7. Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8. Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9. lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the LORD?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
Comment: The longer passage quoted above is divided into three in the ESV translation but not headed separately but I will make a brief separate comment on each. Here Agur, the author, makes two simple requests. Firstly, let me be an honest man. What a blessing if this were universal! Secondly, I would not choose to be a pauper nor a rich man. I would be satisfied with enough so that, in my riches I don’t deny God, nor in my poverty, need to steal to survive.
10 Do not slander a servant to his master,
lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.
Comment: Be careful before you stick your nose in someone else’s business.
11. There are those who curse their fathers
and do not bless their mothers.
12. There are those who are clean in their own eyes
but are not washed of their filth.
13. There are those—how lofty are their eyes,
how high their eyelids lift!
14. There are those whose teeth are swords,
whose fangs are knives,
to devour the poor from off the earth,
the needy from among mankind.
Comment: A simple acknowledgement of facts but each deeply affecting society!
- Ungrateful progeny.
- Failure to see your own lack of cleanliness – probably meant in both a physical and moral sense.
- The picture of a devouring beast preying on the poor. The problem of greed. It is still a massive problem in our time.
Prayer: Thank yo u for this man’s honest writings. Help to learn from them, please.
As I read it! 