"The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake onto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal, Surely I am more brutish than any man. and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."
We have now finished what are properly the proverbs of Solomon; consisting, after the introductory part of the book,-of the proverbs selected by himself,-and those subsequently copied out from his larger collection by the men of God in the days of Hezekiah. What remains in the 30th and 31st chapters, may be regarded as a kind of appendix to the book; and in all probability was added by the same persons; no doubt under divine guidance.
The first verse may be considered as the title prefixed by them to this small portion of inspired truth, which they were thus directed to preserve from oblivion, and to insert in the canon of holy writ. It is a small portion, consisting of no more than this one chapter. And yet it is not smaller than the words of Obadiah in the Old Testament, or the Epistle of Jude in the New. The occasional sayings and the inspired prophecies of others besides Agur are recorded in the histories of the Bible, although not assigned, any more than his, a distinct and distinctly titled place in the Canon. The apostle Jude, in his epistle, short as it is, has redeemed from being forgotten and lost one of the earliest prophecies delivered in the history of our world,-the prophecy of "Enoch, the seventh from Adam." Had the chapter before us been separated from the book of Proverbs, and placed alone, with the Title in the first verse prefixed to it, it would have borne resemblance in length to one of the small books referred to-"The Vision of Obadiah."
Agur must have been well-known as a "man of God;"-even although it may be doubted, as by some it has been, whether he belonged to the number of those who were called the "sons of the prophets,"-and who were trained in the seminaries called the "schools of the prophets." The doubt has been founded on what he says of himself in the third verse-"I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy;" which has been interpreted as amounting to much the same thing with the words of Amos-"I am not a prophet, neither a prophet's son." How far this may be correct and conclusive, I will not pretend to say. We know nothing of Agur from Scripture history; and but little of him here.
His "words" are called a "prophecy." It is, in the Hebrew, the term which, in some passages,* is translated "burden." It occurs again in Pro_31:1:-and both there and here it means a weighty and divinely dictated discourse or writing. This portion, then, of the sayings of Agur,-of what he delivered in the form of inspired instructions, has thus been, in divine providence, preserved, and, with the sanction of other inspired men, assigned a place in the sacred Canon.
* e.g. Isa_13:1; Isa_15:1, and Hab_1:1.
Some of the ancient fathers had a fancy that by Agur was meant Solomon himself. But this could have no foundation but the place in which the words are inserted; which is but slender evidence. They probably got their place here, in consequence of the resemblance they bore to the contents in general of tho book to which they are appended.
"The man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal." Some translations have it-touching, or concerning, Ithiel and Ucal:-but it is much more likely that Ithiel and Ucal were two of Agur's pupils.
Some have regarded the import of the names Ithiel and Ucal, of which the one signifies God with me, and the other the Mighty or the Mighty one,-not as names, but as expressing the nature of the prophecy or of its subject. But this seems a mere fancy,-both in itself, and in any attempt to make out the appropriateness of the terms as descriptive of the lessons contained in the chapter. Almost all Hebrew names were significant: and the common opinion, as in many other cases, we take to be the true one,-that Ithiel and Ucal, as already mentioned, were two of Agur's disciples; to whom he addressed his instructions, very probably in answer to inquiries from them. Only make the supposition (not in itself surely an improbable one) that they had put to him some questions on topics of a mysterious nature,-topics surpassing the apprehension of the human intellect, and on which God had not been pleased to make any discoveries,-some of the "deep things of God,"-the "secret things which belong unto the Lord:"-make, I say, the supposition; and it imparts a propriety and emphasis to his words-those especially with which he commences, peculiarly striking: *-
* Stuart, supported by several other able critics, gives a widely different rendering of the first verse from that of cur English translation:-"The words of Agur, the son of her who was obeyed in Massa. Thus spake the man: I have toiled for God; I have toiled for God, and have ceased." This rendering does not involve " the change or omission" of even "a single consonant" of the Hebrew text, but only an alteration of the Masoretic vowel points. If the reasons assigned for it may not be regarded as conclusive, they seem at least to establish a strong probability in its favour. Stuart's long and elaborate note is worthy of perusal by those interested in such a critical question.
