also confirms this name as applicable to the lizard.

(Note: Perhaps also the modern Greek, σαμιάμινθος ( σαμιάμιδος , σαμιαμίδιον ), which Grotius compares.)

"To this day in Syria and in the Desert it is called samawiyyat , probably not from poison, but from samawah = שׁממה , the wilderness, because the beast is found only in the stony heaps of the Kharab "(Mühlau after Wetzstein). If this derivation is correct, then שׁממית is to be regarded as an original Heb. expression; but the lizard's name, samm , which, without doubt, designates the animal as poisonous (cf. סם , samam , samm , vapour, poisonous breath, poison), favours Schultens' view: שממית = (Arab.) samamyyat , afflatu interficiens , or generally venenosa . In the expression בּידים תּתפּשׂ , Schultens, Gesenius, Ewald, Hitzig, Geier, and others, understand ידים of the two fore-feet of the lizard: "the lizard feels (or: seizes) with its two hands;"but granting that ידים is used of the fifteen feet of the stellio, or of the climbing feet of any other animal (lxx καλαβώτης = ἀσκαλαβώτης ), yet it is opposed by this explanation, that in line first of this fourth distich an expression regarding the smallness of the weakness of the beast is to be expected, as at 25a, 26a, and 27a. And since, besides, תפשׂ with ביד or בכף always means "to catch"or "seize"(Eze 21:16; Eze 29:7; Jer 38:23), so the sense according to that explanation is: the lizard thou canst catch with the hand, and yet it is in kings' palaces, i.e. , it is a little beast, which one can grasp with his hand, and yet it knows how to gain an entrance into palaces, by which in its nimbleness and cunning this is to be thought of, that it can scale the walls even to the summit (Aristoph. Nubes 170). To read תּתּפשׂ with Mühlau, after Böttcher, recommends itself by this, that in תּהפּשׂ one misses the suff. pointing back ( תּתפּשׂנּה ); also why the intensive of תפשׂ is used, is not rightly comprehended. Besides, the address makes the expression more animated; cf. Isa 7:25, תבוא . In the lxx as it lies before us, the two explanations spoken of are mingled together: καὶ καλαβώτης (= ἀσκαλαβώτης ) χερσὶν ἐπειδόμενος καὶ εὐάλωτος ὢν ... This εὐάλωτος ὢν (Symmachus, χερσὶν ἐλλαμβανόμενος ) hits the sense of 28a. In היכלי מלך , מלך is not the genit. of possession, as at Psa 45:9, but of description (Hitzig), as at Amo 7:13.

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:29-31

Another numerical proverb with the cipher 4 = 3 + 1:

29 Three things are of stately walk,

And four of stately going:

30 The lion, the hero among beasts,

And that turneth back before nothing;

31 The swift-loined, also the goat;

And a king with whom is the calling out of the host.

Regarding היטיב with inf . following (the segolated n. actionis צעד is of equal force with an inf .), vid ., under Pro 15:2.

(Note: In 29a, after Norzi, מיטיבי , and in 29b, מיטבי , is to be written, and this is required by the little Masora to 1Sa 25:31, the great, to Eze 33:33, and also the Erfurt little Masora to the passage before us.)

The relation of the members of the sentence in 30a is like that in 25a and 26a: subj. and apposit., which there, as here, is continued in a verbal clause which appears to us as relative. It deserves to be here remarked that לישׁ , as the name for a lion, occurs only here and at Job 4:11, and in the description of the Sinai wilderness, Isa 30:6; in Arab. it is layth , Aram. לית , and belongs to the Arameo-Arab. dialect of this language; the lxx and Syr. translate it "the young lion;"the Venet . excellently, by the epic λῖς . בּבּהמה has the article only to denote the genus, viz., of the beasts, and particularly the four-footed beasts. What is said in 30b (cf. with the expression, Job 39:22) is described in Isa 30:4. The two other beasts which distinguish themselves by their stately going are in 31a only briefly named. But we are not in the condition of the readers of this Book of Proverbs, who needed only to hear the designation זרזיר מתנים at once to know what beast was meant. Certainly זרזיר , as the name for a beast, is not altogether unknown in the post-bibl. Heb. "In the days of Rabbi Chija (the great teacher who came from Babylon to the Academy of Sepphoris), as is narrated in Bereschith rabba , sect. 65, a zarzir flew to the land of Israel, and it was brought to him with the question whether it were eatable. Go, said he, place it on the roof! Then came an Egyptian raven and lighted down beside it. See, said Chija, it is unclean, for it belongs to the genus of the ravens, which is unclean (Lev 11:15). From this circumstance there arose the proverb: The raven goes to the zarzir because it belongs to his own tribe."

(Note: This "like draws to like"in the form: "not in vain goes the raven to the zarzir , it belongs just to its own tribe,"came to be often employed, Chullin 65a, Baba Kamma 92b. Plantavitius has it, Tendlau more at large, Sprichwörter, u.s.w ., Nr. 577.)

Also the Jer. Rosch ha-schane , Halacha 3: "It is the manner of the world that one seeks to assist his zarzir , and another his zarzir , to obtain the victory;"and Midrash Echa v. 1, according to which it is the custom of the world, that one who has a large and a little zarzir in his house, is wont to treat the little one sparingly, so that in the case of the large one being killed, he might not need to buy another. According to this, the zarzir is a pugnacious animal, which also the proverb Bereschith rabba , c. 75, confirms: two zarzir do not sleep on one board; and one makes use of his for contests like cock-fights. According to this, the זרזיר is a bird, and that of the species of the raven; after Rashi, the étourneau , the starling, which is confirmed by the Arab. zurzur (vulgar Arab. zarzur ), the common name of starlings (cf. Syr. zarzizo , under zrz of Castelli). But for the passage before us, we cannot regard this as important, for why is the starling fully named זרזיר מתנים ? To this question Kimchi has already remarked that he knows no answer for it. Only, perhaps, the grave magpie ( corvus pica ), strutting with upraised tail, might be called succinctus lumbos , if מתנים can at all be used here of a bird. At the earliest, this might possibly be used of a cock, which the later Heb. named directly גּבר , because of its manly demeanour; most old translators so understand it. The lxx translates, omitting the loins, by ἀλέκτωρ ἐμπεριπατῶν θηλείαις εὔψυχος , according to which the Syr. and Targ.: like the cock which struts about proudly among the hens;

(Note: Regarding the Targum Text, vid ., Levy under אבּכא and זרכּל . The expression דּמזדּרז (who is girded, and shows himself as such) is not unsuitable.)

Aquila and Theodotion: ἀλέκτωρ ( ἀλεκτρυὼν ) νώτου ; The Quinta: ἀλέκτωρ ὀσφύος ; Jezome: gallus succinctus lumbos . Ṣarṣar (not ṣirṣir , as Hitzig vocalizes) is in Arab. a name for a cock, from ṣarṣara , to crow, an onomatopoeia. But the Heb. זרזיר , as the name of a bird, signifies, as the Talmud proves on the ground of that history, not a cock, but a bird of the raven order, whether a starling, a crow, or a magpie. And if this name of a corvinus is formed from the onomatopoeia זרזר , the weaker form of that (Arab.) ṣarṣar , then מתנים , which, for זרזיר , requires the verbal root זרז , to girdle, is not wholly appropriate; and how strangely would the three animals be mingled together, if between לישׁ and תישׁ , the two four-footed animals, a bird were placed! If, as is to be expected, the "steplang7 Lendenumgürtete "[the one girded about the loins = זרזיר מתנים ] be a four-footed animal, then it lies near, with C. B. Michaelis and Ziegler, after Ludolf's

(Note: Ludolf gave, in his Hist. Aethiop . i. 10, and Commentarius , p. 150, only a description of the Zecora , without combining therewith זרזיר ; but vid ., Joh. Dietr. Winckler's Theol. u. Philol. Abhand . i. (1755) p. 33ff.: "A nearer explanation of what is to be understood by זרזיר מתנים , Pro 30:31, along with a statement from a hitherto unpublished correspondence between the learned philologists Hiob Ludolf and Matthai Leydecker, a Reformed preacher in Batavia."With Ludolf, Joh. Simonis also, in the Arcanum Formarum (1735), p. 687f., decides in favour of the zebra.)

example, to think of the zebra, the South African wild ass. But this animal lay beyond the sphere of the author's observation, and perhaps also of his knowledge, and at the same time of that of the Israelitish readers of this Book of Proverbs; and the dark-brown cross stripes on a white ground, by which the zebra is distinguished, extend not merely to its limbs, but over the whole body, and particularly over the front of the body. It would be more tenable to think of the leopard, with its black round spots, or the tiger, with dark stripes; but the name זרזיר מתנים scarcely refers to the colour of the hair, since one has to understand it after the Aram. זרז חרציהּ = שׁנּס מתניו , 1Ki 18:46, or אחר חלציו , Job 38:3, and thus of an activity, i.e. , strength and swiftness, depending on the condition of the loins. Those who, with Kimchi, think that the נמר [leopard] is thus named, ground their view, not on this, that it has rings or stripes round its legs, but on this, that it דק מתנים וחזק במתניו . But this beast has certainly its definite name; but a fundamental supposition entering into every attempt at an explanation is this, that זרזיר מתנים , as well as לישׁ and תישׁ , is the proper name of a beast, not a descriptive attribute. Therefore the opinion of Rosse, which Bochart has skilfully established in the Hierozoicon , does not recommend itself, for he only suggests, for choice, to understand the name, "the girded about the loins,"in the proper sense of straps and clasps around and on the loins (thus e.g. , Gesenius, Fleischer, Hitzig), or of strength, in the sense of the Arab. habuwk , the firmly-bound = compact, or ṣamm alṣlab , the girded loin (thus e.g. , Muntinghe). Schultens connects together both references: Utrumque jungas licet . That the by-name fits the horse, particularly the war-horse, is undeniable; one would have to refer it, with Mühlau, to the slender structure, the thin flanks, which are reckoned among the requisites of a beautiful horse.

(Note: Vid ., Ahlwardt, Chalef elahmar's Qasside (1859), and the interpretation of the description of the horse contained therein, p. 210ff.)

