Two Things I Have Asked of You
1 The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the revelation: the man says to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: 2 “Surely I am the most ignorant man, and don’t have a man’s understanding. 3 I have not learned wisdom, neither do I have the knowledge of the Holy One. 4 Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if you know? 5 “Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6 Don’t you add to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar. 7 “Two things I have asked of you. Don’t deny me before I die. 8 Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is Yahweh?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. 10 “Don’t slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you be held guilty. 11 There is a generation that curses their father, and doesn’t bless their mother. 12 There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness. 13 There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes! Their eyelids are lifted up. 14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.
A man who opens by declaring himself ignorant asks God for exactly enough money and nothing more.
Agur begins where nobody in the book has begun. Surely I am the most ignorant man, and don't have a man's understanding. I have not learned wisdom, neither do I have the knowledge of the Holy One. After twenty-nine chapters instructing the simple, the collection admits a voice that says he is one, and it puts him near the end rather than at the beginning.
What follows is a set of questions with no answers offered. Who has ascended into heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists, or bound the waters in a garment, or established all the ends of the earth? Then the last of them, and it is the strangest sentence in the book: What is his name, and what is his son's name, if you know? The questions are rhetorical in form and the passage supplies nothing. It is a man listing what he cannot do and does not know, and stopping there.
Out of that comes a statement about Scripture rather than about wisdom: Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Don't you add to his words. A man who has just confessed he knows nothing locates the thing that can be relied on outside himself, and warns against improving it.
The prayer that follows is the only one in the book and it is remarkable for its modesty. Two requests. Remove far from me falsehood and lies — and then, Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me. Neither. The reasons are given for both, and each is a spiritual danger rather than a discomfort. Full, he might deny God and ask Who is Yahweh? Poor, he might steal and dishonor the name. He is not asking to be protected from hardship. He is asking to be kept out of both conditions in which he does not trust himself.
The section closes with four generations described in turn, and the last is the worst. One curses its father. One is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness — the book's standing charge, now applied to a whole cohort. One has lifted-up eyes. And the fourth has teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth. The progression runs from contempt for parents to self-satisfaction to arrogance and then to eating the poor, and the collection presents it as one sequence rather than four unrelated faults.
settled What this mark means