Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 30:7
Two [things] have I required of thee; deny me [them] not before I die:
Two things – The limitation of mans desires follows naturally upon his consciousness of the limits of his knowledge.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. Two things have I required of thee] These two petitions are mentioned in the next verse; and he wishes to have them answered before he should die. That is, he wishes the answer now, that he may live the rest of his life in the state he describes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Have I required; I do earnestly and especially desire Deny me them not before I die, Heb.
withhold them not from me before I die, i.e. whilst I live, as things of great and continual necessity for thy honour and service, and my own good.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7-9. A prayer for exemption fromwickedness, and the extremes of poverty and riches, the two thingsmentioned. Contentment is implied as desired.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Two [things] have I required of thee,…. Or, “have asked of thee a, O God”; as may be supplied, for the words are addressed to him. The following is a prayer made unto him, which contains the two requests here referred to; his requests are not many, his words are few; he did not make long prayers, or expect to be heard for much speaking;
deny me [them] not before I die; not that he thought he was near his end; nor is it his sense that he desired some time or other, at least before he died, that he might have these two requests granted him after mentioned; for what are poverty and riches, or convenient food, to a man just dying? but his meaning is, that he might be thus favoured as long as he lived; that all the while he was in the world, he might be kept from sin, and be free from anxious worldly thoughts and cares, having a moderate competency of good things: faith in prayer will have no denial; a wrestling Jacob will not let the angel go without a blessing; importunity in prayer gets much from the hands of God; “the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much”, Jas 5:16.
a “postulavi a te”, Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Mercerus, Gejerus; “peto ab te”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “petii a te”, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In what now follows, the key-note struck in Pro 30:1 is continued. There follows a prayer to be kept in the truth, and to be preserved in the middle state, between poverty and riches. It is a Mashal-ode, vid., vol. i. p. 12. By the first prayer, “vanity and lies keep far from me,” it is connected with the warning of Pro 30:6.
7 Two things I entreat from Thee,
Refuse them not to me before I die.
8 Vanity and lies keep far away from me
Poverty and riches give me not:
Cause me to eat the bread which is allotted to me,
9 Lest in satiety I deny,
And say: Who is Jahve?
And lest, in becoming poor, I steal,
And profane the name of my God.
We begin with the settlement and explanation of the traditional punctuation. A monosyllable like receives, if Legarmeh, always Mehuppach Legarmeh, while, on the contrary, the poly-syllable has Asla Legarmeh. , with double Makkeph and with Gaja in the third syllable before the tone (after the Metheg – Setzung, 28), is Ben-Asher’s; whereas Ben-Naphtali prefers the punctuation ( vid., Baer’s Genesis, p. 79, note 3). Also has (cf. , Pro 31:5) Makkeph, and on the antepenultima Gaja ( vid., Thorath Emeth, p. 32). The perf. consec. has on the ult. the disjunctive Zinnor ( Sarka), which always stands over the final letter; but that the ult. is also to be accented, is shown by the counter-tone Metheg, which is to be given to the first syllable. Also has in correct Codd., e.g., Cod. 1294, the correct ultima toning of a perf. consec.; Kimchi in the Michlol 6b, as well as Aben Ezra in both of his Grammars, quotes only as toned on the penult. That cannot be otherwise toned on account of the pausal accent, has been already remarked under 6b; the word, besides, belongs to the ” , i.e., to those which preserve their Pathach unlengthened by one of the greater disjunctives; the Athnach has certainly in the three so-called metrical books only the disjunctive form of the Zakeph of the prose books. So much as to the form of the text.
