Who is agur

Proverbs, as with other wisdom literature, is replete with Hebrew poetry. It is essentially thought-based in balanced corresponding lines, and all relate to spiritual health. For instance, instructions regarding fools and the foolish are repeated at least fifty times throughout Proverbs e.

While we look at the complete Bible as instruction 2 Timothy , and follow each, we should look at the repetitions as strong instruction. God uses who He will for His purposes. This article is part of our People from the Bible Series featuring the most well-known historical names and figures from Scripture.

We have compiled these articles to help you study those whom God chose to set before us as examples in His Word. May their lives and walks with God strengthen your faith and encourage your soul. Shoebox Collection Week is Here! Plus Toggle navigation. Password Assistance. Email address. Lisa Loraine Baker. Who Was Agur in the Bible? Share Tweet Save.

Sandra Hamer Smith. Emma Danzey. How Long Should a Pastor Preach? Clarence L. Haynes Jr. Britt Mooney. If the locusts fought against themselves, they would get nowhere. They fight against the vegetation that they consume. Teamwork can win the day. Highly reliable eyewitness accounts of modern locust plagues border on the incredible. Using your gifts and unique skills can take you anywhere. This base creature may teach us this wisdom, saith one, not to be bunglers or slubberers in our works, but to be exact in our trades, and labour so to excel therein, that our doings may be commendable and admirable.

There are three things which are majestic in pace, Yes, four which are stately in walk: A lion, which is mighty among beasts And does not turn away from any; A greyhound, A male goat also, And a king whose troops are with him. There are three things which are majestic in pace : For the fourth time in his brief collection of proverbs, Agur used the three-and-four structure to explain four wonderful things, four examples of majesty.

A lion, which is mighty among beasts : The first example is given a brief explanation. A lion has respect from all other animals, moves swiftly, and never retreats does not turn away from any. Courage displays majesty. A greyhound, a male goat also, and a king whose troops are with him : The last three examples are given without explanation. Yet when we consider the speed and grace of a greyhound , we see majesty. When we think of the stubborn persistence of the male goat , we see majesty.

When we think of the power and determination of a king whose troops are with him , we see majesty. Each of these moves with majestic pace : swiftly, stubbornly, or powerfully.

Waltke along with Kidner has strutting rooster instead of greyhound. 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.

If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, Or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth. For as the churning of milk produces butter, And wringing the nose produces blood, So the forcing of wrath produces strife. If you have been foolish in exalting yourself : Agur personally expressed his own humility in the beginning of this chapter Proverbs Here he advises his readers to not be foolish in exalting yourself.

Instead, follow what James wisely told us to do: Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up James If you start to exalt yourself, put your hand on your mouth. If you have devised evil : If you use the power and resources of your mind to devise evil , then stop. It is better to put your hand on your mouth and not say another word. The forcing of wrath produces strife : This is the result of self-exaltation and the plotting of evil.

As surely as the churning of milk produces butter and as surely as wringing the nose produces blood , so the expressions of wrath will make for conflict and strife. The wise man or woman knows a better way. Hidden in the second simile, however, is the warning that those who make trouble are liable to get punched in the nose!

Our website uses cookies to store user preferences. By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. Please see our Privacy Policy for cookie usage details.

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website. Click on the different category headings to find out more.

You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that.

You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain. We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:. We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page. Proverbs 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Proverbs 30 — The Wisdom of Agur A.

Agur the man. This man declared to Ithiel—to Ithiel and Ucal: a. Do not malign a servant to his master, Lest he curse you, and you be found guilty.

Pin 1. Share Privacy Policy OK. Cookie and Privacy Settings. How we use cookies. Essential Website Cookies. Check to enable permanent hiding of message bar and refuse all cookies if you do not opt in. We need 2 cookies to store this setting. Otherwise you will be prompted again when opening a new browser window or new a tab.

According to the different reading, there noted, the inscription ends with: "the man spake," and the words that follow, are the beginning of the confession, "I have wearied myself after God and have fainted. This is the title of this chapter see []Introduction. Prophets were inspired men, who spoke for God to man, or for man to God Ge ; Ex , 15, 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. Ithiel and Ucal were perhaps pupils. He dehorts from adding to the Scriptures, by the danger of it, Proverbs The two points of his prayer, with their reason, Proverbs Four wicked generations, Proverbs Four things insatiable, Proverbs , Parents not to be despised, Proverbs Four things hard to be known, Proverbs , The way of an adulterous woman, Proverbs Four things intolerable, Proverbs Four things little, but wise, Proverbs Four things stately, Proverbs 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 Proverbs , 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. Here begins, according to Aben Ezra, the fourth part of this book; though, according to others, it is the fifth; See Gill on Proverbs ; 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", Ecclesiastes 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, Ecclesiastes 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, 1 Corinthians 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, 2 Peter ; which prophecy the man spake, this excellent good man Agur, who was divinely inspired; see Numbers ; 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, Proverbs ; 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?

Ithiel, or "God with me", is very similar to a phrase used by Christ himself in the days of his flesh, John Colossians Zechariah ; Malachi , where see notes in this Series.

Numbers by the speaker. The reading of R. Jakeh of Massa , making Massa a proper name, is however preferred by some scholars.

See Proverbs , note. Pulpit Commentary Verses Cornelius a Lapide offers the following opinion concerning this appendix, which no one can hesitate to say is well founded, if he attempts to give it a spiritual interpretation, and to discern mysteries under the literal meaning: "Quarta haec pars elegantissima est et pulcherrima, aeque ac difficillima et obscurissima: priores enim tres partes continent Proverbia et Paraemias claras, ac antithesibus et similitudinibus perspicuas et illustres; haec vero continet aenigmata et gryphos insignes, sed arcanos et perdifficiles, turn ex phrasi quae involute est et aenigmatica, tum ex sensu et materia, quae sublimis est et profunda.

This seems to be the correct rendering of the passage, though it has been made to bear very different interpretations. It is plainly the tide of the treatise which follows Wire Agur and Jakeh were is utterly unknown. The Jewish interpreters considered that "Agur son of Jakeh" was an allegorical designation of Solomon - Agur meaning "Gatherer," or "Convener" see Ecclesiastes ; Ecclesiastes ; Jakeh , "Obedient," or "Pious," which thus would indicate David.