Verses Pro_30:2-3. "Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy."-This language, observe, is not the language of another about Agur; but his own words about himself: and we should be about as near the truth were we to regard him as a man destitute of ordinary understanding, and little if at all above the level of the brutes, because he speaks thus of himself, as if we were to regard the Apostle of the Gentiles as hardly having about him as much of the character of a child of God as to admit of his being looked upon as one, because he calls himself "less than the least of all saints." In both cases we have the language of strong feeling-the feeling of deep personal abasement and conscious deficiency. And such language is never measured and precise; it is always very strong,-always in hyperbole. Imagine Agur bringing the powers of his mind to the trial, on some subject of mysterious depth or sublime and incomprehensible vastness; feeling his incompetency to fathom or to grasp it; sinking under the weight of the difficulty, and the consciousness of his ignorance and weakness, when his intellect was put to such a test;-his breaking out, in terms of extravagance in expressing the feeling with which he was burdened, is in perfect harmony with nature. As Asaph, when, recovering from his temptation, and made sensible of its extreme foolishness, exclaims-"I was as a beast before thee!"-so Agur, feeling the subjects under his consideration utterly above and beyond him, seems to himself as if he had no understanding at all: and indeed it is neither impossible nor improbable, that, in the humility of his spirit, he might think his ignorance and incompetency to be owing, in part, to his deficiency in spirituality of mind, and in becoming elevation of thought and of aspiration after God;-sensible as he must have been then, as we all are now, how much views of divine things are often obscured, and rising affections and earnest aspirings after The Great and The Good,-after the knowledge of God and of heavenly and eternal realities,-are kept down by the influence of the flesh and the world.
It is not unlikely that Ithiel and Ucal had shown a propensity to pry into the secrets of God,-to desire discoveries which God had not been pleased to make,-and to urge their desire with a vehemence and importunity, which, however natural, went beyond what was becoming. Their teacher sets them an example,-an example of the humbleness of mind which belongs to creatures of limited faculties, and dependence on God for the knowledge of what was beyond their own penetration. He expresses himself strongly, in order to impress their minds the more deeply. Arid the more they had been accustomed to look up to him as their superior, with admiration and confidence, the more would they be surprised and struck by the force of his expressions of almost selfannihilation, in regard to the subjects of their inquiries,-respecting which he might have seen them (as is too often the case with those whom experience has not yet shown the limits of their faculties, and the humility which the lesson inspires) too self-sufficient, and hard to satisfy with anything short of the wished-for information. Agur had become duly sensible how little it was that he possessed of wisdom and knowledge,-especially in what regarded the highest of all the fields of human investigation,-the being, the attributes, the counsels, the ways, of the Most High and the Most Holy.
In the third verse, "the Holy" is in the original a plural word-the Holies, or the Holy Ones. It is the same as in Pro_9:10. The comparison of the two passages shows clearly that it is a designation of Deity:-and the plural nouns which are thus, in different ways and in different instances, used in regard to Jehovah, are justly regarded as having a reference in them to the personal distinction in the unity of the Godhead. And what if the nature of Deity, in this and in other respects, was one of the very subjects of the inquisitive speculation of these disciples of Agur?
It is as if he had said to them:-"You ascribe wisdom and knowledge to your instructor:-you look up to him for information, and for the solution of your difficulties, the unravelling of your perplexities, the clearing of your darkness. But you expect a great deal more from him than he is able to communicate. I have thought of your questions; I have exhausted the powers of my mind upon them; and, whatever may be the effect of the avowal upon you,-how much soever it may possibly let down your teacher in your eyes,-the avowal must be made of my ignorance and incompetency,-with a sense of which, deeper than ever, the consideration of them has overwhelmed me!" Then, to check their presumption,-to impress them with the reasonableness of being, on some subjects, satisfied in ignorance,-subjects manifestly beyond man's unassisted powers, and beyond the boundary which divine revelation has prescribed for itself,-subjects which God has not explained, and of which, perhaps, no explanation that could be given would be intelligible to the mental capacities of man,-subjects relative to "the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity"-who "dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto"-"whom no man hath seen or can see,"-and whose "ways are high above out of our sight"-he adds:-
Verse Pro_30:4. "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?"-Of these striking words the general spirit appears to me to be the same with that of Job_11:7-9; Job_11:12; the subject of which is the incomprehensibility of God. We cannot scale the height, we cannot fathom the depth, we cannot reach the length, we cannot embrace the width, of the vast, the illimitable subject. Such is the lesson of these words now before us:-"Who hath ascended up into heaven?"-that is, to see the glories of the Invisible,-to learn the secrets of the world unknown,-to read the books of providence, and grace, and judgment? And who hath "descended?"-that is, to bring down and to communicate the discoveries He has made? No man has mounted to the third heavens, and explored their hidden wonders,-and received a commission to carry back the revelation of what he has seen and heard to the sons of men-the children of earth. If such a man there be, "What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?''-who and where is he?-and who and where are they that have the privilege and the honour of connexion with him? What is his name? Is he on earth? Or, if he himself has gone the way of all living, what is his son's name? Point out the descendants of the man whom God has thus supremely distinguished. This is neither more nor less than a challenge to find and to name one, either now existing, or in all preceding ages, who has had an intuitive and perfect acquaintance with the mysteries of God's being, and the secrets of God's mind:-and it implies a strong admonition to humblemindedness,-to beware of presumption,-to be satisfied with the amount of divine communications. Something further than this, indeed, there is. The language clearly conveys the sentiment, that no one but a being who himself possesses the perfections, and exercises the powers, and performs the works of God, can be capable of comprehending God. This seems the intended import of the questions-"Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth?" Find me out the man who has done, or who can do, these things; and I will show you the man who is competent to answer your questions,-to penetrate the depths of God, and to give you full satisfaction. One thing indeed might still be wanting. They might themselves require to have the same capacities and powers with the man who made the communications, in order to their being able to comprehend them. The plain import is-He who has done, and continues to do, these things, is God himself,-and by God himself alone can God be comprehended.