As to its artistic form, this prayer presents itself to us as the first of the numerical proverbs, under the “Words” of Agur, who delighted in this form of proverb. The numerical proverb is a brief discourse, having a didactic end complete in itself, which by means of numerals gives prominence to that which it seeks to bring forward. There are two kinds of these. The more simple form places in the first place only one numeral, which is the sum of that which is to be brought forth separately: the numerical proverb of one cipher; to this class belong, keeping out of view the above prayer, which if it did not commence a series of numerical proverbs does not deserve this technical name on account of the low ciphers: Pro 30:24-28, with the cipher 4; Sir. 25:1 and 2, with the cipher 3. Similar to the above prayer are Job 13:20., Isa 51:19; but these are not numerical proverbs, for they are not proverbs. The more artistic kind of numerical proverb has two ciphers: the two-ciphered numerical proverb we call the sharpened (pointed) proverb. Of such two-ciphered numerical proverbs the “words” of Agur contain four, and the whole Book of Proverbs, reckoning Pro 6:16-19, five – this ascending numerical character belongs to the popular saying, 2Ki 9:32; Job 33:29; Isa 16:6, and is found bearing the stamp of the artistic distich outside of the Book of Proverbs, Psa 62:12; Job 33:14; Job 40:5; Job 5:19, and particularly Amos 1:3-2:6. According to this scheme, the introduction of Agur’s prayer should be:
and it could take this form, for the prayer expresses two requests, but dwells exclusively on the second. A twofold request he presents to God, these two things he wishes to be assured of on this side of death; for of these he stands in need, so as to be able when he dies to look back on the life he has spent, without the reproaches of an accusing conscience. The first thing he asks is that God would keep far from him vanity and lying words. (= , from = , to be waste, after the form ) is either that which is confused, worthless, untrue, which comes to us from without ( e.g., Job 31:5), or dissoluteness, hollowness, untruthfulness of disposition ( e.g., Psa 26:4); it is not to be decided whether the suppliant is influenced by the conception thus from within or from without, since [a word of falsehood] may be said by himself as well as to him, a falsehood can intrude itself upon him. It is almost more probable that by he thought of the misleading power of God-estranged, idolatrous thought and action; and by , of lying words, with which he might be brought into sympathy, and by which he might ruin himself and others. The second petition is that God would give him neither poverty ( , vid., Pro 10:4) nor riches, but grant him for his sustenance only the bread of the portion destined for him. The Hiph. (from , to grind, viz., the bread with the teeth) means to give
(Note: The Venet. translates, according to Villoison, ; but the MS has, according to Gebhardt, .)
anything, as , with which, 31:15, is parallel: to present a fixed piece, a definite portion of sustenance. , Gen 47:22, the portion assigned as nourishment; cf. Job 23:14 , the decree determined regarding me. Accordingly, does not mean the bread appropriately measured out for me (like , that which is required for , subsistence), but the bread appropriate for me, determined for me according to the divine plan. Fleischer compares (Arab.) ratab and marsaum , which both in a similar way designate a fixed sustentation portion. And why does he wish to be neither poor nor rich? Because in both extremes lie moral dangers: in riches, the temptation to deny God (which ‘ signifies, in the later Heb. , to deny the fundamental truth; cf. (Arab.) kafar , unbelieving), whom one flowing in superabundance forgets, and of whom one in his self-indulgence desires to know nothing (Job 21:14-16; Job 22:16.); in poverty, the temptation is to steal and to blaspheme the name of God, viz., by murmuring and disputing, or even by words of blasphemy; for one who is in despair directs the outbreaks of his anger against God (Isa 8:21), and curses Him as the cause of His misfortune (Rev 16:11, Rev 16:21). The question of godless haughtiness, , the lxx improperly change into , . Regarding , to grow poor, or rather, since only the fut. Niph. occurs in this sense, regarding , vid., at Pro 20:13.
That the author here, by blaspheming (grasping at) the name of God, especially thinks on that which the Tora calls “cursing ( ) God,” and particularly “blaspheming the name of the Lord,” Lev 24:15-16, is to be concluded from the two following proverbs, which begin with the catchword :
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Prayer of Agur. | |
7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: 8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
After Agur’s confession and creed, here follows his litany, where we may observe,
I. The preface to his prayer: Two things have I required (that is, requested) of thee, O God! Before we go to pray it is good to consider what we need, and what the things are which we have to ask of God.–What does our case require? What do our hearts desire? What would we that God should do for us?–that we may not have to seek for our petition and request when we should be presenting it. He begs, Deny me not before I die. In praying, we should think of dying, and pray accordingly. “Lord, give me pardon, and peace, and grace, before I die, before I go hence and be no more; for, if I be not renewed and sanctified before I die, the work will not be done after; if I do not prevail in prayer before I die, prayers afterwards will not prevail, no, not Lord, Lord. There is none of this wisdom or working in the grave. Deny me not thy grace, for, if thou do, I die, I perish; if thou be silent to me, I am like those that go down to the pit, Ps. xxviii. 1. Deny me not before I die; as long as I continue in the land of the living, let me continue under the conduct of thy grace and good providence.”
