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📚✭The words of Agur the son of Jakeh,the oracle.
The man spoke to Ithiel,
yes, to Ithiel and Ucal:
2 📚✭Surely I am more stupid than
any man,
and do not have the understanding
of a man.
3 📚I have not learned wisdom,
nor do I have the knowledge of the holy.
4 📚✭Who has ascended into heaven,
or descended?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name,
and what is his son’s name,
if you can tell?
5 📚Every word of God is pure.
He is a shield to those who
put their trust in him.
6 📚Do not add to his words,
lest he rebuke you,
and you are found to be a liar.
7 📚✭Two things I have asked of you, LORD;
do not refuse them to me before I die:
8 📚Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but feed me with my allotted portion
of food,
9 📚Or I may become full, and deny you,
and say, “Who is the LORD?”,
or if I am poor I may steal and
bring dishonour to the name of my God.
10 📚Do not accuse a servant to his master,
lest he curse you, and you be found guilty.
11 📚There is a generation that
curses its father,
and does not bless its mother.
12 📚There is a generation that is
pure in its own eyes,
and yet is not washed from its filthiness.
13 📚There is a generation – oh,
how haughty are their eyes!
And their eyelids are raised in disdain.
14 📚There is a generation whose teeth
are like swords,
and whose jaw teeth are like knives,
to devour the poor from the earth,
and the needy from among men.
15 📚The leech has two daughters,
crying, “Give, give”.
There are three things that are never satisfied,
yes, four things never say, “Enough”:
16 📚The grave✭, and the barren✭ womb,
the earth that is not filled with water,
and the fire that does not say, “Enough”.
17 📚✭The eye of him who mocks
at his father,
and scorns obedience to his mother,
will be plucked out by the ravens of the valley,
and the young eagles will eat it.
18 📚There are three things which
are too wonderful for me,
yes, four which I do not understand:
19 The way of an eagle in the air,
the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship in the middle of the sea,
and the way of a man with a maiden.
20 📚✭This is the way of an adulterous woman:
she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says,
“I have done nothing wrong!”
21 Under three things the earth shakes,
and under these four it cannot hold up:
22 📚Under a servant when he reigns,
and a fool when he is filled with food,
23 📚Under an unloved woman
when she is married,
and a maidservant who supplants her mistress.
24 📚✭There are four things which are
little on the earth,
but they are exceedingly wise:
25 📚The ants are not a strong folk,
yet they prepare their food in summer;
26 📚The conies✭, are only a feeble folk,
yet they make their houses in the rocks;
27 📚The locusts have no king,
yet they all go out in ranks;
28 The spider takes hold with its hands,
and is in kings’ palaces.
29 There are three things which
go at a stately pace, yes,
four are stately when they move:
30 📚A lion which is mighty among beasts
and does not turn aside for anything;
31 📚✭A strutting rooster✭; also a he-goat;
and a king, against whom there is
no rebellion.
32 📚If you have done foolishly in exalting yourself,
or if you have plotted evil,
lay your hand on your mouth✭.
33 📚Surely the churning of milk produces butter,
and the wringing of the nose brings out blood;
so the churning of wrath produces strife.