잠언 30

The words of Agur

¹The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh, an oracle. This man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:^{ab 2}I am surely the most ignorant of all people; \q I lack ordinary human understanding. ³I have not learned wisdom, \q nor do I have knowledge of the Holy One. ⁴Who has climbed up to heaven and come back down? Who has caught the wind in the palms of his hands? Who has bundled the waters in a cloak? \q Who has fixed all the boundaries of the earth? \q What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me, if you know!^{c 5}Every word God speaks is proven true; \q he is a shield to all who take refuge in him. ⁶Do not add anything to his words, \q or he will correct you and show you to be a liar.

⁷I ask you for two things; \q grant them to me before I die: ⁸Keep falsehood and lies far away from me; \q give me neither poverty nor wealth, \q but feed me with the bread I need each day, ⁹so that I do not have too much and disown you, asking, \q “Who is the LORD?” \q or have too little and steal, \q and so bring disgrace on my God’s name.

¹⁰Do not speak against a servant to his master, \q or the servant will call down a curse on you, and you will be found guilty. ¹¹There are people who curse their fathers \q and never speak well of their mothers. ¹²There are people who think they are clean, \q yet their filth has never been washed away. ¹³There are people whose eyes are so haughty, \q whose glances are full of scorn! ¹⁴There are people whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives, \q to devour the afflicted off the earth \q and the needy from the human race.

¹⁵The leech has two daughters, both called “Give!” Three things can never be filled; \q four never say, “Enough!”: ¹⁶Sheol, the barren womb, \q land that never has its fill of water, \q and fire that never says, “Enough!” ¹⁷The eye that sneers at a father and scorns to obey a mother \q will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley \q and eaten by young vultures.

¹⁸There are three things that amaze me, \q four that are beyond my understanding: ¹⁹An eagle making its way through the sky, a snake gliding over a rock, \q a ship finding its way across the open sea, \q and the way a man and a young woman come together. ²⁰This is how an adulteress behaves: \q she eats, wipes her mouth, \q and says, “I did no wrong.”

²¹The earth shakes under three things; \q there are four it cannot endure: ²²a servant who becomes king, \q a fool who has more than enough to eat, ²³an unloved woman who finally gets a husband, \q and a servant girl who takes her mistress’s place.

²⁴On earth there are four small creatures \q that are wiser than the wise: ²⁵ants are a people without strength, \q yet they store up their food in summer; ²⁶rock badgers are a feeble folk, \q yet they set up house among the crags; ²⁷locusts have no king, \q yet they all march out in ordered ranks; ²⁸a lizard can be caught in the hand, \q yet it lives in kings’ palaces.

²⁹There are three things that move with dignity, \q four that have a stately walk: ³⁰the lion, strongest among the animals, \q which retreats from nothing; ³¹the strutting rooster, the he-goat, \q and a king at the head of his troops.^{de 32}If you have played the fool by putting yourself forward, \q or if you have been scheming, \q put your hand over your mouth! ³³For as churning milk produces butter, \q and pressing the nose produces blood, \q so pressing anger produces a quarrel.