By some commentators these words have been understood as containing "a prophetic intimation of Him who came down from heaven to be our instructor and Saviour, and then ascended into heaven to be our advocate; who, as one with the Father, created and upholds all things; who was known in some measure to the ancient church as Jehovah, I AM, and the only-begotten Son of God; and from whom alone the knowledge of God can be obtained. The name of the great Creator, as manifested through his Son, appears to be inquired after; and who is that wise and happy man who has obtained this knowledge?"
While it ought ever to be interesting to the believer's mind to find his Lord in every passage of the Bible that will justly bear to be interpreted of Him, yet, most assuredly, the true way to honour the divine Author of the Bible, as I have had more than once occasion to observe, is-to endeavour to discover, in all cases, the precise meaning of every portion of it,-to find what was the design of the Holy Spirit,-what the lesson which was intended by Him to be conveyed. This should, in every case, be our sole and earnest aim.
Now the view of this passage which has just been mentioned I cannot regard as at all the true one, for the following reasons:-
First, The form of question here implies the idea of difficulty or impossibility to tell either the name of him who hath "gathered the winds in his fists, or bound the waters in a garment, or established all the ends of the earth,"-or "the name of his son." Now, considering the question as relating to the actual Creator and Governor of the physical universe and the elements and powers of nature, there could exist no difficulty to tell who did the things specified,-to tell the name of the almighty Maker and Superintendent of all things.
Secondly, The question, "What is his name, or what is his son's name?" applies, you observe, to the same person of whom it is also asked, "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?" Now, if this be supposed to refer to Jesus, the future Immanuel, then what are we to make of the additional question, "What is his son's name?" And the question, "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?" cannot apply (nor is it at all pretended that it does) to the Father. Then-
Thirdly, According to the terms of the exposition quoted, that there is a prophetic reference to Him who came down from heaven to be our Instructor and Saviour, and then ascended to heaven to be our Advocate-the questions in the passage ought to be inverted in their order, and should have stood-"Who hath descended from heaven, and ascended?" In the order in which they stand, they do not seem susceptible of any other sense than that which we have put upon them:-namely this, "Where is the man,-where are there any traces of his existence? where is his son, that we may find his genealogy?" "You make your inquiries at me, (as if Agur had said,) but have I gathered the wind in my fists? have I bound up the waters in a garment? have I established the ends of the earth? And before you can obtain satisfactory information, you must find the man who has done all this."
While I say these things in regard to the immediate and proper sense of the passage, I am far from denying-I rejoice in believing-that what is said in it is, in the fullest amount of its meaning, true respecting Jesus of Nazareth-"God manifest in the flesh." Yet even now, when we have obtained, and happily enjoy, the full and clear revelation of the mind and will of Jehovah;-in this gospel age, when "the darkness is past, and the true light shineth"-when, though "no man hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared him,"-when "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath spoken unto us by his Son:"-even now, are there no questions of perplexing difficulty to be asked?-is everything that was before mysterious respecting God and the ways of God, now plain and easily comprehensible? No, verily. Many are the inquiries which may yet be put, which the revelation of God has not answered:-and even of what revelation has made known, many are the explanations which may be desired and sought, which He has not seen meet to give. Still we stand in need of lessons of humility; lessons of selfdiffidence; lessons of gratitude for what has been made known to us, and of patient and submissive acquiescence in that measure of knowledge, without prying into what God has seen meet to withhold and to keep among the "secret things which belong to Himself." It is ours to "receive with meekness" what God has taught us, and not to attempt making additions to His lessons,-"intruding into those things which we have not seen, vainly puffed up by our fleshly minds." It is well, brethren, to have our minds fully disciplined to this. And this, accordingly, is the lesson pressed by Agur on each of his disciples, and through them upon us.
