The Words of Agur

1The words of Agur, son of Jakeh: the lifting up: the declaration of the man to Ithiel; to Ithiel and Ucal:

2For I am brutish more than man, and not the understanding of a man to me.

3I learnt not wisdom, and I shall not know the knowledge of the holy.

4Who went up to the heavens, and came down? who gathered the wind in his fists? who bound the waters in a garment? who set up all the ends of the earth? what his name and what his son's name, if thou shalt know?

5All the word of God is purified: he a shield to those trusting in him.

6Thou shalt not add to his words lest he reprove in thee, and thou wert false.

7Two things I asked from thee, thou wilt not withhold from me before I shall die:

8Vanity and the word of falsehood remove far from me; thou wilt not give to me poverty and riches; feed me with bread of my allowance:

9Lest I shall be filled and I spake lies, and said, Who is Jehovah? and lest I shall be dispossessed and I stole, and I laid hold upon the name of God.

10Thou shalt not slander the servant to his lord lest he shall curse thee, and thou wert guilty.

11A generation will curse its father, and will not bless its mother.

12A generation pure in its eyes, and not washed from its finding.

13A generation, how its eyes were raised up and its eyelashes will be lifted up.

14A generation, its teeth swords, and its biter's teeth, knives, to devour the poor from the land, and the needy from man.

15To the leech two daughters: Give, give. Behold, three shall not satisfied; four shall not say, Wealth:

16Hades; and the closed womb; the earth not filled with water; and fire said not, Wealth.

17The eye shall mock to his father, and despise to obey the mother, the ravens of the valley shall bore it out and the sons of the eagle shall eat it.

18They three were wonderful above me; and four, I knew them not:

19The way of the eagle in the heavens; the way of the serpent upon the rock; the way of the ship in the heart of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.

20So the way of a woman committing adultery; eating and wiping her mouth, and saying, I transgressed not.

21For three the earth was moved, and for four, which it shall not be able to lift up:

22For a servant when he shall reign; and the foolish one when he shall be filled with bread;

23For a hated woman when she shall be married and a maid when she shall inherit to her mistress.

24They four the small of the earth, and they are wise, being made wise:

25The ants a people not strong, and they will prepare their bread in the summer;

26The rabbits a people not strong, and they will set their house in the rock;

27To the locust no king, and it will go forth divided all of them;

28The lizard will take hold with their hands, and it is in the temples of the king.

29They three making good the step, and four, making good to go:

30The lion strong among cattle, and he will not turn back from the face of all;

31One girded in loins, or a he goat; and a king, no rising up with him.

32If thou wert foolish in lifting up thyself, and if thou purposed, the hand to the mouth.

33For the pressure of milk will bring forth cheese, and the pressure of the nose will bring forth blood: and the pressure of wrath will, bring forth contention.