The Words of Agur
30:1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.
The man declares, I am weary, O God;
I am weary, O God, and worn out.
2 Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
I have not the understanding of a man.
3 I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!
5 Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
6 Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
7 Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
10 Do not slander a servant to his master,
lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.
11 There are those who curse their fathers
and do not bless their mothers.
12 There are those who are clean in their own eyes
but are not washed of their filth.
13 There are those—how lofty are their eyes,
how high their eyelids lift!
14 There are those whose teeth are swords,
whose fangs are knives,
to devour the poor from off the earth,
the needy from among mankind.
15 The leech has two daughters:
Give and Give.
Three things are never satisfied;
four never say, “Enough”:
16 Sheol, the barren womb,
the land never satisfied with water,
and the fire that never says, “Enough.”
17 The eye that mocks a father
and scorns to obey a mother
will be picked out by the ravens of the valley
and eaten by the vultures.
18 Three things are too wonderful for me;
four I do not understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man with a virgin.
20 This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, “I have done no wrong.”
21 Under three things the earth trembles;
under four it cannot bear up:
22 a slave when he becomes king,
and a fool when he is filled with food;
23 an unloved woman when she gets a husband,
and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.
24 Four things on earth are small,
but they are exceedingly wise:
25 the ants are a people not strong,
yet they provide their food in the summer;
26 the rock badgers are a people not mighty,
yet they make their homes in the cliffs;
27 the locusts have no king,
yet all of them march in rank;
28 the lizard you can take in your hands,
yet it is in kings’ palaces.
29 Three things are stately in their tread;
four are stately in their stride:
30 the lion, which is mightiest among beasts
and does not turn back before any;
31 the strutting rooster, the he-goat,
and a king whose army is with him.
32 If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,
or if you have been devising evil,
put your hand on your mouth.
33 For pressing milk produces curds,
pressing the nose produces blood,
and pressing anger produces strife. (ESV)
Pro 30:17 “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.
Good thing none of you True Northers mock your dads or fail to obey your moms! Getting your eye pecked out sounds a lot worse than having an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle shoot your eye out, kid! But then God’s perfect punishment is for keeps and for our own good…
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
While many people spend their lives trying to accumilate riches, the follower of God seeks only what he needs. Notice the focus is on today and not the future. Paul tells Timothy, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1Timithoy 6:6) When we leave behind the pursuit of riches or the mindset of how we need to make our lives better by getting this or that, it frees us up to follow God and be a part of what he is doing. Jesus offers this promise, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33)
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
Dan stole my comment! :-) This verse is a prayer that I pray for myself. If I had too much money I would have the tendency to trust in my finances and make them my god. If I had too little financially I would be focussed on how to get food or how to pay my bills and that would distract me from my relationship with the Lord. I pray that God will give me just what I need so that I can focus on serving Him and furthering His kingdom.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
Dan and Beth both stole my comment! This is one of my favorite passages is the book of Proverbs! I love the wisdom that is in these two verses. It shows that having too much money will allow people not to depend solely on the Lord for all provisions. Also when people have too little, they focus on their poor state and do not honor the Lord. Those that have just what they need can trust the Lord wholeheartedly and put their confidence in Him alone.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? …
The first part of this verse is a great reminder to us of the power of God. He is truly amazing, the One who created the world and Who has control over everything. He is high above our power and understanding, but a lot of times people twist their view of God to something more ‘manageable,’ something easier to understand, or into a being whose rules are more lenient. We need to make absolutely certain we do not fall into such sin! Instead, we should worship with fear the God who exists, who is all-knowing and all-powerful, and who will Judge those who refuse to give Him the glory He deserves.
…What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!
The second half of this verse reminds us what we need to do with our knowledge of God. Christ has commanded us to go into the world and spread the Gospel, but many Christians today look at it as an option. There is no such thing as a ‘hardcore’ Christian – only OBEDIENT Christians and those who don’t really care. We need to be bringing the Truth to our campuses, to our neighborhoods, and wherever else we go!
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
This is so true that every word of God is flawless, it’s perfect. There is no error in God’s Word, because in God there is no error, there is no wrong in Him, He is perfect, He is Holy, and there is nothing that Lord can’t do! Second part of the verse reminds me of the Psalms that David wrote and how he too also refered to the Lord as His shield that the Lord protects us from evil and that when we put our trust in Him that He will provide!
This is one of my favorite chapters out of proverbs! and i like verse two because heis comparing himself to God and knows that he as a sinner is the farthest thing from perfect in the entirety of the world! all christians should have such a mindset.. i am workin on mine !!
