Proverbs 30: Small, wise and full of wonder | Bible study

A man called Agur says he does not know everything, but God does, and every word God says is true. Then he makes lists by counting: things that are never full, things that amaze him, tiny animals that are very wise, and things that walk tall.

Proverbs 30:1

These are the words of a man called Agur, the son of Jakeh. He said these weighty things to Ithiel and Ucal.

The words of Agur, Jakeh's son: the oracle. This is what the man says to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:

A new title marks a new author. Agur is otherwise unknown, and so are the people he addresses. The heading tells the reader that what follows is a weighty, solemn saying, even though its speaker is about to call himself ignorant.

דבר · davar · word, saying: The ordinary word for something spoken. The same heading formula opens chapter 31.
אגור · Agur · a personal name: Named only here in the Bible. Nothing more is known of him than this chapter tells.
משא · massa · burden, oracle: From nasa, to lift or carry: a load, and so a weighty message. The prophets use it as a heading for their oracles (Isaiah 13:1).
נאם · ne'um · solemn utterance: A noun, 'the utterance of'. It is the word prophets normally use for what the LORD says, so it is striking on the lips of a man who is about to confess he knows nothing.

This verse is one of the hardest in the book. Massa may be a place rather than 'oracle': 'Agur son of Jakeh, of Massa', an Arabian tribe named in Genesis 25:14. And the consonants read as 'to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal' can be divided differently to give 'I am weary, O God, I am weary, O God, and worn out', which leads straight into verse 2. Major versions differ between names and the confession of weariness.

Proverbs 30:2

I am more foolish than anyone. I do not understand things the way a person should.

I am more of a dumb animal than a man,

Agur begins with a shocking self-assessment: he has the sense of a beast, not a person. This is the opposite of how a teacher usually introduces himself, and it prepares for verse 4, where the subject is God and every human is out of his depth.

and I do not have a human being's understanding.

The second line says the same thing without the picture. He is not fishing for a compliment; he is measuring himself against what there is to know about God and finding he has nothing to boast of.

בער · ba'ar · brutish, like cattle: Related to the word for cattle. It means dull the way an animal is dull, with no grasp of higher things. The same confession is made in Psalm 73:22.
בינה · binah · insight: The ability to tell things apart, one of the goals of the book in 1:2. Agur says he has not reached it.
אדם · adam · humankind: Line one uses ish, an individual man; this line uses adam, the human race. He falls short of both.

Proverbs 30:3

I have not learned to be wise. I do not know all about God, the Holy One.

I have not learned wisdom,

He never completed the course. After twenty-nine chapters urging the reader to get wisdom, a sage admits he has not mastered it. The effect is to keep the reader humble.

and I do not have knowledge of the Holy One.

This is the real gap. He does not claim inside knowledge of God. Proverbs 9:10 said knowing the Holy One is understanding, so Agur is saying he stands at the very beginning.

למד · lamad · learn by training: To learn through practice and drill. The word for a student, talmid, comes from it.
חכמה · chokmah · skill: Skill at living, the main subject of the book. Agur does not say it is unreachable, only that he has not got there by study.
דעת · da'at · knowledge: From yada, to know by experience. The line ends with the verb itself: literally 'knowledge of the Holy One I know'.
קדשים · qedoshim · the Holy One: A plural form used as a title for God, the plural showing majesty. The same title and the same phrase appear in Proverbs 9:10.

The Hebrew of the second line has no 'not' of its own. Most versions carry the negative over from the first line, as NASB does. A few read it as a contrast instead: 'I have not learned wisdom, yet I have knowledge of the Holy One.'

Proverbs 30:4

Who has gone up to heaven and back? Who holds the wind in his hands, wraps the sea in his coat, and made the whole earth? Tell me his name!

Who has gone up to heaven and come back down?

The first of five questions that explain his confession. To know God fully someone would have to go where God is and return with a report. No human has made that trip.

Who has scooped up the wind in his cupped hands?

Wind is the thing you can never hold. Whoever controls it is not a human being. The expected answer to every 'who' is: no man, only God.

Who has bundled the waters in a cloak?

The picture is of someone tying up water in a piece of cloth the way a traveler ties up his belongings. It describes the clouds or the seas held in place, a job far beyond human reach.

Who set up all the ends of the earth?

The fourth question moves from weather to the fixed limits of the land itself. The one who knows wisdom completely is the one who made and marked out the world.