But if succinctus lumbos were a by-name of a horse, why did not the author at once say סוס זרזיר מתנים ? We shall give the preference to the opinion, according to which the expression, "girt about the loins"= "with strong loins,"or "with slender limbs,"is not the by-name, but the proper name of the animal. This may be said of the hunting-hound, lévrier (according to which the Venet ., incorrectly translating מתנים : λαγῳοκύων ψοιῶν ),

(Note: Thus reads Schleusner, Opusc. Crit . p. 318, and refers it to the horse: nam solebant equos figuris quibusdam notare et quasi sigillare .)

which Kimchi ranks in the first place. Luther, by his translation, steplang7 Ein Wind = steplang7 Windhund [greyhound], of good limbs, has given the right direction to this opinion. Melanchton, Lavater, Mercier, Geier, and others, follow him; and, among the moderns, so also do Ewald and Böttcher (also Bertheau and Stuart), which latter supposes that before זרזיר מתנים there originally stood כבל , which afterwards disappeared. But why should the greyhound not at once be called זרזיר מתנים ? We call the smaller variety of this dog the steplang7 Windspiel [greyhound]; and by this name we think on a hound, without saying steplang7 Windspielhund . The name זרזיר מתנים (Symmachus excellently: περιεσφιγμένος , not περιεσφραγισμένος, τὴν ὀσφύν , i.e. , strongly bound in the limbs) is fitted at once to suggest to us this almost restless, slender animal, with its high, thin, nimble limbs. The verbal stem זרר (Arab.) zarr , signifies to press together, to knit together; the reduplicative form זרזר , to bind firmly together, whence זרזיר , firmly bound together, referred to the limbs as designating a natural property (Ewald, §158a): of straight and easily-moveable legs.

(Note: The Aram. זרז is shortened from זרזר , as כּרך from כּרכּר ; the particip. adj. זריז signifies nimble, swift, eager, e.g. , Pesachim 4a: "the zealous obey the commandment - as soon as possible hasten to fulfil it.")

The hunting-hound ( salâki or salûki , i.e. , coming from Seleucia) is celebrated by the Arab. poets as much as the hunting-horse.

(Note: Vid ., Ahlwardt, Chalef elahmar's Qasside , p. 205f.)

The name כּלב , though not superfluous, the author ought certainly to have avoided, because it does not sound well in the Heb. collocation of words.

There now follows תישׁ , a goat, and that not the ram (Jerome, Luther), which is called איל , but the he-goat, which bears this name, as Schultens has already recognised, from its pushing, as it is also called עתּוּד , as paratus ad pugnam ; the two names appear to be only provincially different; שׂעיר , on the contrary, is the old he-goat, as shaggy; and צפיר also perhaps denotes it, as Schultens supposes, with twisted, i.e. , curled hair ( tortipilus ). In Arab. tays denotes the he-goat as well as the roebuck and the gazelle, and that at full growth. The lxx (the Syr. and Targ., which is to be emended after the Syr.) is certainly right, for it understands the leading goat: καὶ τράγος ἡγούμενος αἰπολίου . The text, however, has not ותישׁ , but או תישׁ , ἢ τράγος (Aquila, Theodotion, Quinta, and the Venet .). Böttcher is astonished that Hitzig did not take hold of this או , and conjectures תּאו־תישׁ , which should mean a "gazelle-goat"(Mühlau: dorcas mas ). But it is too bold to introduce here תּאו ( תּוא ), which is only twice named in the O.T., and תאו־תישׁ for תּאו זכר is not the Heb. style; and besides, the setting aside of או has a harsh asyndeton for its consequence, which bears evidence to the appearance that תאו and תישׁ are two different animals. And is the או then so objectionable? More wonderful still must Son 2:9 appear to us. If the author enumerated the four of stately going on his fingers, he would certainly have said ותישׁ . By או he communicates to the hearer, setting before him another figure, how there in the Song Sulamith's fancy passed from one object to another.

To the lion, the king of the animal world, the king אלקוּם עמּו corresponds. This אלקום Hitzig regards as mutilated from אלהים (which was both written and pronounced as אלקום by the Jews, so as to conceal the true sound of the name of God) - which is untenable, for this reason, that this religious conclusion ["A king with whom God is"] accords badly with the secular character of this proverb. Geiger ( Urschrift , p. 62ff.) translates: "and King Alkimos corresponding to it (the lustful and daring goat)"- he makes the harmless proverb into a ludibrium from the time of the Maccabeo-Syrian war. The lxx, which the Syr. and Targ. follow, translates καὶ βασιλεὺς δημηγορῶν ἐν ἔθνει ; it appears to have changed אלקום עמו into קם אל עמו (standing with his people and haranguing them), like the Quinta: καὶ βας. ἀναστὰς ( ὃς ἀνέστη ) ἐν τῷ λαῷ αὐτοῦ . Ziegler and Böttcher also, reading עמּו and אל without any transposition, get ומלך אל־קוּם עמּו t , which the former translates: "a king with the presence of his people;"the latter, "a king with the setting up of his people,"- not accordant with the thought, for the king should be brought forward as מיטיב לכת . For the same reason, Kimchi's explanation is not suitable: a king with whom is no resistance, i.e. , against whom no one can rank himself (thus e.g. , also Immanuel); or more specially, but not better: who has no successor of his race (according to which the Venet . ἀδιάδεκτος ξὺν ἑαυτῷ ). Rather this explanation commends itself: a king with whom ( i.e. , in war with whom) is no resistance. Thus Jerome and Luther: against whom no one dare place himself; thus Rashi, Aben Ezra, Ralbag ( שׁאין תקומה עמו ), Ahron b. Josef ( קום = ἀντίστασις ), Arama, and others; thus also Schultens, Fleischer ( adversus quem nemo consistere audet ), Ewald, Bertheau, Elster, Stuart, and others. But this connection of אל with the infin. is not Heb.; and if the Chokma , xii. 28, has coined the expression אל־מות for the idea of "immortality,"then certainly it does not express the idea of resistlessness by so bold a quasi compositum . But this boldness is also there mitigated, for יהי is supplied after אל , which is not here practicable with קוּם , which is not a subst. like מות . Pocock in the Spec. historiae Arabum , and Castellus in the Lex. Heptaglotton (not Castellio, as the word is printed by Zöckler), have recognised in אלקום the Arab. âlkawm ; Schultens gives the lxx the honour of this recognition, for he regards their translation as a paraphrase of ὁ δῆμος μετ ̓ αὐτοῦ . Bertheau thinks that it ought to be in Arab. kawmuhu , but אלקום עמו = âlkawhu ma'ahu is perfectly correct, âlkawhu is the summons or the steplang7 Heerbann = arriere-ban ;

(Note: Wetzstein's Ausgewählte Inschriften , p. 355: "The word ḳawm signifies people, not in the sense of populus , but in the sense of the Heb. קים (Job 24:7) = muḳawim abrajul , he who breaks with or against any one."Incorrect in Gesenius-Dietrich's Heb. Wörterbuch .)

in North Africa they speak in their language in the same sense of the Gums . This explanation of אלקום , from the Arab. Dachselt ( rex cum satellitio suo ), Diedrichs in his Arab.-Syr. Spicilegium (1777), Umbreit, Gesenius, and Vaihinger, have recognised, and Mühlau has anew confirmed it at length. Hitzig, on the contrary, remarks that if Agur wrote on Arab. territory, we could be contented with the Arab. appellative, but not with the article, which in words like אלגּבישׁ and אלמגּים is no longer of force as an art., but is an integ. component part of the word. We think that it is with אלקום exactly as with other words descriptive of lordship, and the many similar that have passed over into the Spanish language; the word is taken over along with the article, without requiring the Heb. listener to take the art. as such, although he certainly felt it better than we do, when we say "steplang7 das Alkoran "[the Alcoran], "steplang7 das Alcohol ,"and the like. Blau also, in his Gesch. der Arab. Substantiv-Determ .,

(Note: In the "Alt-arab. Sprachstudien," Deutsch. Morgenl. Zeitschr . xxv. 539f.)

regards it as certain that Agur borrowed this אלקום from the idiom of the Arabians, among whom he lived, and heard it constantly spoken. By this explanation we first reach a correspondence between what is announced in lines first and second and line sixth. A king as such is certainly not "comely in going;"he can sit upon his throne, and especially as δημηγορῶν will he sit (Act 12:21) and not stand. But the majesty of his going shows itself when he marches at the head of those who have risen up at his summons to war. Then he is for the army what the תישׁ he-goat is for the flock. The או , preferred to ו , draws close together the רישׁ e and the king (cf. e.g. , Isa 14:9).

Keil-Delitzsch: Pro 30:32-33

Another proverb, the last of Agur's "Words"which exhorts to thoughtful, discreet demeanour, here follows the proverb of self-conscious, grave deportment:

32 If thou art foolish in that thou exaltest thyself,

Or in devising, - put thy hand to thy mouth!

33 For the pressure on milk bringeth forth butter,

And pressure on the nose bringeth forth blood,

And pressure on sensibility bringeth forth altercation.

Löwenstein translates Pro 30:32 :

Art thou despicable, it is by boasting;

Art thou prudent, then hold thy hand on thy mouth.

But if זמם denotes reflection and deliberation, then נבל , as its opposite, denotes unreflecting, foolish conduct. Then בּהתנשּׂא ne by boasting is not to be regarded as a consequent (thus it happens by lifting thyself up; or: it is connected with boasting); by this construction also, אם־נבלתּ must be accented with Dechi , not with Tarcha . Otherwise Euchel:

Hast thou become offensive through pride,

Or seems it so to thee, - lay thy hand to thy mouth.