II. The prayer itself. The two things he requires are grace sufficient and food convenient. 1. Grace sufficient for his soul: “Remove from me vanity and lies; deliver me from sin, from all corrupt principles, practices, and affections, from error and mistake, which are at the bottom of all sin, from the love of the world and the things of it, which are all vanity and a lie.” Some understand it as a prayer for the pardon of sin, for, when God forgives sin, he removes it, he takes it away. Or, rather, it is a prayer of the same import with that, Lead us not into temptation. Nothing is more mischievous to us than sin, and therefore there is nothing which we should more earnestly pray against than that we may do no evil. 2. Food convenient for his body. Having prayed for the operations of divine grace, he here begs the favours of the divine Providence, but such as may tend to the good and not to the prejudice of the soul. (1.) He prays that of God’s free gift he might receive a competent portion of the good things of this life: “Feed me with the bread of my allowance, such bread as thou thinkest fit to allow me.” As to all the gifts of the divine Providence, we must refer ourselves to the divine wisdom. Or, “the bread that is fit for me, as a man, a master of a family, that which is agreeable to my rank and condition in the world.” For as is the man so is his competency. Our Saviour seems to refer to this when he teaches us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread, as this seems to refer to Jacob’s vow, in which he wished for no more than bread to eat and raiment to put on. Food convenient for us is what we ought to be content with, though we have not dainties, varieties, and superfluities–what is for necessity, though we have not for delight and ornament; and it is what we may in faith pray for and depend upon God for. (2.) He prays that he may be kept from every condition of life that would be a temptation to him. [1.] He prays against the extremes of abundance and want: Give me neither poverty nor riches. He does not hereby prescribe to God, nor pretend to teach him what condition he shall allot to him, nor does he pray against poverty or riches absolutely, as in themselves evil, for either of them, by the grace of God, may be sanctified and be a means of good to us; but, First, He hereby intends to express the value which wise and good men have for a middle state of life, and, with submission to the will of God, desires that that might be his state, neither great honour nor great contempt. We must learn how to manage both (as St. Paul, Phil. iv. 12), but rather wish to be always between both. Optimus pecuni modus qui nec in paupertatem cedit nec procul paupertate discedit–The best condition is that which neither implies poverty nor yet recedes far from it. Seneca. Secondly, He hereby intimates a holy jealousy he had of himself, that he could not keep his ground against the temptations either of an afflicted or a prosperous condition. Others may preserve their integrity in either, but he is afraid of both, and therefore grace teaches him to pray against riches as much as nature against poverty; but the will of the Lord be done. [2.] He gives a pious reason for his prayer, v. 9. He does not say, “Lest I be rich, and cumbered with care, and envied by my neighbours, and eaten up with a multitude of servants, or, lest I be poor and trampled on, and forced to work hard and fare hard;” but, “Lest I be rich and sin, or poor and sin.” Sin is that which a good man is afraid of in every condition and under every event; witness Nehemiah (ch. vi. 13), that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin. First, He dreads the temptations of a prosperous condition, and therefore even deprecates that: Lest I be full and deny thee (as Jeshurun, who waxed fat and kicked, and forsook God who made him, Deut. xxxii. 15), and say, as Pharaoh in his pride, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? Prosperity makes people proud and forgetful of God, as if they had no need of him and were therefore under no obligation to him. What can the Almighty do for them? Job xxii. 17. And therefore they will do nothing for him. Even good men are afraid of the worst sins, so deceitful do they think their own hearts to be; and they know that the greatest gains of the world will not balance the least guilt. Secondly, He dreads the temptations of a poor condition, and for that reason, and no other, deprecates that: Lest I be poor and steal. Poverty is a strong temptation to dishonesty, and such as many are overcome by, and they are ready to think it will be their excuse; but it will not bear them out at God’s bar any more than at men’s to say, “I stole because I was poor;” yet, if a man steal for the satisfying of his soul when he is hungry, it is a case of compassion (ch. vi. 30) and what even those that have some principles of honesty in them may be drawn to. But observe why Agur dreads this, not because he should endanger himself by it, “Lest I steal, and be hanged for it, whipped or put in the stocks, or sold for a bondman,” as among the Jews poor thieves were, who had not wherewithal to make restitution; but lest he should dishonour God by it: “Lest I should steal, and take the name of my God in vain, that is, discredit my profession of religion by practices disagreeable to it.” Or, “Lest I steal, and, when I am charged with it, forswear myself.” He therefore dreads one sin, because it would draw on another, for the way of sin is downhill. Observe, He calls God his God, and therefore he is afraid of doing any thing to offend him because of the relation he stands in to him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Agur’s Desires
Verses 7-9 describe the things for which Agur prayed, revealing that his chief desire was to live in a manner that would honor and glorify God:
1) He prayed for removal of vanity and lies that would degrade his character and hinder his influence for the LORD.