What is his name, and what is his son's name?

To know someone's name and family is to know him personally. Agur challenges anyone who claims full knowledge to identify such a person and his heir. No human being can be named, which leaves only God. Christian readers have long connected the 'son' with John 3:13, where Jesus speaks of the one who came down from heaven.

Tell me, if you know!

A touch of irony aimed at anyone who thinks he has God worked out. It echoes the way God questions Job in Job 38.

עלה · alah · go up: The ordinary verb for climbing. Paired with 'come down' it describes a round trip between earth and heaven.
רוח · ruach · wind, breath, spirit: The same word means wind, breath and spirit. Here it is the wind, the standard picture of what cannot be caught.
חפן · chofen · cupped hands: The hollow of the two hands held together, as when scooping up grain. The picture is of gathering, not clenching.
שמלה · simlah · cloak, wrap: The large outer cloak, which also served as a blanket and a carrying cloth. Compare Job 26:8, where God binds up the waters in his clouds.
אפסי ארץ · afsei arets · the earth's limits: Efes means the point where something stops. The phrase means the furthest edges of the land.
ידע · yada · know by experience: The verb behind 'knowledge' in verse 3. Agur said he does not know; now he asks whether anyone else does.

Proverbs 30:5

Every word God says is true and clean. He is like a shield for everyone who runs to Him to be safe.

Every saying of God has been refined;

After the questions comes the answer to them. People cannot climb up to God, but God has spoken, and what he has said is like metal that has been through the furnace: there is nothing false left in it.

he is a shield to those who shelter in him.

The line moves from God's words to God himself. Trusting what he says is the same as hiding behind him, and he protects the person who does. The verse is almost word for word Psalm 18:30.

אמרה · imrah · saying, utterance: From amar, to say. A poetic word for something spoken, used often in Psalm 119 for what God says.
אלוה · eloah · God: A singular form of the usual word Elohim. It is rare outside Job, where it is common, which fits the Job-like tone of Agur's opening.
צרף · tsaraf · smelt, refine: The word for melting metal to burn off the dross. 'Pure' here means tested by fire and proved genuine.
מגן · magen · small shield: The light shield a soldier carried on his arm. A common picture for God as protector (Genesis 15:1).
חסה · chasah · seek shelter: To run for cover, as from a storm or an enemy. It is the Psalms' picture word for trust.

A refiner heated silver or gold until it melted and skimmed off the impurities that rose to the top, sometimes repeating the process several times (Psalm 12:6). Metal that had been through this could be relied on at its stated value.

Proverbs 30:6

Do not add your own ideas to God's words. If you do, He will correct you and show that you lied.

Do not add anything to his words,

This follows from verse 5. If what God says is already pure, anything you mix in is dross. The temptation in view is claiming God's authority for your own ideas.

or he will correct you and you will be shown to be a liar.

The result of adding. God himself will expose it, and the person who presented his own thoughts as God's will be found out as someone who said what was not true.

יסף · yasaf · add, increase: The same verb as the command in Deuteronomy 4:2 not to add to what God commands.
דבר · davar · word, saying: The word used of Agur's own sayings in verse 1. His words are to be weighed; God's are not to be supplemented.
יכח · yakach · correct, prove wrong: The verb behind tokachat, the correction that runs through Proverbs. It has a courtroom sense: to prove a case against someone.
כזב · kazav · lie, be false: To speak what is untrue, or to turn out false. The noun from this root appears in Agur's prayer in verse 8.

Proverbs 30:7

God, I ask You for two things. Please give them to me for as long as I live.

Two things I ask from you;

Agur turns from talking about God to talking to him. This is the only prayer in Proverbs. The numbered form, two things, introduces the pattern of counted lists that fills the rest of the chapter.

do not hold them back from me before I die:

He wants these for the whole of his remaining life, not just for one crisis. The mention of death shows how seriously he asks.

שתים · shetayim · two: The number two in its feminine form, standing alone for 'two things'. The first of the numbered sayings in the chapter.
שאל · sha'al · ask, request: The plain verb for making a request. The same verb is used when God tells Solomon to ask for what he wants (1 Kings 3:5).
מנע · mana · hold back: To withhold. In 1:15 it was used of holding back your foot; here Agur asks God not to hold back his gift.
מות · mut · die: The verb behind mavet, death. He is asking for something to last his whole life.