The thought is appropriate,

(Note: Yet the Talmud, Nidda 27a, derives another moral rule from this proverb, for it interprets זמם in the sense of זמם = חסם , to tie up, to bridle, to shut up, but אם נבלת in the sense of "if thou hast made thyself despicable,"as Löwenstein has done.)

but נבלתּ for נבּלתּ is more than improbable; נבל , thus absolutely taken in an ethical connection, is certainly related to נבל , as כּסל , Jer 10:8, to כּסיל . The prevailing mode of explanation is adopted by Fleischer: si stulta arrogantia elatus fueris et si quid durius ( in alios ) mente conceperis, manum ori impone ; i.e. , if thou arrogantly, and with offensive words, wilt strive with others, then keep thyself back, and say not what thou hast in thy mind. But while מזמּה and מזמּות denote intrigues, Pro 14:17, as well as plans and considerations, זמם has never by itself alone the sense of meditari mala ; at Psa 37:12, also with ל of the object at which the evil devices aim. Then for ואם ... אם (Arab. ân ... wân ) there is the supposition of a correlative relation, as e.g. , 1Ki 20:18; Ecc 11:3, by which at the same time זמּות is obviously thought of as a contrast to נבלתּ . This contrast excludes

(Note: The Arab. signification, to become proud, is a nüance of the primary signification, to hold erect - viz. the head - as when the rider draws up the head of a camel by means of the halter (Arab. zamam ).)

for זמות not only the sense of mala moliri (thus e.g. , also Mühlau), but also the sense of the Arab. zamm , superbire (Schultens). Hitzig has the right determination of the relation of the members of the sentence and the ideas: if thou art irrational in ebullition of temper and in thought - thy hand to thy mouth! But התנשּׂא has neither here nor elsewhere the meaning of התעבּר (to be out of oneself with anger); it signifies everywhere to elevate or exalt oneself, i.e. , rightly or wrongly to make much of oneself. There are cases where a man, who raises himself above others, appears as a fool, and indeed acts foolishly; but there are also other cases, when the despised has a reason and an object for vindicating his superiority, his repute, his just claim: when, as we say, he places himself in his right position, and assumes importance; the poet here recommends, to the one as well as to the other, silence. The rule that silence is gold has its exceptions, but here also it is held valid as a rule. Luther and others interpret the perfecta as looking back: "hast thou become a fool and ascended too high and intended evil, then lay thy hand on thy mouth."But the reason in Pro 30:33 does not accord with this rendering, for when that has been done, the occasion for hatred is already given; but the proverb designs to warn against the stirring up of hatred by the reclaiming of personal pretensions. The perfecta , therefore, are to be interpreted as at Deu 32:29; Job 9:15, as the expression of the abstract present; or better, as at Job 9:16, as the expression of the fut. exactum : if thou wouldest have acted foolishly, since thou walkest proudly, or if thou hadst (before) thought of it (Aquila, Theodotion: καὶ ἐὰν ἐννοηθῇς ) - the hand on thy mouth, i.e. , let it alone, be silent rather (expression as Pro 11:24; Jdg 18:19; Job 40:4). The Venet . best: εἴπερ ἐμώρανας ἐν τῷ ἐπαίρεσθαι καὶ εἴπερ ἐλογίσω, χεὶρ τῷ στόματι . When we have now interpreted התנשׂא , not of the rising up of anger, we do not also, with Hitzig, interpret the dual of the two snorting noses - viz. of the double anger, that of him who provokes to anger, and that of him who is made angry - but אפּים denotes the two nostrils of one and the same person, and, figuratively, snorting or anger. Pressure against the nose is designated ומיץ־אף , ἐκμύζησις ( ἐκπίεσις ) μυκτῆρος (write ומיץ־אף , with Metheg , with the long tone, after Metheg - Setzung , §11, 9, 12), and מיץ אפּים , ἐκμύζησις θυμοῦ (Theodotion), with reference to the proper meaning of אפים , pressure to anger, i.e. , to the stirring up and strengthening of anger. The nose of him who raises himself up comes into view, in so far as, with such self-estimation, sneering, snuffling scorn ( μυκτηρίζειν ) easily connects itself; but this view of מתנשׂא is not here spoken of.

Constable: Pro 30:1--31:31

V. TWO DISCOURSES BY OTHER WISE MEN chs. 30--31

Chapters 30 and 31 form a distinct section in Proverbs because neither Solomon (1:1-22:16; chs. 25-29) nor the unnamed sages (22:17-24:34) wrote them. Two other wise men whose names the text records did. Some expositors speculate that because these men's discourses occur at the end of the book the writers probably lived later than the men of Hezekiah.¹⁹⁷ Nevertheless who Agur and Lemuel were, as well as when and where they lived, remain mysteries.

Constable: Pro 30:1-33

A. The Wisdom of Agur ch. 30

The most distinctive features of Agur's proverbs are his numerical style of grouping similar items, his picturesque speech, and a unique phrase he used. This phrase, "There are three things . . . even four," occurs with minor changes five times (vv. 15, 18, 21, 24, 29; cf. vv. 11-14).

"The purpose of such a device may be simply to indicate that the list is not exhaustive, though specific (see Amos 1:3, 6). Or the purpose may be to emphasize the fourth item on the list."¹⁹⁸

Constable: Pro 30:1

1. The introduction of Agur 30:1

Scripture does not refer to either Agur or his father (or ancestor) Jakeh elsewhere. At least one writer felt he may have been a contemporary of Solomon.¹⁹⁹ An "oracle" is a weighty message from God (cf. Zech. 9:1), or the Hebrew word, massa, may refer to a place.²⁰⁰ Ithiel and Ucal (the only university mentioned in Scripture) may have been Agur's sons.

Constable: Pro 30:2-9

2. Wisdom about God 30:2-9

Agur began with three declarations. The subject of each is God.

30:2-4 Behind this ironical section one can perhaps imagine Agur's sons claiming to be wiser than their father. Agur confessed his own limited understanding while at the same time making it clear that those he addressed knew no more than he did.

If wisdom is essentially a proper orientation to God, how could Agur say he had not learned wisdom but he knew God (v. 3)? In view of the context (vv. 2, 4) he probably meant that he had not reached a high level of wisdom. "Wisdom" in Proverbs means understanding as well as godliness (e.g., 1:1b; 2:2; et al.). Agur humbly regarded his own discernment as limited, but he did not claim to be a fool.

The only Person who meets Agur's qualifications in verse 5 is God (cf. Job 38-41; Prov. 8:24-29). He is the only One with perfect understanding. "What is His name?" implies, "Do you fully understand Him?" In the ancient world knowledge of a god's name implied understanding of his characteristics, power over him, and closeness to him. The question about His Son's name evidently means, "Has He imparted His nature or attributes to any other who may in any sense be called His Son?"²⁰¹ In the fullness of time God sent His Son to reveal His character and nature more completely than anyone had known them previously (Heb. 1:1-2).

30:5-6 Agur treasured the revelation that God had given. "Tested" means "smelted," purified (cf. Ps. 12:6). It was trustworthy. Agur regarded the aim of revelation to be the promotion of trust in God, not just knowledge (v. 5b). Adding to God's revelation is a serious offense (v. 6; cf. Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18).

30:7-9 Agur asked God not to lead him into temptation (Matt. 6:13). He had more concern for his purity before God than about his place among men. Poverty and wealth both bring with them certain temptations that the middle-class citizen does not face, at least as strongly. Abundance tempts us to feel unrealistically self-sufficient (cf. Deut. 8:11-14; John 15:5). Need tempts us to stop trusting God and resort to acts that harm others.

Constable: Pro 30:10-33

3. Wisdom about life 30:10-33

Though his view of and awareness of God are very much behind what Agur said in the rest of this chapter, his counsel deals primarily with practical prudence from this point on.

30:10 It is unwise to meddle in the domestic affairs of other people. The case in point in this couplet is falsely accusing a slave to his master. Probably "he" (v. 10b) refers to the master. The slave might never discover that someone had slandered him. It is more likely that the master would investigate the charge and discover it false.

30:11-14 Agur sketched four verbal pictures and simply placed them side by side in these verses to illustrate the folly of arrogance. He had demonstrated humility himself (vv. 2-4, 7-9). Each thing listed begins with dor ("generation") meaning a class or group of people (cf. Matt. 11:16).²⁰²

30:15-16 Here the warning is against greediness.

"Give! Give!' [v. 15] can be taken as the names--with more pointed wit than as the cries--of these identical twins, who are made of the same stuff as their mother--other people's blood."²⁰³

Greediness is not just silly (v. 15), it is dangerous ("Sheol" and "fire," v. 16) and pathetic (being childless and parched, v. 16).

30:17 Disrespect for one's parents is as bad as arrogance and greed. Agur's graphic descriptions visualize the terrible consequences of this folly. Whereas we should obey our parents as long as we live under their authority, we should honor them all our lives. We should do so simply because they have given us physical life if for no other reason. This proverb warns that severe punishment awaits those who disrespect their parents.

30:18-19 These four "ways" (Heb. derek) have several things in common that make each of them remarkable. All are mysterious (inexplicable), non-traceable, effective in their element, and aggressive. "The way of a man with a maid" refers to the courting process. The point of these four snapshots seems to be that in view of remarkable phenomena such as these arrogance is absurd and humility only reasonable (cf. Job 38-41).

30:20 The mention of the woman in verse 19 seems to have triggered this pigtail comment about another unexplainable phenomenon. That is how some women can commit adultery as easily as and without any more remorse than they can eat a meal. The sage could have said the same of some men.

30:21-23 These are four more pictures of arrogant folly. One writer saw Adolf Hitler as an example of the kind of servant who became a king that the writer envisioned (v. 22a).²⁰⁴

30:24-28 In contrast to the arrogant, here are four examples of humble creatures functioning as God created them to, each remarkably effective and successful. Animals (vv. 24-28) are sometimes wiser than humans (vv. 21-23). The small are often more effective than the large. The basic contrast, however, is between humility and arrogance.

30:29-31 To keep us from concluding that little is always better than big (in view of vv. 24-28) Agur produced four more illustrations of stately noble behavior. He showed the balance between groundless pride (cf. vv. 21-23) and false humility (cf. vv. 24-28). These stately things demonstrate that proper bearing in life comes neither from exalting nor from depreciating oneself. It comes from functioning as God created one to function (i.e., to be oneself, sincere).

30:32-33 These verses call for personal application of this counsel if necessary. Peaceable behavior manifests humility, the key virtue in this chapter.

