Proverbs 30

1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh—the burden. An utterance of the strong man to Ithiel; to Ithiel and Ucal.

2 “Surely I [am] more brutish than man, and the understanding of man [is] not unto me.

3 And I have not learned wisdom or known the knowledge of holy ones.

4 Who has gone up [to] the heavens and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What [is] His name, and what [is] the name of His Son? Surely you must know!

5 Every word of God is refined; He [is] a shield for those taking refuge in Him.

6 Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

7 Two [things] I have asked of You—do not withhold [them] from me before I die:

8 Put vanity and the word of a lie far away from me; do not give poverty or wealth to me; provide me the bread of my portion,

9 lest I become satisfied and I deny and say, ‘Who [is] YHWH?’ And lest I become dispossessed and steal, and I seize the name of my God.

10 Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you and you be found guilty.

11 A generation lightly esteems its father, and does not bless its mother.

12 A generation [is] pure in its own eyes and yet has not been washed from its filth.

13 A generation—how high its eyes, and its eyelids are lifted up!

14 A generation—its teeth [are] swords and its fangs [are] knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and needy ones from mankind.

15 Unto the leech [are] two daughters—‘Give, [and] Give. Three [things] are never satisfied, four never say, ‘Enough!’:

16 Sheol, and the barren womb, earth not satisfied with water, and the fire never having said, ‘Enough!’

17 The eye [that] mocks at a father and despises obedience to a mother—the ravens of the valley will dig it out, and the young eagles will eat it.

18 Three [things], they are wonderful for me, and four, I cannot know them:

19 The way of an eagle in the heavens, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maiden.

20 This [is] the way of a woman committing adultery: She eats and has wiped her mouth and has said, ‘I have not done wickedness.’

21 For three things the earth has trembled, and for four it is not able to bear up:

22 Under a servant when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with food,

23 under a hated woman when she is married, and a maidservant when she dispossesses her mistress.

24 Four [things], they [are] small on the earth; they are wiser than wise:

25 The ants [are] a people not strong, and they prepare their food in the summer;

26 the rock badgers [are] a people not strong, and they set their home in the cliffs;

27 a king [is] not unto the locust, and go they forth in formation, all of them;

28 the lizard can be caught in one’s hands, and it [is] in the palaces of king.

29 Three [things], they [are] are doing well of step, even four are doing well in the walk:

30 A lion, mighty among the beasts, and it does not turn back from the face of anything;

31 one girded of loins, or a he-goat, and a king with his army around him.

32 If you have been foolish in lifting up yourself, and if you have schemed—hand to mouth!

33 For [as] the churning of milk brings forth butter, and pressing of the nose brings forth blood, so the pressing of anger brings forth strife.”