Verse Pro_30:5. "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." "Every word of God is pure." Yes: how can it be otherwise? If it be asked respecting man, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" so may it be asked respecting God, "What but what is pure can come from untainted purity?" The same character is everywhere given of God's word.* It "is pure," as being truth without any mixture of error. It "is pure," as being perfectly free of all deceitful purpose-all its promises faithful. It "is pure," as having in every part of it a holy influence. It "is pure" in its own nature, like the God whose word it is; and "pure" in all the effects which arise from it,-the characters which the faith of it produces being counterparts to itself,-God's word making those who receive it like Himself.
* Psa_12:6; Psa_18:30; Psa_119:140; Rom_7:12.
There is, perhaps, in the expression here a more immediate reference to the unmingled truth of God's word. This suits the connexion with what follows:-"He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." Scepticism and infidelity unsettle the mind. They leave it without confidence and without security. The mind under their influence is like a vessel that has drifted from its moorings, and has been left to drive out to sea, without rudder and without anchor,-unmanned, and at the mercy of the winds and waves and currents:-or, to keep nearer to the allusion in the verse under comment, it is like a soldier in the thick and peril of the battle without a shield, in danger from every arrow that flies, and every sword that is raised against him. They make their unhappy subject the sport and the victim of every delusive theory and every temptation of Satan. Hence such expressions as that of Paul to the Ephesians:-
"Over all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall bo able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." God is the "shield" of all who trust in Him. And it is the trust,-it is the firm faith in God,-that imparts the feeling of security. So, what is here said of God himself is said of His truth or faithfulness:-"His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." God could not be "a shield," though His power be almighty, unless He were faithful. It is His faithfulness that renders Him the object of trust. And when this view of God's faithfulness is such as to impart perfect trust-the spirit, calm and tranquil, feels as if it were under the protection of an all-covering shield.*
* The figure is frequent:-Gen_15:1: Psa_89:11; Psa_111:2, &c.
The sixth verse (Pro_30:6) contains a most solemn and important caution:-"Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." "We take the word of God as we have received it. What Paul says of the books of the Old Testament, which formed the Jewish canon in his day, may be applied to the whole Bible-"All scripture is given by inspiration of God." We have the surest ground for believing that the books of both Testaments have all on sufficient authority had their place assigned them in the sacred canon. The very circumstance of some of them having been disputed, only shows the jealousy with which the claims of each were scrutinized ere they were admitted. And to the word of God in general, as well as to the book of prophecy in which they immediately occur, may we truly apply the language-language expressing only more fully and pointedly still the lesson of this verse-"I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book," Rev_22:18-19.
Of inspired men it was the sacred duty to deliver the word of the Lord exactly as it was communicated to them,-without addition, deduction, or alteration. The charge of God was-"The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord," Jer_23:28. The maxim of the true prophets under the old dispensation was-"As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak." And what Micaiah and others exemplified faithfully under the old economy, Paul and his associates in the ministry exemplified under the new:-"For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ." "Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God," 2Co_2:17; 2Co_4:1-2.
Our duty, my brethren, is clear. It is to KEEP BY THE INSPIRED RECORD; to keep by it sacredly, implicitly, with a holy jealousy for its supreme, sole, and universal authority. As Protestants, we disown all human infallibility;-the authority of all traditions,-of all the dicta of the Fathers,-of all the decrees of councils, whether provincial or oecumenical. Our motto is-"THE BIBLE, AND THE BIBLE ALONE, IS THE RELIGION OF PROTESTANTS." Let us see that we firmly cling to our motto, and that we consistently and uniformly act upon it. It is not merely when, like some enthusiasts, we pretend to receive, ourselves, communications from the Spirit of God of equal authority with his written word, or when we rely upon such communications as are received by others,-that we are chargeable with the guilt of "adding to his words." There are other grounds on which this charge may be found to lie against us. We are thus guilty, when we make any part of the written word itself express a sentiment different from, or even beyond, that which God, by the Holy Spirit, intended it to convey. Our exclusive inquiry should be-What did the divine Author of the Bible mean by this sentence, by this section, or even by this expression? When we have ascertained and expounded the meaning, we may then take it up as a subject for more enlarged illustration and proof from other parts of Scripture; ever bearing in mind that while we are doing so, each portion of the word that is adduced for illustration or evidence be treated precisely on the same principle,-no one of them being ever used beyond its proper amount of meaning.