". . . the intent of this concluding advice is to strive for peace and harmony through humility and righteousness."²⁰⁵

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Lainnya

Evidence: Pro 30:1-2

This is the foundational key to learning. See 1Co 1:21 ; 1Co 3:18 .

Evidence: Pro 30:4

His name is " I AM" and His Son’s name is Jesus Christ. See Psa 2:12 .

Evidence: Pro 30:5

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God ( 2Ti 3:16 ), and is His complete revelation to mankind. Many religions accept the words of Scripture, but consider them to be only part of the truth. Those who have added anything to God's Holy Word are in great error.

QUESTIONS & OBJECTIONS

" The fact that there are so many versions proves that the Bible has mistakes. Which one is right?"

True, there are many different versions of the Bible. There are versions in Chinese for the Chinese. There are versions in Russian for the Russian people. There are actually thousands of versions of the Bible—some are in modern languages, some in foreign languages, and some are in old English. Few, in the printing age, can claim that they don’t have access to the Scriptures in their own language. However, each translation is based on the original biblical texts. See Psa 119:105 footnote.

Evidence: Pro 30:11-12

What better description do we have of this lawless generation? By transgressing the Fifth Commandment, it reaps the fearful consequences of disobedience and fails to receive the promise given in Eph 6:1-3 . Because they have been left without the light of the Moral Law, they consider themselves pure and have therefore become a law unto themselves.

Evidence: Pro 30:15-16

Perhaps one more can be added to this list of those who never say " It is enough"—the money-hungry television preacher. See 2Pe 2:1-3 .

Evidence: Pro 30:20

Some people seem to have no conscience . In truth, they have a seared conscience (see 1Ti 4:2 )—one that has become so hardened that it has lost its ability to function. A correct use of the Law will resurrect it. When you speak directly to the conscience of a hardened sinner by saying, " You know that it’s wrong to steal, to lie, to commit adultery, etc.," the conscience affirms the truth of the Commandment. See Rom 2:15 .

Evidence: Pro 30:25-28

Here are four virtues needed to be an effective witness: initiative ( 1Co 15:58 ); wisdom ( Mat 7:24 ); unity ( Phi 1:27 ); and persistence ( Act 4:18-20 ).

Pendahuluan / Garis Besar

JFB: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

THE NATURE AND USE OF PROVERBS.--A proverb is a pithy sentence, concisely expressing some well-established truth susceptible of various illustrations and applications. The word is of Latin derivation, literally meaning for a word, speech, or discourse; that is, one expression for many. The Hebrew word for "proverb" (mashal) means a "comparison." Many suppose it was used, because the form or matter of the proverb, or both, involved the idea of comparison. Most of the proverbs are in couplets or triplets, or some modifications of them, the members of which correspond in structure and length, as if arranged to be compared one with another. They illustrate the varieties of parallelism, a distinguishing feature of Hebrew poetry. Compare Introduction to Poetical Books. Many also clearly involve the idea of comparison in the sentiments expressed (compare Pro 12:1-10; Pro 25:10-15; Pro 26:1-9). Sometimes, however, the designed omission of one member of the comparison, exercising the reader's sagacity or study for its supply, presents the proverb as a "riddle" or "dark saying" (compare Pro. 30:15-33; Pro 1:6; Psa 49:4). The sententious form of expression, which thus became a marked feature of the proverbial style, was also adopted for continuous discourse, even when not always preserving traces of comparison, either in form or matter (compare Pro. 1:1-9:18). In Eze 17:1; Eze 24:3, we find the same word properly translated "parable," to designate an illustrative discourse. Then the Greek translators have used a word, parabola ("parable"), which the gospel writers (except John) employ for our Lord's discourses of the same character, and which also seems to involve the idea of comparison, though that may not be its primary meaning. It might seem, therefore, that the proverbial and parabolic styles of writing were originally and essentially the same. The proverb is a "concentrated parable, and the parable an extension of the proverb by a full illustration." The proverb is thus the moral or theme of a parable, which sometimes precedes it, as in Mat 19:30 (compare Pro 20:1); or succeeds it, as in Mat. 22:1-16; Luk 15:1-10. The style being poetical, and adapted to the expression of a high order of poetical sentiment, such as prophecy, we find the same term used to designate such compositions (compare Num 23:7; Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6).

Though the Hebrews used the same term for proverb and parable, the Greek employs two, though the sacred writers have not always appeared to recognize a distinction. The term for proverb is, paroimia, which the Greek translators employ for the title of this book, evidently with special reference to the later definition of a proverb, as a trite, sententious form of speech, which appears to be the best meaning of the term. John uses the same term to designate our Saviour's instructions, in view of their characteristic obscurity (compare Pro 16:25-29, Greek), and even for his illustrative discourses (Pro 10:6), whose sense was not at once obvious to all his hearers. This form of instruction was well adapted to aid the learner. The parallel structure of sentences, the repetition, contrast, or comparison of thought, were all calculated to facilitate the efforts of memory; and precepts of practical wisdom which, extended into logical discourses, might have failed to make abiding impressions by reason of their length or complicated character, were thus compressed into pithy, and, for the most part, very plain statements. Such a mode of instruction has distinguished the written or traditional literature of all nations, and was, and still is, peculiarly current in the East.

In this book, however, we are supplied with a proverbial wisdom commended by the seal of divine inspiration. God has condescended to become our teacher on the practical affairs belonging to all the relations of life. He has adapted His instruction to the plain and unlettered, and presented, in this striking and impressive method, the great principles of duty to Him and to our fellow men. To the prime motive of all right conduct, the fear of God, are added all lawful and subordinate incentives, such as honor, interest, love, fear, and natural affection. Besides the terror excited by an apprehension of God's justly provoked judgments, we are warned against evil-doing by the exhibition of the inevitable temporal results of impiety, injustice, profligacy, idleness, laziness, indolence, drunkenness, and debauchery. To the rewards of true piety which follow in eternity, are promised the peace, security, love, and approbation of the good, and the comforts of a clear conscience, which render this life truly happy.

INSPIRATION AND AUTHORSHIP.--With no important exception, Jewish and Christian writers have received this book as the inspired production of Solomon. It is the first book of the Bible prefaced by the name of the author. The New Testament abounds with citations from the Proverbs. Its intrinsic excellence commends it to us as the production of a higher authority than the apocryphal writings, such as Wisdom or Ecclesiasticus. Solomon lived five hundred years before the "seven wise men" of Greece, and seven hundred before the age of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It is thus very evident, whatever theory of his sources of knowledge be adopted, that he did not draw upon any heathen repositories with which we are acquainted. It is far more probable, that by the various migrations, captivities, and dispersions of the Jews, heathen philosophers drew from this inspired fountain many of those streams which continue to refresh mankind amid the otherwise barren and parched deserts of profane literature.

As, however, the Psalms are ascribed to David, because he was the leading author, so the ascription of this book to Solomon is entirely consistent with the titles of the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters, which assign those chapters to Agur and Lemuel respectively. Of these persons we know nothing. This is not the place for discussing the various speculations respecting them. By a slight change of reading some propose to translate Pro 30:1 : "The words of Agur, the son of her who was obeyed Massa," that is, "the queen of Massa"; and Pro 31:1 : "The words of Lemuel, king of Massa"; but to this the earliest versions are contradictory, and nothing other than the strongest exegetical necessity ought to be allowed to justify a departure from a well-established reading and version when nothing useful to our knowledge is gained. It is better to confess ignorance than indulge in useless conjectures.

It is probable that out of the "three thousand proverbs" (1Ki 4:32) which Solomon spoke, he selected and edited Pro. 1:1-24:34 during his life. Pro. 25:1-29:27 were also of his production, and copied out in the days of Hezekiah, by his "men," perhaps the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah. Such a work was evidently in the spirit of this pious monarch, who set his heart so fully on a reformation of God's worship. Learned men have endeavored to establish the theory that Solomon himself was only a collector; or that the other parts of the book, as these chapters, were also selections by later hands; but the reasons adduced to maintain these views have never appeared so satisfactory as to change the usual opinions on the subject, which have the sanction of the most ancient and reliable authorities.

DIVISIONS OF THE BOOK.--Such a work is, of course, not susceptible of any logical analysis. There are, however, some well-defined marks of division, so that very generally the book is divided into five or six parts.

1. The first contains nine chapters, in which are discussed and enforced by illustration, admonition, and encouragement the principles and blessings of wisdom, and the pernicious schemes and practices of sinful persons. These chapters are introductory. With few specimens of the proper proverb, they are distinguished by its conciseness and terseness. The sentences follow very strictly the form of parallelism, and generally of the synonymous species, only forty of the synthetic and four (Pro 3:32-35) of the antithetic appearing. The style is ornate, the figures bolder and fuller, and the illustrations more striking and extended.

2. The antithetic and synthetic parallelism to the exclusion of the synonymous distinguish Pro. 10:1-22:16, and the verses are entirely unconnected, each containing a complete sense in itself.

3. Pro. 22:16-24:34 present a series of admonitions as if addressed to a pupil, and generally each topic occupies two or more verses.

4. Pro. 25:1-29:27 are entitled to be regarded as a distinct portion, for the reason given above as to its origin. The style is very much mixed; of the peculiarities, compare parts two and three.

5. Pro. 30:1-33 is peculiar not only for its authorship, but as a specimen of the kind of proverb which has been described as "dark sayings" or "riddles."

6. To a few pregnant but concise admonitions, suitable for a king, is added a most inimitable portraiture of female character. In both parts five and six the distinctive peculiarity of the original proverbial style gives place to the modifications already mentioned as marking a later composition, though both retain the concise and nervous method of stating truth, equally valuable for its deep impression and permanent retention by the memory.

