Chapter Thirty

1. The title. 2–6. Introduction to what follows, with reflections on the vastness of creation, on the greatness and omnipotence of God, and on the significance and immutability of God’s word. 7–10. A prayer of the sage to God for protection from extremes in material possessions and from temptations of disbelief and wickedness; connected with the preceding—an instruction (v. 10) forbidding slander of a slave before his master. 11–14. Four proverbs concerning various kinds of wickedness. 15–16. On the insatiability of various things. 17. An interjected judgment on the gravity of the sin of disrespect toward parents. 18–20. The incomprehensible in the physical and human world. 21–23. What is difficult to bear because of its apparent unnaturalness. 24–26. Small in appearance yet great in significance. 29–31. Analogies of the king in the animal kingdom. 32–33. Warning against pride and anger.

Proverbs 30:1. The words of Agur, son of Jakeh. An inspired utterance—the man said to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: The meaning and significance of this title, like the title in Prov 31:1, has been understood differently in ancient and modern times, depending on whether the Hebrew Agur is taken as a proper name, a common noun, or something else. The Targum recognizes this word as the proper name of an unknown king; the Midrash, on the contrary, considers it an allegorical name for Solomon, like Qoheleth or Ecclesiastes, as do many rabbis and also Jerome, who sees Solomon in Agur and David in Jakeh, verba congregantis filii vomentis (Vulg.). The LXX, in its translation, eliminate the very idea of any Agur-king. Slavonic: “he says these things, a man believing in God, and I rest.” In modern times many Western interpreters were ready to see in Agur, as also in Lemuel, a king or general ruler of the Edomite region Massa (Gen 25:14; 1 Chr 1:30), having in mind the term used in both cases—Prov 30:1 and Prov 31:1—Hebrew massa; both of these persons, Agur and Lemuel, are considered either pagans or proselytes to Judaism. The question can scarcely be decided with complete certainty and definitiveness. However, it is more reasonable to consider both names as proper names of certain teachers of wisdom, of whom Lemuel was undoubtedly a king (Prov 31:4), probably a ruler of the mentioned Massa. This is not directly stated about Agur—the Hebrew massa in Prov 30:1 has a common noun meaning: “utterance.” It is entirely possible to suppose that in the utterances of Agur (Prov 30:1) and Lemuel (Prov 31:1-9) we have a work or at least an echo of the intellectual culture of the “sons of the East”—Arabs, Edomites, and others, as in the book of Job (Job 1:3), but under the determining and transforming influence of biblical-Hebrew culture, so that neither in content nor in form of speech do both sections differ from the remaining parts of the book. The name Ithiel appears as a person’s name in Nehem 11:7. Like the name of Agur, Ithiel and Ucal must denote certain persons—perhaps pupils or disciples of Agur.

Proverbs 30:2. Truly I am more foolish than any man, and I do not have human understanding. Proverbs 30:3. I have not learned wisdom, nor do I have knowledge of the Holy One. Proverbs 30:4. Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his hands? Who has wrapped water in a garment? Who has set all the boundaries of the earth? What is his name? And what is the name of his son? Do you know it? At the foundation of his proverbial teaching, Agur places a decisive acknowledgment of the complete limitation of his own understanding and knowledge, and of course, of people in general—an acknowledgment full of truly religious humility (cf. Ps 72:22), and at the same time characteristic of true philosophy (one may recall the Socratic: “I know only that I know nothing”). The questions of v. 4, like the questions in the speech of Jehovah in the book of Job (Job 38:1), are an oratorical, poetic form of expressing the thought that no one is able to penetrate into the mysteries of God’s creative and providential activity: man is a complete ignoramus in understanding the wonders of nature; phenomena of the atmosphere, rain, snow, wind, clouds are merely objects of amazement for man, forming their own domain inaccessible to mortals, the realm of the Creator’s dominion. Nevertheless, man can of himself come to know the nature of the Creator himself, or—especially in Old Testament times—his Son (what is said in Prov 8:22 and following about the creative activity of the hypostatic Wisdom of God—the Son of God—evidently constituted rather a dim foreboding of the being and activity of the Son of God than a definite concept of him, which became possible only in the New Testament).