Proverbs 30:8

Keep lies far away from me. And do not make me poor or rich. Just give me the food I need for each day.

Put falsehood and lying words far away from me;

The first request is about truth. He asks not just to avoid telling lies but to have emptiness and deceit kept at a distance, both his own and other people's.

give me neither poverty nor wealth;

The second request is about money, and it is unusual: he asks to be spared both extremes. The next verse gives his reasons.

let me eat the bread that is my allotted share,

This is the positive side of the second request. He wants what he needs for the day and no more, the same idea as the manna in Exodus 16 and the prayer for daily bread in Matthew 6:11.

שוא · shav · emptiness, falsehood: What is hollow and worthless. It is the word in the third commandment, taking God's name 'in vain' (Exodus 20:7).
כזב · kazav · a lie: The noun from the verb in verse 6. Having warned that adding to God's words makes a liar, he prays to be kept from lying.
ריש · resh · poverty: From the same root as rash, the poor person. Being without means.
עשר · osher · wealth: The ordinary noun for being rich. Proverbs elsewhere calls it a blessing (10:22); Agur sees its danger.
לחם · lechem · bread, food: Bread, and so food in general, the basic thing a person needs each day.
חק · choq · prescribed amount: From a root meaning to engrave, and so something fixed: a set ration. The same word is used for the allowance given to the household staff in 31:15.

Proverbs 30:9

If I have too much, I might say, Who needs God? If I am poor, I might steal and bring shame on my God's name.

or I may be full and disown you and say, Who is the LORD?

The danger of wealth. A person who has everything feels no need of God and ends up treating him as irrelevant. The question 'Who is the LORD?' is what Pharaoh said in Exodus 5:2.

or I may become poor and steal,

The danger of poverty. Hunger pushes a person toward taking what is not his. Agur does not excuse the theft; he fears it.

and so lay hands on the name of my God.

A thief who belongs to God drags God's reputation into his crime. Both extremes end in the same place: God is dishonored, by being ignored in one case and disgraced in the other.

שבע · saba · be full, sated: To have eaten until you want no more. Moses gave the same warning: when you have eaten and are full, do not forget the LORD (Deuteronomy 8:10-14).
כחש · kachash · disown, deny: To act as though you do not know someone, to disown. It can also mean to deceive.
יהוה · YHWH · God's covenant name: God's personal name. The full man does not deny that a god exists; he asks why this God should matter to him.
ירש · yarash · be dispossessed: The verb means to take possession; in this passive form it means to have everything taken from you. The active form returns in verse 23.
גנב · ganav · steal: The verb of the eighth commandment (Exodus 20:15).
תפש · tafas · seize, grab hold of: Literally to seize or handle. The Hebrew says 'grab the name of my God', that is, handle it roughly and bring it into disrepute.

Proverbs 30:10

Do not tell a master bad things about his servant that are not true. The servant will ask God to punish you, and you will be the guilty one.

Do not run a servant down to his master,

A single piece of advice stands between the prayer and the lists. A slave had no standing to answer an accusation, so talking against him to the person who controls his life is an attack on someone who cannot defend himself.

or he will curse you and you will bear the guilt.

The slave's only weapon is to call on God against you, and the proverb says that curse will land, because you are in fact guilty. Proverbs 26:2 says an undeserved curse does not land; this one is deserved.

לשן · lashan · use the tongue against: A verb made from lashon, tongue: to 'tongue' someone. It occurs only here and in Psalm 101:5.
עבד · eved · servant, slave: From the verb to work or serve. It covers everyone from a household slave to a royal official. It returns in verse 22.
אדון · adon · lord, master: The one with authority over a servant. The same word, in the form Adonai, is used for God as Lord.
קלל · qalal · treat as light, curse: The root means to be light or slight. To curse is to declare someone worthless and call down harm on him.
אשם · asham · be guilty, pay for it: To be guilty and to bear the consequences of guilt. The Hebrew word covers both the fault and the penalty.

Proverbs 30:11

Some people say hateful things to their dad and never say a good word to their mum.

There is a generation that curses its father

The first of four portraits, each beginning with the same word. The Hebrew has no 'there is'; it simply says 'a generation' and describes it. This type treats its father as worthless, which the law counted as a capital offence (Exodus 21:17).

and has no blessing for its mother.

The second line puts it negatively. Even where there is no open cursing, there is no gratitude and no good word. Withholding blessing from a mother is set beside cursing a father as the same contempt.