2) He asked that he not be granted riches lest he become self-sufficient and not be aware of his need of the LORD, Ecc 4:6.
3) He asked that he be spared poverty lest he become embittered against God and steal.
4) In effect, ,he asked that God supply such needs as would permit him to best serve and honor the LORD.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(7) Two things have I required of thee.The commencement of a series of numerical proverbs. (See above on Pro. 6:16.)
Before I diei.e., while life lasts.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7, 8. These verses contain a direct address to God, although he is not named till towards the close of the prayer.
Two things They might seem at first sight to be three, but the last two clauses are substantially one:
Let me be neither poor nor rich.
Vanity and lies Deceptive and false things.
Food convenient for me “Sufficient for me.” Muenscher. “My allotted portion.” Stuart. My rations, or daily bread. The conception is given as that of a child at the family table, waiting to receive from the hand of the parent his “piece,” or allotted part of the loaf or cake of bread. He asks submissively for just as much as the wise and benevolent parent judges to be good for him necessary for his wants nothing more. The unleavened bread of the Orientals, baked usually every day, or meal, was broken or torn to pieces. Hence the original is, “Tear or break off (for me) my allotted portion of bread.” Comp. Mat 6:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Setting Priorities in Life – From this divine perspective, Agur better understood how to balance our pursuits of this world’s goods. By saying, “feed me with food convenient for me,” he is saying that he wants contentment in his life instead of the passion for riches and the sorrows of poverty. Paul teaches this divine truth to Timothy by telling him that godliness with contentment is great gain.
1Ti 6:6-8, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”
When Agur encountered the Lord, he was able to see the divine perspective of this world’s goods. God neither wants His children to lack, neither does He want them to put riches before godliness. This was Agur’s prayer, not that riches were wrong, but that a pure heart far outweighed riches in true value. With this attitude in prayer, the Lord is able to bless Agur as He blessed Solomon when this young king asked for wisdom above riches and power.
Pro 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
Pro 30:8
Mat 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Pro 30:9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
DISCOURSE: 824 Pro 30:7-9. Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
IT is the privilege of man to make known his requests to God in prayer, and to solicit from him whatever may conduce to his real good. Even temporal things may be asked, provided it be in subserviency to our spiritual interests, and with entire submission to the Divine will. Who Agur was, we cannot certainly determine; but he was evidently an inspired person [Note: His words are called prophecies. ver. 1.]; and his prayer in reference to his condition in this world is an excellent pattern for our imitation. He entreated the Lord with very great earnestness; yet he considered his condition in this world as altogether subordinate to his eternal welfare; and therefore in what he asked for his body, he consulted only the good of his soul.
We propose to consider,
I.
His request
Some interpret the former of his petitions as expressing a wish to be kept from error and delusion in spiritual matters; but we apprehend that the things which he requested were,
1.
A removal from the temptations of an exalted state
[He justly characterizes the pomp and splendour of the world as vanity and lies; vanity, because they are empty and unsatisfying; and lies, because they promise happiness to their possessors, but invariably disappoint them. In this light they are frequently represented in Scripture [Note: Psa 119:37; Psa 62:9.]; and they who have been most competent to judge respecting them, have been most forward to declare them mere vanity and vexation of spirit [Note: Ecc 2:11.].
Agur doubtless beheld them in this view, and therefore rather deprecated them as evils, than desired them as objects of his ambition.]
2.
A mediocrity of state and condition
[He did not, through a dread of wealth, desire to be reduced to poverty: he wished rather to stand at an equal distance from each extreme; and to enjoy that only which God should judge convenient for him. It is not easy for us to say precisely what a competency is; because it must vary according to mens education and habits; that being poverty to one, which would be riches to another: yet the line drawn by Agur, seems to mark the limits most agreeably to the mind of God, because it exactly corresponds with the views of patriarchs [Note: Gen 28:20.], of prophets [Note: Jer 45:5.], of Apostles [Note: 1Ti 6:8-10.], and particularly with the prayer which our blessed Lord himself has taught all his followers to use [Note: Mat 6:11 and the first clause of ver. 13. between which and Agurs prayer there is a remarkable agreement.].]