24 “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:
This reminds me of Matthew 6, how God takes care of the animals and has created them with instinctive wisdom to take care of themselves. God has provided much more wisdom for us, though, by giving us His Word. And like the ants work hard in storing food, we need to obey God’s Word and work diligently with what He has given us rather than being sluggards.
26 coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags;
28 a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.
In the NKJV “coneys” was placed as rock badgers and “a lizard” was said to be a spider.
Pastor Bobby, how can two different translations change the main noun in a verse? In the above verses 5-6 it talkes about not adding to God’s flawless Word…so is changing a word not the same as addding to it? Sorry if I am confusing you but I am confused about which version I should memorize or apply to my life if they use different analogies.
3 I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!
We to sometimes speak and think like Agur. We sometimes forget what we know about the Holy one and what He has done for us. Just five days ago was HIS birthday. He was sent to die and rise again for us and our mere sins. The sad truth about this is that many people don’t know Jesus. That is why we are to spread his name to everyone, everywhere, all the time
Great comments Dan, Beth, and Katie! Those verses are really good.
17 “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures
Wow that’s intense! I don’t want my eyes pecked out by ravens! Our parents are the authority God has placed over us as high school students and we are to pbey and honor them. This is so important to have good relationships with them and with God. If our relationships with our parents aren’t good, how do you think our relationship with God may be doing?
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
It is so cool to know that everything God says is flawless. We as Christians know we can take eveything He says as true because as it is said here, every word of God is flawless. It is also cool to know that He we shield those who take refuge in Him. This is cool because this tells us that God will protect us from the worldly things by letting us take refuge in Him.
17 The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures
We are so accustomed to the command, obey your mother and father, but this verse puts in on an entirely different level. It says that we will tortured by birds! I hope this pushes us to respect our parents.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread
This is a good verse to be reminded not to be focusing on worldly things. We shouldn’t be wanting to be rich. If we our main goal in life is to get rich, we’ll be extremely greedy. And even if we do become rich, we’ll only want more and more money. We should only ask for our “daily bread”, which is only asking for what is neccesary. It doesn’t mean be poor, but it means not focusing on getting rich and not worrying about being poor.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
We need to focus more on God and what He wants for us. Instead of giving Him our least attention just to say, “Ok well I did my gidly thing for today.” we must give Him all our attention so to learn from Him. If we are destracted by worldly things then we must get rid of that which has captured our focus away from God.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
Here we see that we should make sure that we have no false hoods that could bring us away from Christ. Don’t allow anything into your life that could sway you from Christ. Nothing at all but GOD’s word.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
This is such a great verse. I love how he asks for neither poverty nor riches. He doesnt want to become obsessed with worldly things, he just wants enough to be able to live and focus on God. We need to have an attitude more like this.
this is a very poetic and thought provoking chapter!
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
This gives me comfort in God’s word. I know everyhting in our Bible is true and God-breathed. i can lean and beprotected by Him, His word gives me strength and protection.
33 For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”
THis verse reminds me of the saying…if you play with fire, youre going to get burned! IF you know acting out or doing somehting is going to produce a negative outcome, why do it..save yourself the guilt the punishment and ask God to help you:D
Romans 12:11 never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving hte Lord.
17 “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.
This just shows us how much God hates eyes that mocks. So are your eyes mocking your parents?
Great comment Bobcat! WE should be working harder than the ants instead of being sluggards. XD
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!
The answer to these questions, JESUS! I love how God puts prophecies about His son in the old testament and, like I learned from the little kid’s Christmas play, there are over 200 of them! God provides the world with proof, He provides us with His Word and yet some people still do not believe! Next time you go evangelizing and they ask you to prove it, just whip out one of these prophecy verses and see what they have to say about that. No one can stump God! oh, and it’s a great reminder to evangelize because God wants us to tell everyone about Jesus and what He’s done for us. :D
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
This is radically different from the normal view of the world. The world tells to get rich, be successful, and fill ourselves with the desires of our heart. On the other hand God’s flawless and perfect word teaches us to live, not in riches and poverty, but to live content with the daily bread that the Lord provides us with. In the next few verses it explains that riches may lead to arrogance and pride, and poverty may lead to stealing out of desperation. When we look at the rest of our lives are we living to get rich just as the world is? At school during class the teachers daily advise us to study hard so that we can be successful in the future. Let us rely only on the provisions of the Lord, working not for our gain, but for the gain of our Father in Heaven. Amen!