TSK: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

The wisdom of all ages, from the highest antiquity, has chosen to compress and communicate its lessons in short, compendious sentences, and in poetic language, which were readily conceived and easily retained, and circulated in society as useful principles, to be unfolded as occasion required. Indeed, such short maxims, comprehending much instruction in a few words, and carrying their own evidence with them, are admirably adapted to direct the conduct, without overburdening the memory, or perplexing the mind with abstract reasonings; and hence there are, in all countries and in all languages, old proverbs, or common sayings, which have great authority and influence on the opinions and actions of mankind. Such maxims, however, want their proper basis, the sanction of a Divine Original; and being generally the mere result of worldly prudence, are often calculated to impose on the judgment, and to mislead those who are directed by them. But the proverbs in this book not only are far more ancient than any others extant in the world, and infinitely surpass all the ethical sayings of the ancient sages; but have also received a Divine imprimatur, and are infallible rules to direct our conduct in every circumstance of human life. They are so justly founded on the principles of human nature, and so adapted to the permanent interests of man, that they agree with the manners of every age; and are adapted to every period, condition, or rank in life, however varied in its complexion or diversified by circumstance. Kings and subjects, rich and poor, wise and foolish, old and young, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, masters and servants, may here learn their respective duties, and read lessons of instruction for the regulation of their conduct in their various circumstances; while the most powerful motives, derived from honour, interest, love, fear, natural affection, and piety, are exhibited to inspire an ardent love of wisdom and virtue, and the greatest detestation of ignorance and vice. These maxims are laid down so clearly, copiously, impressively, and in such variety, that every man who wishes to be instructed may take what he chooses, and, among multitudes, those which he likes best. " He is wise," say St. Basil, " not only who hath arrived at a complete habit of wisdom, but who hath made some progress towards it; nay, who doth as yet but love it, or desire it, and listen to it. Such as these, by reading this book, shall be made wiser; for they shall be instructed in much divine, and in no less human learning....It bridles the injurious tongue, corrects the wanton eye, and ties the unjust hand in chains. It persecutes sloth, chastises all absurd desires, teaches prudence, raises man’s courage, and represents temperance and chastity after such a fashion that one cannot but have them in veneration."

TSK: Proverbs 30 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

Overview

Pro 30:1, Agur’s confession of his faith; Pro 30:7, The two points of his prayer; Pro 30:10, The meanest are not to be wronged; Pro 30:11, Four wicked generations; Pro 30:15, Four things insatiable; Pro 30:17, Parents are not to be despised; Pro 30:18, Four things hard to be known; Pro 30:21, Four things intolerable; Pro 30:24, Four things exceeding wise; Pro 30:29, Four things stately; Pro 30:32, Wrath is to be prevented.

Poole: Proverbs 30 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

CHAPTER 30

Agur’ s prophecy, Pro 30:1 ; wherein he acknowledgeth his own ignorance, Pro 30:2,3 . The purity of God’ s word, with the happiness of them that trust in him, Pro 30:5 . He dehorts from adding to the Scriptures, by the danger of it, Pro 30:6 . The two points of his prayer, with their reason, Pro 30:7-9 . Four wicked generations, Pro 30:10-14 . Four things insatiable, Pro 30:15,16 . Parents not to be despised, Pro 30:17 . Four things hard to be known, Pro 30:18,19 . The way of an adulterous woman, Pro 30:20 . Four things intolerable, Pro 30:21-23 . Four things little, but wise, Pro 30:24-28 . Four things stately, Pro 30:29-31 .

MHCC: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

The subject of this book may be thus stated by an enlargement on the opening verses. 1. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. 2. Which treat of the knowledge of wisdom, of piety towards God, of instruction and moral discipline, of the understanding wise and prudent counsels. 3. Which treat of the attainment of instruction in wisdom, which wisdom is to be shown in the conduct of life, and consists in righteousness with regard to our fellow-creatures. 4. Which treat of the giving to the simple sagacity to discover what is right, by supplying them with just principles, and correct views of virtue and vice; and to the young man knowledge, so that he need not err through ignorance; and discretion, so that by pondering well these precepts, he may not err through obstinacy. Take the proverbs of other nations, and we shall find great numbers founded upon selfishness, cunning, pride, injustice, national contempt, and animosities. The principles of the Proverbs of Solomon are piety, charity, justice, benevolence, and true prudence. Their universal purity proves that they are the word of God.

Matthew Henry: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of The Proverbs

We have now before us, I. A new author, or penman rather, or pen (if you will) made use of by the Holy Ghost for making known the mind of God to us, writing as moved by the finger of God (so the Spirit of God is called), and that is Solomon; through his hand came this book of Scripture and the two that follow it, Ecclesiastes and Canticles, a sermon and a song. Some think he wrote Canticles when he was very young, Proverbs in the midst of his days, and Ecclesiastes when he was old. In the title of his song he only writes himself Solomon, perhaps because he wrote it before his accession to the throne, being filled with the Holy Ghost when he was young. In the title of his Proverbs he writes himself the son of David, king of Israel, for then he ruled over all Israel. In the title of his Ecclesiastes he writes himself the son of David, king of Jerusalem, because then perhaps his influence had grown less upon the distant tribes, and he confined himself very much in Jerusalem. Concerning this author we may observe, 1. That he was a king, and a king's son. The penmen of scripture, hitherto, were most of them men of the first rank in the world, as Moses and Joshua, Samuel and David, and now Solomon; but, after him, the inspired writers were generally poor prophets, men of no figure in the world, because that dispensation was approaching in the which God would choose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty and the poor should be employed to evangelize. Solomon was a very rich king, and his dominions were very large, a king of the first magnitude, and yet he addicted himself to the study of divine things, and was a prophet and a prophet's son. It is no disparagement to the greatest princes and potentates in the world to instruct those about them in religion and the laws of it. 2. That he was one whom God endued with extraordinary measures of wisdom and knowledge, in answer to his prayers at his accession to the throne. His prayer was exemplary: Give me a wise and an understanding heart; the answer to it was encouraging: he had what he desired and all other things were added to him. Now here we find what good use he made of the wisdom God gave him; he not only governed himself and his kingdom with it, but he gave rules of wisdom to others also, and transmitted them to posterity. Thus must we trade with the talents with which we are entrusted, according as they are. 3. That he was one who had his faults, and in his latter end turned aside from those good ways of God which in this book he had directed others in. We have the story of it 1 Kings 11, and a sad story it is, that the penman of such a book as this should apostatize as he did. Tell it not in Gath. But let those who are most eminently useful take warning by this not to be proud or secure; and let us all learn not to think the worse of good instructions though we have them from those who do not themselves altogether live up to them.

II. A new way of writing, in which divine wisdom is taught us by Proverbs, or short sentences, which contain their whole design within themselves and are not connected with one another. We have had divine laws, histories, and songs, and how divine proverbs; such various methods has Infinite Wisdom used for our instruction, that, no stone being left unturned to do us good, we may be inexcusable if we perish in our folly. Teaching by proverbs was, 1. An ancient way of teaching. It was the most ancient way among the Greeks; each of the seven wise men of Greece had some one saying that he valued himself upon, and that made him famous. These sentences were inscribed on pillars, and had in great veneration as that which was said to come down from heaven. A coelo descendit, Gnōthi seauton - Know thyself is a precept which came down from heaven. 2. It was a plain and easy way of teaching, which cost neither the teachers nor the learners much pains, nor put their understandings nor their memories to the stretch. Long periods, and arguments far-fetched, must be laboured both by him that frames them and by him that would understand them, while a proverb, which carries both its sense and its evidence in a little compass, is quickly apprehended and subscribed to, and is easily retained. Both David's devotions and Solomon's instructions are sententious, which may recommend that way of expression to those who minister about holy things, both in praying and preaching. 3. It was a very profitable way of teaching, and served admirably well to answer the end. The word Mashal, here used for a proverb, comes from a word that signifies to rule or have dominion, because of the commanding power and influence which wise and weighty sayings have upon the children of men; he that teaches by them dominatur in concionibus - rules his auditory. It is easy to observe how the world is governed by proverbs. As saith the proverb of the ancients (1Sa 24:13), or (as we commonly express it) As the old saying is, goes very far with most men in forming their notions and fixing their resolves. Much of the wisdom of the ancients has been handed down to posterity by proverbs; and some think we may judge of the temper and character of a nation by the complexion of its vulgar proverbs. Proverbs in conversation are like axious in philosophy, maxims in law, and postulata in the mathematics, which nobody disputes, but every one endeavours to expound so as to have them on his side. Yet there are many corrupt proverbs, which tend to debauch men's minds and harden them in sin. The devil has his proverbs, and the world and the flesh have their proverbs, which reflect reproach on God and religion (as Eze 12:22; Eze 18:2), to guard us against the corrupt influences of which God has his proverbs, which are all wise and good, and tend to make us so. These proverbs of Solomon were not merely a collection of the wise sayings that had been formerly delivered, as some have imagined, but were the dictates of the Spirit of God in Solomon. The very first of them (Pro 1:7) agrees with what God said to man in the beginning (Job 28:28, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ); so that though Solomon was great, and his name may serve as much as any man's to recommend his writings, yet, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. It is God, by Solomon, that here speaks to us: I say, to us; for these proverbs were written for our learning, and, when Solomon speaks to his son, the exhortation is said to speak to us as unto children, Heb 12:5. And, as we have no book so useful to us in our devotions as David's psalms, so have we none so serviceable to us, for the right ordering of our conversations, as Solomon's proverbs, which as David says of the commandments, are exceedingly broad, containing, in a little compass, a complete body of divine ethics, politics, and economics, exposing every vice, recommending every virtue, and suggesting rules for the government of ourselves in every relation and condition, and every turn of the conversation. The learned bishop Hall has drawn up a system of moral philosophy out of Solomon's Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The first nine chapters of this book are reckoned as a preface, by way of exhortation to the study and practice of wisdom's rules, and caution against those things that would hinder therein. We have then the first volume of Solomon's proverbs (ch. 10-24); after that a second volume (ch. 25-29); and then Agur's prophecy (ch. 30), and Lemuel's (ch. 31). The scope of all is one and the same, to direct us so to order our conversation aright as that in the end we may see the salvation of the Lord. The best comment on these rules is to be ruled by them.

