Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

30:1 The ESV translation, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out, is achieved by means of a widely accepted pair of minor emendations to a difficult Hebrew text, slightly revising the division of two words and adjusting two vowels (on the assumption that a small copyist's error led to the current Hb. text). The ESV footnote renders the Masoretic text, which would suggest that Agur is addressing his words to Ithiel and Ucal (his sons?).

30:2-6 I am too stupid to be a man. Wisdom texts often begin with a kind of advertisement in which the teacher proclaims that he is wise and therefore that his words ought to be heeded. Here, Agur does just the opposite: he confesses that he is not learned in wisdom (vv. 2-3). Agur then asks a series of rhetorical questions meant to indicate the limitations on human perception and achievement (v. 4). Like the questions of God in Job 38-39, these questions point to things that only God can do; silent reverence is the only proper human response.

30:4 The rhetorical question, What is his name, and what is his son's name? is remarkable since the obvious answer is that God is the only one who moves between heaven and earth and who controls the wind and the waters. What, then, does the text mean by asking about his son? The Christian reader naturally thinks of the Son of God, but the purpose of the words here is simply to say that no mere human being (whether father or son) has done these things, and that God is "the Holy One" (v. 3) whose ways are high and exalted, infinitely greater than "the understanding of man" (v. 2).

30:5-6 Every word of God proves true (cf. 2 Sam. 22:31; Ps. 18:30). "Proves true" can also mean "refined" (cf. Ps. 12:6) or "well tried" (Ps. 119:140); the implication is that God's words are a proven foundation for one's life. The proverb's emphasis on every "word" (Hb. ’imrah) underscores the truthfulness, trustworthiness, and reliability of the Bible, not just in its overall message but also of every detail. This verse supplies support for the doctrine of the "plenary" (full, complete) inspiration of Scripture, extending even to "every word." Thus Prov. 30:6 warns against adding to God's words. The whole of vv. 2-6 thus teaches that human wisdom is limited, that the wisest people recognize their ignorance, that truth resides in the word of God, and that no one should think he is able to enhance the wisdom that God has given.

30:7-9 This is the only prayer in Proverbs. Agur asks for two things. It seems most likely that the first request is remove far from me falsehood and lying and that the second is give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me (cf. the petition for "daily bread," Matt. 6:11). The first request probably implies both that he does not want to become a liar and that he does not want to have people lie to him and deceive him. The second request reflects the caution that Proverbs instills in the wise about trusting in wealth.

30:10 This proverb warns against someone speaking lies (slander) specifically against a servant to the servant's master, which could damage the servant's position and livelihood. But in such a case the slanderer is warned against committing such an injustice because the servant is likely to utter a curse against the slanderer (that is, he would express a wish that judgment would fall on the slanderer). The fact that the slanderer would then be found guilty indicates that God hears and judges rightly.

30:11-14 Here are four types of loathsome people: those who show no respect to parents (v. 11; cf. 20:20), those who are atrociously immoral but who refuse to admit it (30:12), those who are arrogant (v. 13), and those who plunder the poor (v. 14). All four proverbs begin with the same Hebrew word (dor, usually "generation"), which is translated as, There are those.

30:15-16 This text contains two sayings involving numbers (v. 15a and vv. 15b-16). Both concern insatiable things, and together they give the number sequence 2, 3, 4. The first (v. 15a) indicates that the leech has two daughters named Give. The saying probably alludes to the two suckers on a leech's body, and it may have been a common byword used to describe a selfish or demanding person. A frustrated mother may have said this when her children were clamoring for something. It is easy to see in what sense the four things of vv. 15b-16 are insatiable, but it is harder to guess at the point of the list. It may be that this was simply a byword used of any situation or task that has no end, and that it is here simply to say that life is full of such situations and tasks; in that case, Eccles. 1:3-7 is comparable.

30:17 This is actually a curse rather than a simple proverb. Agur obviously regards respect for parents as supremely important (see v. 11).

30:18-20 The numerical saying of vv. 18-19 is a riddle. What do these four things have in common, and why is the teacher amazed by them? Verse 20 is a clue to the meaning of the riddle; it is linked to v. 19 by the catchword way (Hb. derek). The adulteress . . . eats and wipes her mouth, and says she has done no wrong. Taking the words literally, what she says is true; eating is no sin. But eating here is symbolic of her life of adultery--wiping the mouth after eating suggests cleansing herself after illicit sex. She is of the opinion that after she has washed up, nothing remains of the sexual encounter and there are no moral ramifications to her behavior. In v. 19, the eagle, the serpent, and the ship leave no trail behind them (the serpent is on a large rock and not on sand, and the ship is a slow-moving sailboat). The relationship of a man and a virgin, if it is chaste, likewise leaves no observable change in either of them. An alternative interpretation of what the items in v. 19 have in common is that they all make apparently effortless, almost instinctive, progress toward a goal. These things happen, but the speaker finds them amazing and does not understand quite how they happen.

30:21-23 The four persons described here are insufferable because they have been granted things they have no capacity to enjoy or handle wisely. A modern example would be a person who is promoted above his level of competence.

30:24-28 These creatures are weak and small but give important lessons. The lesson of the ants is in making provision for the future; the lesson of the rock badgers (the hyrax, an unclean herbivore, Lev. 11:5, that lives in crevices in the cliffs) is in taking care to have a place of refuge; the lesson of the locusts is cooperation; and the lesson of the lizard (unknown species, perhaps a kind of gecko) is that even the humblest creature can attain to the highest circles of society.

30:29-31 The king is the main point here; the animals serve as comparisons. The lesson is that a king's majesty is not in himself (in contrast to the animals) but in his subjects (see 14:28). Strutting rooster (30:31) is the best guess on the meaning of the obscure Hebrew (see ESV footnote).

30:32-33 Those given to obnoxious and conniving behavior would do well to become quiet and still, or they will soon be embroiled in conflict.