In urging his request, Agur manifested great zeal and earnestness: his whole soul appeared to be engaged in it: we are therefore interested in inquiring into,
II.
The reasons with which he enforced it
He was not actuated by any carnal motives, though he was praying about carnal things. It was not the incumbrances of wealth, or the hardships of poverty that he dreaded; he considered only the aspect of the different states upon his spiritual advancement; and deprecated them equally on account of the temptations incident to both.
1.
On account of the snares of wealth
[Riches foster the pride of the human heart, and engender a haughty and independent spirit. This was the effect of opulence on Gods people of old [Note: Deu 32:15. Hos 13:6.]; and the same baneful influence is observable in our day. The great consider it almost as an act of condescension to acknowledge God. Scarcely one of them in a thousand will endure to hear his name mentioned in private, or his will propounded as the proper rule of his conduct. The atheistical expressions in the text are indeed the language of his conduct, if not also of his lips [Note: See Exo 5:2. Psa 12:4.]. It is on this, as well as other accounts, that our Lord has spoken of riches as rendering our salvation difficult, yea impossible, without some signal interposition of divine grace [Note: Mat 19:23-26.]. And therefore every one who values his soul may well deprecate an exalted state.]
2.
On account of the snares of poverty
[Poverty has its snares no less than wealth: where its pressure is felt, the temptations to dishonesty are exceeding great. Even those who are in ease and affluence are too easily induced to deviate from the paths of strict integrity, especially when there appears but little probability of detection: how much more strongly then may a dishonest principle be supposed to operate, when called forth by necessity and distress! God appointed that a person suspected of theft should clear himself by an oath before a magistrate [Note: Exo 22:7-12 and 1Ki 8:31.]; but this was a feeble barrier against dishonesty; for he that will cheat, will lie; and, if urged to it, will rather perjure himself to conceal his crime, than expose himself to shame by confessing it. Thus one sin leads to another; and a soul, that is of more value than ten thousand worlds, is bartered for some worthless commodity. Justly then may that state also be deprecated, which exposes us to such tremendous evils.]
This subject may teach us, Contentment with our lot
[Whatever be the means used, it is God alone that fixes our condition in the world: and, if we be Christians indeed, we may be sure that our lot is that which, all things considered, is most for the good of our souls. If any variations in it have taken place, such changes have been sent to teach in that contentment, which St. Paul so richly experienced, and which it is no less our privilege than our duty to learn [Note: Php 4:11-12.]. If we have that which is best for our souls, then we have that which is really best.]
2.
Watchfulness against our besetting sins
[Every situation of life has its peculiar temptations. Youth or age, health or sickness, riches or poverty have their respective snares. It is our wisdom to stand on our guard against the difficulties to which we are more immediately exposed [Note: 2Sa 22:24.]; and rather to seek for grace that we may approve ourselves to God in the station to which he has called us, than to desire a change of circumstances, which will change indeed, but not remove, our trials.]
3.
Solicitude for spiritual advancement
[It was sin, and sin only, that Agur feared: and doubtless sin is the greatest of all evils. Let the same mind then be in us that was in him. Whether we have poverty or riches, or whether we be equally removed from both, let us endeavour to improve in spirituality and holiness. Then will the wisdom of God, in appointing such a variety of states, be made manifest: and the collective virtues of the different classes will then shine with combined lustre, and, like the rays of the sun, display the glory of Him from whom they sprang.]
Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
Here is the memorable prayer of Agur. In every point of view, as respecting providence and grace, it is very full. Reader! when a child of God hath learnt with full assurance of faith to commit his soul into the hands of Christ, he finds the greater confidence to depend upon a faithful God in Christ for the supplies of the body. He that saveth the greater will be sure to provide for the less.
Pro 30:7 Two [things] have I required of thee; deny me [them] not before I die:
Ver. 7. Two things have I required of thee. ] Two special requests he had among many, for our present condition is a condition of singular vanity and indigence. We get our living by begging, and are never without somewhat to be required of God; never without our wants and ailments and suits for supplies.
