1The words of Agur son of Jakeh, the oracle. The declaration of the man to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:
2Surely I am too brutish to be a man, and I do not have human understanding.
3I have not learned wisdom, nor do I know the knowledge of the Holy One.
4Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped 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 know?
5Every word of God is refined; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
6Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be proven a liar.
7Two things I ask of you; do not withhold them from me before I die:
8Keep falsehood and lying words far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me my allotted bread,
9lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is Yahweh?’ — or lest I become poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.
10Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you and you be held guilty.
11There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.
12A generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed of its filth.
13A generation — how lofty are its eyes, and its eyelids are lifted up!
14A generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, to devour the poor from the earth and the needy from among humankind.
15The leech has two daughters: ‘Give!’ ‘Give!’ Three things are never satisfied; four never say ‘Enough’:
16Sheol, and the barren womb; the earth never satisfied with water, and fire that never says ‘Enough.’
17The eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother — the ravens of the valley will pluck it out, and the young eagles will eat it.
18Three things are too wonderful for me, and four I do not understand:
19the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship in the heart of the sea, and the way of a man with a young woman.
20This is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done no wrong.’
21Under three things the earth trembles, and under four it cannot bear up:
22under a servant when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with bread;
23under an unloved woman when she is married, and a maidservant when she dispossesses her mistress.
24Four things are among the smallest on earth, yet they are exceedingly wise:
25the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer;
26the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their home in the cliff;
27the locusts have no king, yet they all go out in formation;
28the lizard you can catch with the hands, yet it is in the palaces of a king.
29Three things are stately in stride, and four are stately in their walk:
30the lion, mightiest among the beasts, which turns back before nothing;
31a strutting rooster, or a male goat, and a king with his army at his side.
32If you have acted foolishly in exalting yourself, or if you have schemed evil — hand to mouth!
33For pressing milk produces curds, and pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife.
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