Topical Index of Proverbs

Twenty chapters of the book of Proverbs (beginning with ch. 10 and ending with ch. 29), consisting mostly of entire sentences in each verse, could not well be reduced to proper heads, and the contents of them gathered; I have therefore here put the contents of all these chapters together, which perhaps may be of some use to those who desire to see at once all that is said of any one head in these chapters. Some of the verses, perhaps, I have not put under the same heads that another would have put them under, but the most of them fall (I hope) naturally enough to the places I have assigned them.

1. Of the comfort, or grief, parents have in their children, according as they are wise or foolish, godly or ungodly, Pro 10:1; Pro 15:20; Pro 17:21, Pro 17:25; Pro 19:13, Pro 19:26; Pro 23:15, Pro 23:16, Pro 23:24, Pro 23:25; Pro 27:11; Pro 29:3

2. Of the world's insufficiency, and religion's sufficiency, to make us happy (Pro 10:2, Pro 10:3; Pro 11:4) and the preference to be therefore given to the gains of virtue above those of this world, Pro 15:16, Pro 15:17; Pro 16:8, Pro 16:16; Pro 17:1; Pro 19:1; Pro 28:6, Pro 28:11

3. Of slothfulness and diligence, Pro 10:4, Pro 10:26; Pro 12:11, Pro 12:24, Pro 12:27; Pro 13:4, Pro 13:23; Pro 15:19; Pro 16:26; Pro 18:9; Pro 19:15, Pro 19:24; Pro 20:4, Pro 20:13; Pro 21:5, Pro 21:25, Pro 21:26; Pro 22:13, Pro 22:29; Pro 24:30-34; Pro 26:13-16; Pro 27:18, Pro 27:23, Pro 27:27; Pro 28:19. Particularly the improving or neglecting opportunities, Pro 6:6; Pro 10:5

4. The happiness of the righteous, and the misery of the wicked, Pro 10:6, Pro 10:9, Pro 10:16, Pro 10:24, Pro 10:25, Pro 10:27-30; Pro 11:3, Pro 11:5-8, Pro 11:18-21, Pro 11:31; Pro 12:2, Pro 12:3, Pro 12:7, Pro 12:13, Pro 12:14, Pro 12:21, Pro 12:26, Pro 12:28; Pro 13:6, Pro 13:9, Pro 13:14 15, 21, 22, 25; Pro 14:11, Pro 14:14, Pro 14:19, Pro 14:32; Pro 15:6, Pro 15:8, Pro 15:9, Pro 15:24, Pro 15:26, Pro 15:29; Pro 20:7; Pro 21:12, Pro 21:15, Pro 21:16, Pro 21:18, Pro 21:21; Pro 22:12; Pro 28:10, Pro 28:18; Pro 29:6

5. Of honour and dishonour, Pro 10:7; Pro 12:8, Pro 12:9; Pro 18:3; Pro 26:1; Pro 27:21. And of vain-glory, Pro 25:14, Pro 25:27; Pro 27:2

6. The wisdom of obedience, and folly of disobedience, Pro 10:8, Pro 10:17; Pro 12:1, Pro 12:15; Pro 13:1, Pro 13:13, Pro 13:18; Pro 15:5, Pro 15:10, Pro 15:12, Pro 15:31, Pro 15:32; Pro 19:16; Pro 28:4, Pro 28:7, Pro 28:9

7. Of mischievousness and usefulness, Pro 10:10, Pro 10:23; Pro 11:9-11, Pro 11:23, Pro 11:27; Pro 12:5, Pro 12:6, Pro 12:12, Pro 12:18, Pro 12:20; Pro 13:2; Pro 14:22; Pro 16:29, Pro 16:30; Pro 17:11; Pro 21:10; Pro 24:8; Pro 26:23, Pro 26:27

8. The praise of wise and good discourse, and the hurt and shame of an ungoverned tongue, Pro 10:11, Pro 10:13, Pro 10:14, Pro 10:20, Pro 10:21, Pro 10:31, Pro 10:32; Pro 11:30; Pro 14:3; Pro 15:2, Pro 15:4, Pro 15:7, Pro 15:23, Pro 15:28; Pro 16:20, Pro 16:23, Pro 16:24; Pro 17:7; Pro 18:4, Pro 18:7, Pro 18:20, Pro 18:21; Pro 20:15; Pro 21:23; Pro 23:9; Pro 24:26; Pro 25:11

9. Of love and hatred, peaceableness and contention, Pro 10:12; Pro 15:17; Pro 17:1, Pro 17:9, Pro 17:14, Pro 17:19; Pro 18:6, Pro 18:17-19; Pro 20:3; Pro 25:8; Pro 26:17, Pro 26:21; Pro 29:9

10. Of the rich and poor, Pro 10:5, Pro 10:22; Pro 11:28; Pro 13:7, Pro 13:8; Pro 14:20, Pro 14:24; Pro 18:11, Pro 18:23; Pro 19:1, Pro 19:4, Pro 19:7, Pro 19:22; Pro 22:2, Pro 22:7; Pro 28:6, Pro 28:11; Pro 29:13

11. Of lying, fraud, and dissimulation, and of truth and sincerity, Pro 10:18; Pro 12:17, Pro 12:19, Pro 12:22; Pro 13:5; Pro 17:4; Pro 20:14, Pro 20:17; Pro 26:18, Pro 26:19, Pro 26:24-26, Pro 26:28

12. Of slandering, Pro 10:18; Pro 16:27; Pro 25:23

13. Of talkativeness and silence, Pro 10:19; Pro 11:12; Pro 12:23; Pro 13:3; Pro 17:27, Pro 17:28; Pro 29:11, Pro 29:20

14. Of justice and injustice, Pro 11:1; Pro 13:16; Pro 16:8, Pro 16:11; Pro 17:15, Pro 17:26; Pro 18:5; Pro 20:10, Pro 20:23; Pro 22:28; Pro 23:10, Pro 23:11; Pro 29:24

15. Of pride and humility, Pro 11:2; Pro 13:10; Pro 15:25, Pro 15:33; Pro 16:5, Pro 16:18, Pro 16:19; Pro 18:12; Pro 21:4; Pro 25:6, Pro 25:7; Pro 28:25; Pro 29:23

16. Of despising and respecting others, Pro 11:12; Pro 14:21

17. Of tale-bearing, Pro 11:13; Pro 16:28; Pro 18:8; Pro 20:19; Pro 26:20, Pro 26:22

18. Of rashness and deliberation, Pro 11:14; Pro 15:22; Pro 18:13; Pro 19:2; Pro 20:5, Pro 20:18; Pro 21:29; Pro 22:3; Pro 25:8-10

19. Of suretiship, Pro 11:15; Pro 17:18; Pro 20:16; Pro 22:26, Pro 22:27; Pro 27:13

20. Of good and bad women, or wives, Pro 11:16, Pro 11:22; Pro 12:4; Pro 14:1; Pro 18:22; Pro 19:13, Pro 19:14; Pro 21:9, Pro 21:19; Pro 25:24; Pro 27:15, Pro 27:16

21. Of mercifulness and unmercifulness, Pro 11:17; Pro 12:10; Pro 14:21; Pro 19:17; Pro 21:13

22. Of charity to the poor, and uncharitableness, Pro 11:24-26; Pro 14:31; Pro 17:5; Pro 22:9, Pro 22:16, Pro 22:22, Pro 22:23; Pro 28:27; Pro 29:7

23. Of covetousness and contentment, Pro 11:29; Pro 15:16, Pro 15:17, Pro 15:27; Pro 23:4, Pro 23:5

24. Of anger and meekness, Pro 12:16; Pro 14:17, Pro 14:29; Pro 15:1, Pro 15:18; Pro 16:32; Pro 17:12, Pro 17:26; Pro 19:11, Pro 19:19; Pro 22:24, Pro 22:25; Pro 25:15, Pro 25:28; Pro 26:21; Pro 29:22

25. Of melancholy and cheerfulness, Pro 12:25; Pro 14:10, Pro 14:13; Pro 15:13, Pro 15:15; Pro 17:22; Pro 18:14; Pro 25:20, Pro 25:25

26. Of hope and expectation, Pro 13:12, Pro 13:19

27. Of prudence and foolishness, Pro 13:16; Pro 14:8, Pro 14:18, Pro 14:33; Pro 15:14, Pro 15:21; Pro 16:21, Pro 16:22; Pro 17:24; Pro 18:2, Pro 18:15; Pro 24:3-7; Pro 7:27; Pro 26:6-11; Pro 28:5

28. Of treachery and fidelity, Pro 13:17; Pro 25:13, Pro 25:19

29. Of good and bad company, Pro 13:20; Pro 14:7; Pro 28:7; Pro 29:3

30. Of the education of children, Pro 13:24; Pro 19:18; Pro 20:11; Pro 22:6, Pro 22:15; Pro 23:12; Pro 14:14; Pro 29:15, Pro 29:17

31. Of the fear of the Lord, Pro 14:2, Pro 14:26, Pro 14:27; Pro 15:16, Pro 15:33; Pro 16:6; Pro 19:23; Pro 22:4; Pro 23:17, Pro 23:18

32. Of true and false witness-bearing, Pro 14:5, Pro 14:25; Pro 19:5, Pro 19:9, Pro 19:28; Pro 21:28; Pro 24:28; Pro 25:18

33. Of scorners, Pro 14:6, Pro 14:9; Pro 21:24; Pro 22:10; Pro 24:9; Pro 29:9

34. Of credulity and caution, Pro 14:15, Pro 14:16; Pro 27:12

35. Of kings and their subjects, Pro 14:28, Pro 14:34, Pro 14:35; Pro 16:10, Pro 16:12-15; Pro 19:6, Pro 19:12; Pro 20:2, Pro 20:8, Pro 20:26, Pro 20:28; Pro 22:11; Pro 24:23-25; Pro 30:2-5; Pro 28:2, Pro 28:3, Pro 28:15, Pro 28:16; Pro 29:5, Pro 29:12, Pro 29:14, Pro 29:26

36. Of envy, especially envying sinners, Pro 14:30; Pro 23:17, Pro 23:18; Pro 24:1, Pro 24:2, Pro 24:19, Pro 24:20; Pro 27:4

