Proverbs 30

The Oracle of Agur

¹The words of Agur, son of Yakeh, the oracle.

²Certainly I am more stupid than a man,

³And I have not learned wisdom,

⁴Who has ascended to heaven and come down?

⁵Every word of God is flawless;

⁶Do not add to his words

⁷Two things I ask from you;

⁸Keep falsehood and a lying word far from me;[#Literally “word of a lie”]

⁹Or else I will be satisfied and will deny him

Or I will be poor and will steal

¹⁰Do not slander a servant to his master,

¹¹There is a generation that will curse its father,

¹²There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes,

¹³There is a generation—how lofty are their eyes!

¹⁴There is a generation whose teeth are swords,

in order to devour the poor from the earth

¹⁵For the leech, there are two daughters;

As for three of these, they are not satisfied;

¹⁶Sheol and barrenness of womb,[#A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld]

¹⁷The eye that mocks a father

the ravens of the valley will peck it out,

¹⁸Three of these are too wonderful for me,

¹⁹the way of the eagle in the sky,

²⁰This is the way of a woman committing adultery:

²¹Under three things the earth trembles,[#Or “land”]

²²under a slave when he becomes king,

²³under an unloved woman when she gets married,

²⁴There are four small things on the earth,

²⁵The ants are a people who are not strong,

²⁶the badgers are a people who are not mighty,

²⁷there is no king for the locust,

²⁸a lizard you can seize with hands,

²⁹There are three things that are magnificent of stride,

³⁰a mighty lion among the beasts,[#Hebrew “beasts”]

³¹a strutting rooster or he-goat,

³²If you have been foolish by exalting yourself,

³³For pressing milk produces curd,