The same principle should make critics very cautious in applying the principle of conjectural emendation-altering words so as to express what they think must have been the sense of the writer. This is extremely hazardous. There is a strong temptation to introduce the application of the principle, when by the alteration the passage is made to speak a language that accords with their preconceived opinions. And commentators and paraphrasts should be on their guard, what phrases they use as synonymous with those of the writer on whom they are commenting,-and equally upon their guard in the use of supplements, for the making out and the clearer expression of the sense. Moreover, in every case in which it can be made clearly to appear, that any word, or phrase, or sentence, has been, under whatever circumstances, foisted into the text in after times, and that it formed no part of the original writing,-the same principle imperatively requires, that we do not employ that word, or phrase, or sentence, or paragraph, as possessing the authority of God;-and if it be of doubtful authenticity, the doubt must in justice be carried forward to the inference we draw, and the conclusion to which we are led by it. We ought to regard nothing as more fearful, and more anxiously to be shunned, than making the God of truth affirm what he did not mean to affirm, or deny what he did not mean to deny: and so, in effect, to put the seal of heaven to a forgery of our own. And on all points which are of a mysterious character, it becomes us to be very diffident and cautious:-where the simple fact is stated, and no explanation given, we must beware of attaching to our own explanations the authority of the word of God. By attempting to unfold the mode of the fact, where the fact alone is stated, we are in danger of "adding to God's word," and of being "found liars," and exposed to His just reproof and punishment.
My brethren-if ever there was a time when a more than ordinary strictness of attention to the principle in this verse was demanded-it is the time in which we live. Let us see that we not only in words assert and maintain it, but in all our practice conscientiously and scrupulously exemplify it,-and press the example on the universal and undeviating imitation of our fellow-christians. Let Christians seek more, at the same time, of a deep and humble sense of their own ignorance, and of their natural perverseness; their inaptitude and slowness to learn the lessons of divine wisdom,-their proneness to spiritual pride,-to the independence of thinking for themselves, and of interpreting God's lessons in a sense of their own,-to being dissatisfied with the measure of divine communications, and adding thereto presumptuously human speculations and inventions. Let us learn, in the humble and docile spirit of children, to sit at the feet of our gracious Instructor,-thankful for all that He gives us to know, and never allowing what we do know to be unsettled in our minds by what we do not know. Let us neither make the God of truth a liar by disbelieving aught that He testifies, nor expose ourselves to His reproof as liars by presuming to add to His words what He has not testified. The prayer which becomes us is that of the psalmist-"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."-"Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day."
And let not any be startled at finding in the word of God statements which are above their apprehension. If there are mysteries in the works of God,-should we not expect to find them in His word?-if in nature, why not in revelation?-if in all that God has done, how much more in GOD HIMSELF?-There is not a single department of His works of which the investigation does not bring us to a stand,-to points beyond which we are unable to penetrate. Were everything in that part of the divine administration which His word unfolds perfectly level to every capacity, so as to suggest no questions of perplexity, and to give no occasion for the exclamation-"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me!"-there would be an incongruity between His word and His works. And when we are lost among the works of God, in every direction in which we can explore them, how specially unreasonable to suppose that in the divine nature itself there should be nothing transcending our comprehension;-that we should be competent to search out God, when we are unable to search out any one of His works!-that we should be able to comprehend the mode of His subsistence, when we are unable to understand our own,-unable to answer the question What is life?-unable to explain the connection between the soul and the body-their mutual influence upon each other, and the power which, on the formation of any volition, sets the energies of the physical frame to work for its accomplishment. Let all, then, be diffident and humble in regard to divine communications; and beware of that spirit of lofty and independent speculation which makes light of all that it is required to receive on dictation. Let the evidences of revelation, by all means, be studied and investigated; and when the Bible has had its claims to divine authority satisfactorily established, let the sole question be,-What saith the Scripture? The design of revelation is infinitely gracious-"to show unto men the way of salvation." That is its own peculiar lesson. If that is missed, all is missed that is worth finding:-for what is all else besides, if it leaves you WITHOUT SALVATION?