37. Of God's omniscience, and his universal providence, Pro 15:3, Pro 15:11; Pro 16:1, Pro 16:4, Pro 16:9, Pro 16:33; Pro 17:3; Pro 19:21; Pro 20:12, Pro 20:24; Pro 21:1, Pro 21:30, Pro 21:31; Pro 29:26

38. Of a good and ill name, Pro 15:30; Pro 22:1

39. Of men's good opinion of themselves, Pro 14:12; Pro 16:2, Pro 16:25; Pro 20:6; Pro 21:2; Pro 26:12; Pro 28:26

40. Of devotion towards God, and dependence on him, Pro 16:3; Pro 18:10; Pro 23:26; Pro 27:1; Pro 28:25; Pro 29:25

41. Of the happiness of God's favour, Pro 16:7; Pro 29:26

42. Excitements to get wisdom, Pro 16:16; Pro 18:1; Pro 19:8, Pro 19:20; Pro 22:17-21; Pro 23:15, Pro 23:16, Pro 23:22-25; Pro 24:13, Pro 24:14; Pro 27:11

43. Cautions against temptations, Pro 16:17; Pro 29:27

44. Of old age and youth, Pro 16:31; Pro 17:6; Pro 20:29

45. Of servants, Pro 17:2; Pro 19:10; Pro 29:19, Pro 29:21

46. Of bribery, Pro 17:8, Pro 17:23; Pro 18:16; Pro 21:14; Pro 28:21

47. Of reproof and correction, Pro 17:10; Pro 19:25, Pro 19:29; Pro 20:30; Pro 21:11; Pro 25:12; Pro 26:3; Pro 27:5, Pro 27:6, Pro 27:22; Pro 28:23; Pro 29:1

48. Of ingratitude, Pro 17:13

49. Of friendship, Pro 17:17; Pro 18:24; Pro 27:9, Pro 27:10, Pro 27:14, Pro 27:17

50. Of sensual pleasures, Pro 21:17; Pro 23:1-3, Pro 23:6-8, Pro 23:19-21; Pro 27:7

51. Of drunkenness, Pro 20:1; Pro 23:23, Pro 23:29-35

52. Of the universal corruption of nature, Pro 20:9

53. Of flattery, Pro 20:19; Pro 26:28; Pro 28:23; Pro 29:5

54. Of undutiful children, Pro 20:20; Pro 28:24

55. Of the short continuance of what is ill-gotten, Pro 20:21; Pro 21:6, Pro 21:7; Pro 22:8; Pro 28:8

56. Of revenge, Pro 20:22; Pro 24:17, Pro 24:18, Pro 24:29

57. Of sacrilege, Pro 20:25

58. Of conscience, Pro 20:27; Pro 27:19

59. Of the preference of moral duties before ceremonial, Pro 15:8; Pro 21:3, Pro 21:27

60. Of prodigality and wastefulness, Pro 21:20

61. The triumphs of wisdom and godliness, Pro 21:22; Pro 24:15, Pro 24:16

62. Of frowardness and tractableness, Pro 22:5

63. Of uncleanness, Pro 22:14; Pro 23:27, Pro 23:28

64. Of fainting in affliction, Pro 24:10

65. Of helping the distressed, Pro 14:11, Pro 14:12

66. Of loyalty to the government, Pro 24:21, Pro 24:22

67. Of forgiving enemies, Pro 25:21, Pro 25:22

68. Of causeless curse, Pro 26:2

69. Of answering fools, Pro 26:4, Pro 26:5

70. Of unsettledness and unsatisfiedness, Pro 27:8, Pro 27:20

71. Of cowardliness and courage, Pro 28:1

72. The people's interest in the character of their rulers, Pro 28:12, Pro 28:28; Pro 29:2, Pro 29:16; Pro 11:10, Pro 11:11

73. The benefit of repentance and holy fear, Pro 28:13, Pro 28:14

74. The punishment of murder, Pro 28:17

75. Of hastening to be rich, Pro 28:20, Pro 28:22

76. The enmity of the wicked against the godly, Pro 29:10, Pro 29:27

77. The necessity of the means of grace, Pro 29:18

Matthew Henry: Proverbs 30 (Pendahuluan Pasal)

This and the following chapter are an appendix to Solomon's proverbs; but they are both expressly called prophecies in the first verses of both, by which it appears that the penmen of them, whoever they were, were divinely inspired. This chapter was penned by one that bears the name of " Agur Ben Jakeh." What tribe he was of, or when he lived, we are not told; what he wrote, being indited by the Holy Ghost, is here kept upon record. We have here, I. His confession of faith (Pro 30:1-6). II. His prayer (Pro 30:7-9). III. A caution against wronging servants (Pro 30:10). IV. Four wicked generations (Pro 30:11-14). V. Four things insatiable (Pro 30:15, Pro 30:16), to which is added fair warning to undutiful children (Pro 30:17). VI. Four things unsearchable (Pro 30:18-20). VII. Four things intolerable (Pro 30:21-23). VIII. Four things little and wise (Pro 30:24-28). IX. Four things stately (Pro 30:29 to the end).

Constable: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

Introduction

Title

The title of this book in the Hebrew Bible is "The Proverbs of Solomon, the Son of David, King in Israel" (cf. 1:1). The Greek Septuagint called this book "Proverbs of Solomon." The Latin Vulgate named it "The Book of Proverbs."

There is some debate about whether 1:1 is the title of the whole book or just the title of the first section (chs. 1-9). The first view has in its favor the fact that the Hebrew Bible took the verse as the title of the book. According to this view the references to Solomon in 1:1 are an indication that he was the primary author of the proverbs in the book.¹

The second view is that 1:1 simply introduces the first major section of the book. The support for this view is that some succeeding sections begin with a similar caption (cf. 10:1; 24:23; 25:1; 30:1; 31:1).²

In either case the book got its title from the proverbs it contains. The whole book is a book of proverbs so the title is appropriate.

"To read straight through a few chapters of Proverbs is like trying to have a conversation with someone who always replies with a one-liner."³

Writer

Proverbs claims to be a compendium of the wise sayings of several different individuals.⁴ Solomon originated some of them (10:1-22:16 and chs. 25-29 definitely, and probably chs. 1-9 as well).⁵ Unnamed wise men (sages) wrote other parts (22:17-24:34 definitely, and possibly chs. 1-9). Hezekiah's men copied some of Solomon's proverbs and added them to this collection (chs. 25-29). Agur and King Lemuel produced chapters 30 and 31 respectively.

We do not know who the sages were who wrote 22:17-24:34 nor do we know the names of the men whom King Hezekiah instructed to compile some of Solomon's sayings. Agur and Lemuel are unknown to us also, though Lemuel seems to have been a non-Israelite monarch.⁶

Some of the proverbs appear to have been copied from, or at least influenced by, earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian books of wisdom.⁷

". . . whatever the Spirit of God inspired the ancient writers to include became a part of the Word of the Lord. Such inclusions then took on a new and greater meaning when they formed part of Scripture; in a word, they became authoritative and binding, part of the communication of the divine will."⁸

Date

Solomon reigned from 971 to 931 B.C. and Hezekiah from 715 to 686 B.C.⁹ We do not know when the sages, Agur, or Lemuel lived.

The earliest the Book of Proverbs could have been in its final form was in Hezekiah's day, but it may have reached this stage later than that. We have no way to tell.

The contents of the book could have been in existence in Solomon's lifetime though not assembled into the collection we know as the Book of Proverbs.

Message¹⁰

The Book of Proverbs contains no history. It is purely didactic. It is a book of explicit instruction. Like the other Old Testament wisdom books, Job and Ecclesiastes, it does not contain references to Israel's laws, rituals, sacrifices, or ceremonies. It deals with philosophy primarily. A philosopher is by definition a lover of wisdom. Proverbs is a book that focuses primarily on wisdom, as do Job and Ecclesiastes. In this sense these books are philosophical.

There is a fundamental difference between the philosophy we find in these books and all other philosophy. Other philosophies begin with a question. Hebrew philosophy begins with an affirmation. Its basic affirmation is that God exists. Therefore we can know ultimate truth only by divine revelation.

To many people the Book of Proverbs seems to be a grab bag of wise sayings that lacks any system or order. Nevertheless in a sense this is the most carefully organized of all the books of the Old Testament.

The first verse is its title page. Verses 2-7 are its preface that contains an explanation of the purpose of the book, the method of the Author, and the fundamental affirmation of the book (in v. 7). Then follow three parts of the body of the book. First, there are discourses in defense and application of the fundamental affirmation (1:8--ch. 9). Then we have proverbs Solomon collected and arranged to provide wisdom (chs. 10-24). Next there are additional wise words from Solomon that other people collected after Solomon died (chs. 25-29). An appendix that contains specific words of wisdom by two other sages, Agur and Lemuel, concludes the book (chs. 30-31).

Proverbs is one of the most timeless Old Testament books. The reader needs very little knowledge of ancient Hebrew life and culture to understand and appreciate it. We can understand the contents fairly easily and can apply them directly to modern life.

Let's look first at the fundamental affirmation and then observe how the application of that declaration unfolds in the chapters that follow.

The fundamental affirmation is the deepest insight in Hebrew philosophy (1:7).

There is a presupposition in this statement. It is that God is all wise. We can only find wisdom in God ultimately. This presupposition underlies all of what we read in Job and Ecclesiastes as well as in Proverbs. Furthermore the Hebrews assumed that God expressed His wisdom in all His works and in all His ways. They believed that all natural phenomena revealed God's wisdom. Wherever they looked, they saw God: on land, at sea, in the earth, or in the sky. We can see that viewpoint clearly in Genesis 1:1 (cf. John 14:6).

This fundamental affirmation also contains an inevitable deduction: if wisdom is perfect in God, then wisdom in man consists in the fear of God. A person is wise to the extent that he or she apprehends and fears God. The "fear" of God does not mean a dread that results in hiding from God. It is rather an emotional recognition of God. It is not fear that He may hurt me but fear that I may hurt Him. That is the kind of fear that produces holy character and righteous conduct. Intellectual apprehension of God precedes this emotional recognition, and volitional submission to God's will follows it. When a person comes to this emotional recognition of God he or she comes to the condition for being wise, not that in so doing he or she becomes wise (1:7). We can begin to be wise only when we come into proper relation to God as ultimate Wisdom.