Proverbs 30:5. Every word of God is pure; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Proverbs 30:6. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar. Instead of fruitless and unsafe speculation about the inner life of the Godhead and about the mysteries inaccessible to human understanding, a person should carefully and sacredly guard the revealed word of God, which proclaims to man everything necessary for his good and salvation. The word of God is pure (v. 5, see Ps 11:7), that is, purified and free from the admixture of human speculation; and it should remain so: man should neither add to it nor take away from it (v. 6, see Deut 4:2; cf. Rev 22:18-19), because both would be a distortion of the holiness of God’s word, and whoever is guilty of distorting it would be a liar. The connection between v. 4 on the one hand and vv. 5–6 on the other is thus characterized by a transition from nature to revelation, from doubt and skepticism to positive faith and confidence in truth.

Proverbs 30:7. I ask you for two things; do not refuse me before I die: Proverbs 30:8. Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me my bread day by day, Proverbs 30:9. lest I become full and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I become poor and steal, and profane the name of my God. In its distinctive numerical form (cf. Prov 6:16), the sage in his prayer to God points to two main causes of the sin of blasphemy and abandonment of God: this is, first, all sorts of emptiness and worthlessness, and especially lies of various kinds, and secondly, the temptations of extreme poverty and excessive wealth (v. 8), in exchange for which Agur asks God to grant him a moderate sufficiency of daily bread (cf. Matt 6:11). That indeed excessive wealth and extreme poverty can dispose a person toward those religious and moral offenses mentioned in v. 9 of the chapter under consideration is affirmed by other biblical passages, in which excessive satiation with worldly goods easily leads to forgetfulness of God—thus, for example, it happened more than once with the entire people of God (Deut 8:12-14 and following); in turn, extreme need also emitters people, inciting them to slander, complaint, and even blasphemy (Isa 8:21).

Proverbs 30:10. Do not slander a slave before his master, lest he curse you, and you be found guilty. Apart from the preceding and following context, one is forbidden to take part in disputes between master and slave, so that the aggravation of the guilt of the latter may not have unpleasant consequences for the person who interferes in their mutual relations.

Proverbs 30:11. There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. Proverbs 30:12. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed of its filth. Proverbs 30:13. There is a generation—oh, how lofty are its eyes and how raised are its eyelids! Proverbs 30:14. There is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, to devour the poor from the earth and the needy from among men. In this quatrain, each verse serves as a theme for the subsequent development. Thus, the thought of v. 11, speaking of the gravity of the sin of disrespect toward parents (cf. Prov 20:20; Exod 21:17), is repeated with greater force in v. 17; the thought of v. 12 concerning the moral impurity of a person who considers himself clean is more concretely unfolded below in vv. 18–20; not only is v. 13 about pride, but it is discussed in greater detail in vv. 21–23; the mention in v. 14 of the disorder caused by violent men in normal social life serves as it were as an occasion for a detailed unfolding of the thought about the good of social and political order—in vv. 24–31. Whereas in verses 11, 13, 14 the vices denounced by the sage are named directly, in v. 12 sexual depravity is designated by a general and properly metaphorical name—“filth,” Hebrew tso’ah, properly: feces, excrement (2 Sam 18:27; Isa 36:12), any excretion (Isa 28:8), and then also—moral depravity of women (Isa 4:4) and men.

Proverbs 30:15. The leech has two daughters: “Give, give!” Behold, there are three things that are never satisfied, and four that do not say “Enough!”: Proverbs 30:16. Sheol and a barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water, and fire that does not say “Enough! In this couplet, on the example of the never-satiable: Sheol, the barren womb, the parched earth thirsting for water, and fire (v. 16)—the thought of the boundlessness of greed, insatiability is unfolded. This idea is symbolically presented in the name aluka (v. 15). The LXX render this name with the word: βδέλλη, the Vulgate—sanguisuga, Slavonic: “leech.” In this name interpreters see a reference to some female demonic being—a phantom (similar to the lilith mentioned in Isa 34:14)—one of those with which the popular belief and superstition of the Hebrews (especially in later times) and other peoples of the East (Arabs, Indians, Persians) populated deserts and regions of human habitation; judging by the meaning of the word (aluka from alak, elbow), the word aluka designated precisely a blood-sucking demonic creature (like a vampire in Western beliefs), to which corresponds the Latin “sanguisuga” and Slavonic: “leech.” It is not improbable (Zöckler and others) that both the name aluka and the entire utterance of vv. 15–16 are borrowed from foreign beliefs (Indian and others), traces of which are most naturally found among the utterances of Agur, as in the book of Job (see O. Zökler in Lange Bibelwerk. Die Sprüche Salomonis. pp. 211–212. Cf. A. Glagolev, Old Testament biblical teaching on angels. Kiev 1900. p. 626).

