Dual Panel1Sayings of Agur son of Jakeh from Massa: This is the great man's very word: I am weary, God, I am weary and worn out;
2I am a dumb beast, scarcely a man, without a man's powers of understanding;
3I have not learnt wisdom, nor have I attained to knowledge of the Most Holy One.
4Who has ever gone up to heaven and come down again? Who has cupped the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has bound up the waters in the fold of his garment? Who has fixed all the boundaries of the earth? What is his name or his son's name? Surely you know!
5God's every promise has stood the test: he is a shield to all who take refuge in him.
6Add nothing to his words, or he will convict you and expose you as a liar.
7Two things I ask of you -- do not withhold them in my lifetime:
8put fraud and lying far from me; give me neither poverty nor wealth, but provide me with the food I need,
9for if I have too much I shall deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” and if I am reduced to poverty I shall steal and besmirch the name of my God.
10Never disparage a slave to his master, or he will speak ill of you and you will be held guilty.
11There are certain people who defame their fathers and speak ill of their own mothers.
12There are people who are pure in their own estimation, yet are not cleansed of their filth.
13There are people -- how haughty are their looks, how disdainful their glances! --
14there are people whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives; they devour the wretched from the earth and the needy from among mankind.
15The leech has two daughters; “Give,” says one, and “Give,” says the other. Three things there are which will never be satisfied, four which never say, “Enough!”
16Sheol, a barren woman, a land thirsty for water, and fire that never says, “Enough!”
17The eye that mocks a father or scorns a mother's old age will be plucked out by the ravens of the valley or eaten by young vultures.
18Three things there are which are too wonderful for me, four which are beyond my understanding:
19the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent over rock, the way of a ship out at sea, and the way of a man with a girl.
20The way of an unfaithful wife is this: she eats, then wipes her mouth and says, “I have done nothing wrong.”
21Under three things the earth shakes, four things it cannot bear:
22a slave becoming king, a fool gorging himself,
23a hateful woman getting wed, and a slave supplanting her mistress.
24Four things there are which are smallest on earth yet wise beyond the wisest:
25ants, a folk with no strength, yet they prepare their store of food in the summer;
26rock-badgers, a feeble folk, yet they make their home among the rocks;
27locusts, which have no king, yet they all sally forth in formation;
28the lizard, which can be grasped in the hand, yet is found in the palaces of kings.
29Three things there are which are stately in their stride, four which are stately as they move:
30the lion, mighty among beasts, which will not turn tail for anyone;
31the strutting cock, the he-goat, and a king going forth at the head of his army.
32If you are churlish and arrogant and given to scheming, hold your tongue;
33for as the pressing of milk produces curd, and the pressing of the nose produces blood, so the pressing of anger leads to strife.