Beginning with 1:8 and continuing to the end of the book, what we have is the application of that affirmation to the various situations and circumstances of life.

I would like to consider what God revealed here in the three spheres of life dealt with in the book: the home, friendship, and the world. In the home, the child must learn wisdom. In friendship, the youth must apply wisdom. In the world, the adult must demonstrate wisdom.

The first sphere is that of the home (1:8-9). God did not teach the responsibility of the father and mother here but took for granted that they would instruct their children. The child needs to hear parental instruction to live in the fear of the Lord. Young children cannot grasp abstract concepts. For them God is incarnate in father and mother. Fathers and mothers reflect the image of God to their children. Both parents are necessary to reveal God to the child fully. Children see some of God's character in the mother's attitudes and actions (cf. Matt. 23:37). They see other aspects of God's character in the father. You do not have to try to teach your young child systematic theology. Just live in the fear of God yourself, and your child will learn what he or she needs to learn about God, for that stage in life, just by observing you. I do not mean to exclude verbal instruction. My point is that young children learn wisdom by observing their parents as well as by listening to them.

The second sphere of life is friendship (1:10-19). The day must come when the child, in the natural process of development, moves out into a wider circle of experience.

Personally I believe the Bible presents two duties that children have to their parents.

When the child's sphere of life is his home, he is to obey his parents. However, that duty does not continue forever. When he moves into the larger sphere of life outside the home, his duty is to honor his parents. This duty does continue forever.

When a child enters this second sphere of life, guided at first by parental council but then finally on its own, wisdom gives important instruction (1:10). He should avoid certain friendships. He should beware of people who seek to make friends with him because they have selfish interests and unscrupulous methods. We have many warnings in Proverbs against people who are not true friends. There is no more important stage in a young person's development than when he or she begins to choose companions. Then, and from then on, he or she must follow the wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord. The youth must submit to the Lord's wisdom, having learned that in the sphere of the home, to succeed in the larger arenas of life. The choice of a mate is one of these companion decisions.

The third sphere of life is the world, symbolized in Proverbs by the street, the gates, and the city (1:20-33; cf. chs. 2-9).

The first word of warning to the youth who leaves home to enter the world on his own is this. Beware of the evil way of those who do not fear the Lord (1:20-32). There is also a gracious promise (1:33). Wisdom does not say withdraw from the world. Wisdom says remember the fate of those who forget God. Wisdom promises that those who live in the fear of the Lord will be quiet and safe even in the turmoil of the world. Do you see how important preparation for living in this sphere of life is? Children must learn to take God into account in the home, and then in their friendships, before they launch out into the world. This instruction is what really prepares them for life.

The series of discourses beginning, "My son," represents the voice of home sounding in the youth's ears who has left home and is living in the world (chs. 2-7). The father tells his son how his father instructed him in wisdom and how this enabled him to live successfully in the world. Then specific warnings follow concerning impurity, laziness, bad companions, and adultery. As the young man climbs toward a higher position in life, wisdom comes to him again with instruction concerning how he can avoid the pitfalls of that stage of his life (ch. 8). The discourses close with a contrast in which Solomon personified wisdom and folly as two women (ch. 9). One is a woman of virtue and beauty, and the other is a woman of vice and ugliness. Solomon contrasted the value and victory of wisdom with the disaster and defeat of folly. He contrasted the wisdom of fearing God with the folly of forgetting God.

I would summarize the message of Proverbs this way. The person who learns the fear of God (an emotional recognition of God) in every sphere of life will be successful, but those who forget God will fail. By an emotional recognition of God I mean taking God into account, being aware of His reality and presence, making decisions in view of His existence and revelation. This is what fearing God means.

The precepts urging a life of wisdom center on 3:1-10. This passage concentrates on that subject. Proverbs 3:5-6 is some of the best advice anyone ever gave.

The practice of wisdom centers on 8:32-36.

The power for living a life of wisdom centers on 1:8 (cf. James 1:5; 3:37; Col. 2:3).

Constable: Proverbs (Garis Besar)

Outline

I. Discourses on wisdom chs. 1-9

A. Introduction to the book 1:1-7

1. The title of the book 1:1

2. The purpose of the book 1:2-6

3. The thesis of the book 1:7

B. Instruction for young people 1:8-7:27

1. Warning against consorting with sinners 1:8-19

2. Wisdom's appeal 1:20-33

3. Wisdom as a treasure chs. 2-3

4. Encouragements to obey these instructions ch. 4

5. Warnings against unfaithfulness in marriage ch. 5

6. Other dangerous temptations 6:1-19

7. Further warnings against adultery 6:20-7:27

C. The value of wisdom and wise conduct chs. 8-9

1. The function of wisdom ch. 8

2. Wisdom and folly contrasted ch. 9

II. Couplets expressing wisdom 10:1-22:16

A. The marks of wise living chs. 10-15

1. Things that produce profit 10:1-14

2. Things of true value 10:15-32

3. Wise living in various contexts 11:1-15

4. Wise investments 11:16-31

5. The value of righteousness 12:1-12

6. Avoiding trouble 12:13-28

7. Fruits of wise living ch. 13

8. Further advice for wise living chs. 14-15

B. How to please God 16:1-22:16

1. Trusting God ch. 16

2. Peacemakers and troublemakers ch. 17

3. Friendship and folly ch. 18

4. Further advice for pleasing God 19:1-22:16

III. Wise sayings 22:17-24:34

A. Thirty sayings of the wise 22:17-24:22

1. The first group 22:17-23:11

2. The second group 23:12-24:22

B. Six more sayings of the wise 24:23-34

IV. Maxims expressing wisdom chs. 25-29

A. Instructive analogies 25:1-27:22

1. Wise and foolish conduct ch. 25

2. Fools and folly ch. 26

3. Virtues and vices 27:1-22

B. A discourse on prudence 27:23-27

C. Instructive contrasts chs. 28-29

V. Two discourses by other wise men chs. 30-31

A. The wisdom of Agur ch. 30

1. The introduction of Agur 30:1

2. Wisdom about God 30:2-9

3. Wisdom about life 30:10-33

B. The wisdom of Lemuel ch. 31

1. The introduction of Lemuel 31:1

2. The wise king 31:2-9

3. The wise woman 31:10-31

Constable: Proverbs

Proverbs

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Zuck, Roy B. "A Theology of the Wisdom Books and the Song of Songs." In A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, pp. 207-55. Edited by Roy B. Zuck. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.

INTRODUCTION.

This book is so called, because it consists of wise and weighty sentences, regulating the morals of men; and directing them to wisdom and virtue. And these sentences are also called Parables, because great truths are often couched in them under certain figures and similitudes. (Challoner) --- Wisdom is introduced speaking in the nine first chapters. Then to chap. xxv. more particular precepts are given. (Worthington) --- Ezechias caused to be collected (Haydock) what comes in the five next chapters, and in the two last. Some other, or rather Solomon himself, under (Worthington) different titles, gives us Agur's and his mother's instructions, and his own commendations of a valiant woman, (Haydock) which is prophetical of the Catholic Church. He also wrote the two next works, besides many other things, which have been lost. This is the first of those five, which are called "sapiential," giving instructions how to direct our lives, by the dictates of sound reason. (Worthington) --- It is the most important of Solomon's works, though collected by different authors. (Calmet) --- T. Paine treats Solomon as a witty jester. But his jests are of a very serious nature, and no one had before heard of his wit. (Watson)

Gill: Proverbs (Pendahuluan Kitab)

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS

This book is called, in some printed Hebrew copies, "Sepher Mishle", the Book of Proverbs; the title of it in the Vulgate Latin version is,

"the Book of Proverbs, which the Hebrews call "Misle":''

in the Septuagint version it has the name of the writer, the Proverbs of Solomon; and so in the Syriac version, with the addition of his titles,

"the son of David, king of Israel.''

This and Ecclesiastes are both of them by the Jews ^a called Books of Wisdom: and it is common with the ancient Christian writers ^b to call the book of Proverbs by the names of "Wisdom" and "Panaretos"; names they give also to the apocryphal books of Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon; and therefore this is to be carefully distinguished from them. The author of this book was King Solomon, as the "first" verse, which contains the inscription of it, shows; for he was not a collector of these proverbs, as Grotius is of opinion, but the author of them, at least of the far greater part; and not only the author, but the writer of them: the Jews ^c say that Hezekiah and this men wrote them; it is true indeed the men of Hezekiah copied some, Pro 25:1; but even those were written by Solomon. R. Gedaliah ^d would have it that Isaiah the prophet wrote this book; but without any foundation. At what time it was written is not certain; the Jewish writers generally say ^e it was written by Solomon, as were the books of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, in his old age, when near the time of his death; though some think it was written before his fall: and it may be it was not written all at once, but at certain times, when these proverbs occurred unto him and were spoken by him, and as occasion served: however, it is not to he doubted but that they were written under the inspiration of God. The Jews once thought to have made this book of Proverbs an apocryphal one, because of some seeming contradictions in it; but finding that these were capable of a reconciliation, changed their minds, as became them ^f. Among Christians, Theodore of Mopsuest, in the sixth century, denied the divine authority of this book, and attributed it merely to human wisdom; which opinion of his was condemned in the second council at Constantinople: and in later times it has been treated with contempt by the Socinians, and particularly by Father Simon and Le Clerc; but the authority of it is confirmed by the writers of the New Testament, who have cited passages out of it; see Rom 12:20 from Pro 25:21. The book consists of "five" parts; "first", a preface or introduction, which takes up the first "nine" chapters; the "second", the proverbs of Solomon, put together by himself, beginning at the tenth chapter to the twenty-fifth; the "third", the proverbs of Solomon, copied by the men of Hezekiah, beginning at the twenty-fifth chapter to the thirtieth; the "fourth", the words of Agur, the thirtieth chapter, the "fifth", the instruction of Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, the thirty-first chapter.