Deny me them not.
Before I die, a , Luk 11:8 Propter improbitatem.
Deny = Withhold.
Pro 30:7-9
Pro 30:7-9
A PRAYER
“Two things have I asked of thee;
Deny me them not before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lies;
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is needful for me:
Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is Jehovah?
Or lest I be poor, and steal,
And use profanely the name of my God.”
The two requests are (1) that he may be kept free of falsehood and lies, and (2) that he may be spared the temptations of being either rich or poor. The first of these is a request that God will aid him in the inward purity of life, “For the removal from him of all forms of falsehood, hollowness and hypocrisy”; and, secondly, that God will spare him the temptations identified with two extreme conditions of life, namely, poverty and riches.
Pro 30:7. This chapter contains several groupings (Pro 30:7-9, Pro 30:11-14, Pro 30:15-16, Pro 30:18-19, Pro 30:21-23, Pro 30:24-28, Pro 30:29-31), and this verse introduces the first group or set. Two things were urgently desired or were asked of God, and which he did not want to be denied. Before I die means while I am in the flesh or while I live.
Pro 30:8. No. 1: Remove far from me falsehood and lies; No. 2: Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me goes with No. 2 as a restatement of it. And Pro 30:9 is an explanation of request No. 2. As we look as these two requests, the first is what he wished God to remove from him, and the second is what he wished God to give him. Now knowing Agur (the compiler), we do not know whether he was personally plagued with falsehood and lies and wanted to be delieverd from them or whether he saw so much unfaithfulness in humanity that he personally wanted to be completely free from it himself (let us hope it was the latter). And we too need to be free from such unfaithfulness: Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor (Eph 4:25). Agur also wished that in Gods providential dealings with him, he would spare him from the extremes of both poverty and wealth, for he saw dangers in both (see comments on Pro 30:9). His wish was that he might merely have the provisions that were suitable for him. And observation shows that people are more righteous, happier, and more satisfied when they are found in the great middle class that has to work for what they have, and that appreciate what they get.
Pro 30:9. What was the danger of riches? Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is Jehovah? Over and over in the Bible shows this tendency: Lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied; then thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget Jehovah thy God…and lest thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth (Deu 8:12-17); Thou are waxed fat, thou art grown thick, thou art become sleek; Then he forsook God (Deu 32:15). Also see Deu 31:20; Neh 9:25-26; Job 31:24-25; Job 31:28; Hos 13:6. What was the danger of poverty? Lest I be poor, and steal, And use profanely the name of my God. Stealing is wrong whether one is stealing out of want or otherwise, Situation Ethics notwithstanding. But one cannot deny the tendency of the poverty-stricken to steal from others. Under those circumstances one might use profanely the name of God by cursing Him for his circumstances, or he might affirm his innocence by an oath in which he used Gods name (likely the former: When they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God-Isa 8:21).
have: 1Ki 3:5-9, 2Ki 2:9, Psa 27:4, Luk 10:42
deny me them not: Heb. withhold them not from me, Psa 21:2
Reciprocal: 1Ki 2:16 – deny me not
THE PRAYER OF AGUR
Two things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.
Pro 30:7-8
The manner and the matter of this prayer are alike full of instruction.
I. The manner.(1) Agurs prayer was definite, precise, specific, plain, and simple. He knew what he wanted, and he asked for that. So he went and spread these two things before the Lord. Is there not a lesson for us here? People speak of saying their prayers, saying grace. It is still considered a decent thing among professing Christians to say their prayers night and morning, and to say grace before meals. But when a man repeats a form of prayer without really desiring anything from the Lord, that is not prayer.
It is not only the men of the world who sin against God in this matter. How often do all of us draw near to God with our bodies, and honour Him with our lips, when our hearts are far from Him! We do not come to God because we feel our need of the blessings He has to bestow, but because the time has come round for our devotions, and we must occupy the time somehow, though it should be with well-worn phrases, become so familiar that they cease to have any meaning for us as we use them.
(2) Another thing to be noticed about Agurs prayer is that he is in downright earnest. This Agur is a bold beggar. He says he requires these things, and he therefore comes to God for them. He appears rather peremptory about it. We suspect and dislike an importunate beggar. God loves such a one.
Agur had his reasons for this importunity of his. He was soon to die, and therefore he asked that his petitions should be granted without delay. Deny me them notbefore I die. The time is short, I cannot afford to wait.