Kyle Johnson, your comment was super good! Vsunshine brought up a good point; I would like to know the answer to that also.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!
Jesus! Like Sickly B, I love when there are prophicies about Jesus in the O.T.; they bring so much glory to God it is incredible! Our God is so amazing, even the most powerful forces of nature are under His control and respond to His voice (Mt. 8:26). It would be complete stupidity to not trust in His divine attributes, but then why do feel hopeless and lost even with such a great God as ours? The answer is unbelief/ a lack of faith in the form of pride. Who are we to think that our existance is entirely up to ourselves and that our will-power is the only thing keeping us alive? We are all sustained by God’s grace, and verses like these remind us how small we are, and that we should have more faith in our big God.
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
CAN I GET AN AMEN!!!?!?!?! Ya hear that? FLAWLESS!!! I don’t know about you, but the amount of people I know whose word is flawless amounts to well ZERO!! So don’t you think we should listen? And if we listen he’ll protect us.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
Yah this verse is cool cuz it shows how all we need is God’s word. So whenever we say we want something we should never say that we need it, because we only need God’s word.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!
Our God is so amazing. It is scary to think of how powerful He is, but it is good to know that we are on his side. This verse is a good reminder of how God is in control of the world, and nothing he doesn’t want to happen will. We can trust that he is completely in control of this world and the world to come, and this gives us the power to fear no evil, because nothing can take away our salvation. our God is a truly incredible God.
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
How awesome is this!!! God him self created the Bible, when we seek his word we take refuge in him, and he keeps us safe.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
How many people these days are praying this prayer? Especially after a season that we spend so much time passing around our “want” lists for Christmas. God is good and he gives us all we need. When we get more, we are tempted to idolize things rather than the giver of those things. We spend so much time wanting the next best phone or lap top or car that take our thoughts off of the eternal things. Let’s reflect on our hearts this past Christmas and help each other to be thankful for what we have so we can rejoice in the Lord and share his great news!
5Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
God is perfect, and with His word we can do anything. I liked this verse because God will protect those whobfollow Him, and we never have to worry.
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
I echo the other comments. Everything is perfect and true in God’s word! We need to have open hearts to accept it and to always be in it daily! God is perfect and holy himself, and we need to have comfort and take encouragement from knowing that the bible os true and that we need to live accordiong to it!
24 “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:
I think its cool how God gives us examples of wisdom in what we would normally think to be just insignificant creatures. We can learn so much just from observing his creations such as the ant, coney, locust, and lizard! Lets be praying that we would have these same attributes in our lives!
vsunshine, Thanks for the question!
The NASB says, “The shephanim are not mighty people…” This is a transliteration of the Hebrew word, which basically means they just write out the Hebrew in English letters. It is translated coneys or rock badgers which seem to be pretty much the same animal. So that is just a tough Hebrew word and a little known animal. But I think all three go together and make sense.
On the other hand, I don’t know why NKJV translates lizard as a spider instead…sorry!
The point of verses 24-28 is four small creatures that show us wisdom in some way. Like Jacob just said!
24 “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:
25 Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;
26 coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags;
27 locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks;
28 a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.
Wow, very good analogy! I love how everything about the examples in God’s Word, and even some of the responses by Jesus Himself, are so humbeling. These little creatures are so small, and some may even say insignificant! But being in this lowly, humble state, one can learn a lot! The ant, for example. Such a small, weak, little creature (maybe we even kill them in our houses) but they store up for the winter! That’s crazy! Compare ourselves to the ant- that’s humbeling right there.
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
THis is just so amazing to think about; God is perfect and flawless and we are just little humans who should humble ourselves under him. And the second part is so cool too because we can know that He is our shield and will protect us from anything!
24 “Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:
25 Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;
26 coneys are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags;
27 locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks;
28 a lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.
I think we have a lot to learn from these analogies, like Alex said. We usually don’t stop to think about the things we can learn from animals, but I think sometimes God portrays His deliverance in the most simple ways so we can see it. We have to learn not to overlook the more minute things that God puts in our lives to teach us.
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.
This verse says alot of the attitude that we should have as christians. First we need to not lie but not just that we need to make sure that they are far from us. And secondly we need to make sure that we are not askind for to much or trying to get all the stuff we want. We need to make sure that we are content with what we have from the Lord.
Oh okay! Thank you Pastor Bobby!
5 “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
6 Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
Everything God does and says is flawless in every way. He has thought out everything for the Bible and wants it just the way it is, so it’s not surprising that he would be mad for you adding to it to make it fit your needs better.