Proverbs 30:17. An eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother—the ravens of the valley will peck it out, and the young eagles will eat it! See Prov 20:20.

Proverbs 30:18. Three things are too wonderful for me, and four I do not understand: Proverbs 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 maiden. Proverbs 30:20. This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done nothing wrong. In this three-verse unit, the chief thought, representing a development of the thought of v. 12, is expressed in v. 20: this is the thought about the abominableness and shamelessness of adultery. But this thought is prepared in vv. 18–19 by four comparisons: compared are—1) the way of an eagle in the sky; 2) the way of a snake on a rock; 3) the way of a ship in the sea; 4) and the way of a man with a maiden. The point of comparison of all these objects is partly imperceptibility of their movement, but mainly—their enigmatic quality, their incomprehensibility. The first trait connects v. 20 with these verses, coming closest to the last comparison in v. 19. Hebrew alma, rendered by the LXX usually as: παρθένος, by its root meaning—puella nubilis, virgo matura, a maiden who has reached sexual maturity (see Gen 24:43; Exod 2:8; Isa 7:14; Ps 67:26; Song 6:8).

Proverbs 30:21. From three things the earth trembles, from four it cannot bear: Proverbs 30:22. a slave when he becomes king; a fool when he is full of food; Proverbs 30:23. an unloved woman when she marries, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress. Here the thought of v. 13 about the destructiveness of haughtiness and pride is developed, and it is further emphasized that pride is especially unbearable when people of low station reach a high economic and social position. All cases of this kind, mentioned in vv. 22–23, appear to the sage as abnormal, violating the moral order of human relations, and since the world of nature is connected with the human world, those anomalies of human life mentioned in vv. 22–23, according to v. 21, are unbearable even for the earth itself, and it trembles from them (cf. Amos 7:11).

Proverbs 30:24. Behold, four small things on the earth, yet they are wiser than the wise: Proverbs 30:25. ants—a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer; Proverbs 30:26. coneys—a people of no great strength, yet they set their homes upon the rock; Proverbs 30:27. locusts have no king, yet they all go forward in formation; Proverbs 30:28. the lizard can be caught with bare hands, yet it is found in the palaces of kings. The thought of the inner value of objects apparently small is here developed exclusively in comparisons from the animal and insect world, on the example of which is shown the necessity and benefit of wisdom, energy, orderly subordination, and persistence in achieving goals. In v. 28 the Hebrew word semamit, rendered in the Russian Synodal as “spider,” was understood by Hebrew tradition, confirmed also by archaeological data, as: “lizard” (see in Prof. A. A. Olesnitsky. The Old Testament Temple, p. 854), LXX: καλαβώτης, Vulg.: Stellio).

Proverbs 30:29. Behold, three things have a stately bearing, and four go stately: Proverbs 30:30. a lion, the mightiest among beasts, does not turn back before anyone; Proverbs 30:31. a horse and a he-goat, [the leader of the herd,] and a king over his people. Only at the end of this three-verse unit is the thought of the importance and significance of royal power for the well-being of society expressed—a thought expressed in vv. 30 and 31a only figuratively. And the connection with the preceding section (vv. 24–28) is as follows: if even without authority, private initiative of wisdom, energy, and cohesion can give favorable results, then with the presence of firm royal power, the benefit of all this increases extraordinarily.

Proverbs 30:32. If you have been foolish by boasting, or if you have planned evil, put your hand to your mouth; Proverbs 30:33. for as churning cream yields butter, and as punching the nose yields blood, so stirring up anger yields strife. An exhortation to restore broken peace represents a development of Prov 15:18.