(3) Observe, again, that Agur prayed first for spiritual blessing. He asks that vanity and lies be removed from him before he speaks of his daily food. That is the due order. It is in harmony with the model prayer which Christ taught His disciples: Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be donebefore asking, Give us this day our daily bread.
II. The matter.Let us now look at the petitions themselves. They are said to be two. At first sight they appear to be more than two. A little consideration will remove this difficulty.
The petition for temporal blessings is soon found to be one. Agur says he does not want poverty, he does not want riches, but he does want food convenient for him; that is the one thing he requires there.
Then with regard to the first branch of the prayer, in whatever sense we take it, its unity will appear on reflection. If we suppose that it refers to personal vanity, that is inseparable from lying. The vain man cannot speak without lying. His theme is himself, and his own glory, prowess, wisdom, or goodness; and how can man who is a worm glorify himself in the language of truth?
But it is probably more correct to take the words in the sense in which they are used by Solomon in the Ecclesiastes, and by others of the sacred writers; and then we shall see that vanity and lies are regarded as identical. Surely, says the Psalmist, mean men are vanity, and great men are a lie; where vanity and lies are used as synonymous terms. The meaning there evidently is, that neither mean men nor great men are to be trusted. If we put our trust in them, we shall be deceived, we shall find them liars. This does not necessarily imply that these men deliberately tell lies for our ensnaring, but that great men and mean men, even should they desire to befriend us, cannot be trusted. God, and God alone, is a sure refuge and portion for us.
Oh that we had the wisdom to accept the experience of the wisest of men as sufficient for us! Nobody could have tried the experiment of securing happiness upon earth under more favourable conditions than Solomon. Let us not be so arrogant as to imagine that we can succeed where he so disastrously failed.
Give me neither poverty nor riches. There is not much difficulty in praying the first part of this prayer. We can all appreciate the discomforts of poverty.
Agur did not greatly concern himself about the painfulness to flesh and blood which poverty brings with it. What he feared was that poverty should tempt him to the breaking of Gods law,Lest I be poor, and steal.
Give me not riches. It is not so easy to pray this prayer. We are all willing to admit, in a general way, that riches are dangerous; and yet, for our own part, we think they would not be dangerous for us. At any rate, most of us are quite willing to take the risk.
Pro 30:7-8. Two things have I required of thee I do most earnestly and especially desire: deny me them not Hebrew, , withhold them not from me; before I die That is, while I live, as being things of great and continual necessity, for thy honour and service, and my own good. Remove far from me From my heart, and from the course of my life: vanity That Isaiah , 1 st, All false and vain opinions, namely, concerning God and things divine; all unbelief, idolatry, and superstition: and, 2d, Vanity of heart and life; a vain conversation, or the love of the vain things of this world; and lies All falsehood and deceit in my words and actions, and in my conduct toward God or men. This is the first of Agurs petitions. Give me neither poverty nor riches This is his second request, which may seem to have some reference to the former, poverty being commonly an occasion of, or temptation to, the sin of lying; and riches being the great occasions of, and enticements to, vanity. Thus, as his first petition was against the sins themselves, so this latter is against the occasions of them. Feed me with food convenient for me Moderate and suitable, both to my natural necessities and to that condition of life in which thou hast placed me. And this mediocrity of condition is so amiable, that it has often been desired by wise heathen as more eligible than a state of the greatest plenty and glory.
30:7 Two {e} [things] have I required of thee; deny [them] not to me before I die:
(e) He makes this request to God.
Agur asked God not to lead him into temptation (Mat 6:13). He had more concern for his purity before God than about his place among people. Poverty and wealth both bring with them certain temptations that the middle-class citizen does not face, at least as strongly. Abundance tempts us to feel unrealistically self-sufficient (cf. Deu 8:11-14; Joh 15:5). Need tempts us to stop trusting God and to resort to acts that harm others.
"Agur’s exemplary prayer in Pro 30:7-9, the only prayer in Proverbs, continues his autobiography and functions as a janus [transition] to his numerical sayings." [Note: Waltke, The Book . . . 31, p. 478. R. W. Byargeon, "Echoes of Wisdom in the Lord’s Prayer," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41:3 (September 1998):353-65, noted similar structure and theology in the Lord’s Prayer.]
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
AGURS WISH
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Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)