Agur

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Agur ben Jakeh (Hebrew: אגור בן יקה) was the compiler of a collection of proverbs found in Proverbs xxx, which is sometimes known as the Book of Agur or Sayings of Agur. The initial text of the chapter runs as follows (JPS translation):

The words of Agur son of Jakeh, [man of] Massa (המשא); The speech of the man to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: "I am brutish, less than a man; I lack common sense. I have not learned wisdom, Nor do I possess knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hand? Who has wrapped the waters in his garment? Who has established all the extremities of the earth? What is his name or his son's name, if you know it?"

The text (ver. 1) seems to say that he was a "Massaite," the gentilic termination not being indicated in the traditional writing "Ha-Massa" (compare Gen. xxv. 14). This place has been identified by some Assyriologists with the land of Mash, a district between Judea and Babylonia, and the traces of nomadic or seminomadic life and thought found in Gen. xxxi. and xxxii. give some support to the hypothesis. H. Graetz, followed by Bickell and Cheyne, conjectures that the original reading is המשל ("Ha-Moshel," = "the collector of proverbs"). The true explanation is still uncertain.

[edit] In Rabbinical Literature

"Agur," and the enigmatical names and words which follow in Prov. xxx. 1, are interpreted by the Aggadah as epithets of Solomon, playing upon the words as follows: "Agur" denotes "the compiler; the one who first gathered maxims together." "The son of Jakeh" denotes "the one who spat out," that is, "despised" (from קוא, "to spit"), le-Ithiel, "the words of God" (ot, "word"; El, "God"), exclaiming, "I can [ukal] transgress the law against marrying many wives without fear of being misled by them."

Another exposition is that "Agur" means "the one who is brave in the pursuit of wisdom"; "the son of Jakeh" signifies "he who is free from sin" (from naḲi, "pure"); ha-massa ("the burden"), "he who bore the yoke of God"; le-Ithiel, "he who understood the signs" (ot, "sign") and deeds of God, or he who understood the alphabet of God, that is the creative "letters" (ot, "letter") (see Ber. 55a); we-Ukal, "the master" (Tan., Waera, ed. S. Buber, 2, p. 18; Midr. Prov. xxx. 1; YalḲ. on the passage, § 962).

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

• Dillon, E. J. (1895/1973), The Sceptics of the Old Testament: Job, Koheleth, Agur, New York: Haskell House.

[edit] External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article on AGUR, by J. Frederic McCurdy and Louis Ginzberg