דור · dor · generation, class: A generation: the people alive at one time, or a class of people who share a character. NASB's 'kind' brings out the second sense.
קלל · qalal · treat as light, curse: The same verb as verse 10. It is the opposite of kaved, to honor, which literally means to treat as heavy (Exodus 20:12).
אב · av · father: Father and mother are named together, as in the fifth commandment and in Proverbs 1:8.
ברך · barak · bless, speak well of: To speak good over someone and wish them well. The exact opposite of qalal.

Proverbs 30:12

Some people think they are clean and good. But they are still dirty from the wrong things they have done.

There is a generation that is clean in its own eyes

The second portrait is self-righteousness. These people have examined themselves and passed. The only standard they have used is their own opinion.

but has never been washed of its filth.

The reality is the opposite of the self-image, and the word chosen for the dirt is deliberately disgusting. Thinking you are clean does not make you clean; it only stops you from washing.

טהור · tahor · clean: The word for ritual and moral cleanness, used throughout Leviticus for what is fit to come near God.
עין · ayin · eye: 'In his own eyes' is the Hebrew way of saying 'in his own opinion'. Proverbs warns against it often (3:7, 26:12).
רחץ · rachats · wash, bathe: To wash the body. Isaiah 1:16 uses it for moral cleansing: wash yourselves, make yourselves clean.
צאה · tso'ah · excrement: The word for human waste. English softens it; the Hebrew means the person is still smeared with dung while calling himself clean.

Proverbs 30:13

Some people are so proud! They look down their noses at everyone.

There is a generation, how high its eyes are!

The third portrait is arrogance, and Agur breaks off in the middle of the sentence to exclaim at it. Raised eyes are the look of someone who considers everyone else beneath him.

and how its eyelids are lifted up.

The same look described a second time, more slowly. Verse 12 was pride toward God, thinking yourself clean. This is pride toward other people, looking down on them.

דור · dor · generation, class: The third time the word opens a verse. The repetition is like a finger pointing at one group after another.
רום · rum · be high: To be high or raised. 'High eyes' head the list of seven things the LORD hates in Proverbs 6:17.
עין · ayin · eye: In verse 12 the eyes judged the self too kindly; here they look down on everyone else.
עפעפים · af'appayim · eyelids: A poetic partner for eyes. It can also mean the gaze itself, as in Proverbs 4:25.
נשא · nasa · lift up: To lift or carry. The same verb describes exalting yourself in verse 32.

Proverbs 30:14

Some people have teeth like swords and knives. They gobble up the poor and the helpless until there are none left on the earth.

There is a generation whose teeth are swords

The fourth and worst portrait. These people are pictured as a beast whose mouth is full of weapons. The Hebrew does not say 'like'; it says the teeth are swords.

and whose fangs are butcher's knives,

The second line intensifies the first, moving from the front teeth to the jaw teeth and from swords to slaughtering knives. Everything about this mouth is made for cutting flesh.

to eat up the poor off the land

Now the picture is explained. What they consume is poor people: their land, wages and living. This is greed that feeds on those who cannot resist.

and the needy from among humankind.

The partner line widens 'land' to all humanity. The aim is not just to exploit the poor but to finish them. The four portraits have climbed from contempt at home to predation on society.

שן · shen · tooth: The ordinary word for a tooth. Psalm 57:4 uses the same picture of teeth as weapons.
חרב · cherev · sword: The standard weapon of war.
מאכלת · ma'akelet · slaughtering knife: From akal, to eat: literally an 'eater'. It is the knife Abraham takes in Genesis 22:6. The verb 'devour' in the next line is from the same root.
אכל · akal · eat, consume: The plain verb to eat. Used of people it means to consume their property and lives (Psalm 14:4).
עני · ani · afflicted, poor: From a root meaning to be bowed down. The person who is poor because he is pressed down by others.
אביון · evyon · one in want: The person who lacks and must ask. Often paired with ani, as again in 31:9 and 31:20.

Proverbs 30:15

A leech has two daughters, and both cry, Give! Give! There are three things that are never full, four that never say, That's enough!

The leech has two daughters:

A grotesque little riddle opens the theme of greed. The leech is the picture of something that attaches itself and takes.

Give! Give!

The daughters are either named Give and Give or are heard crying it. Either way the family has one word. It may picture the two suckers of a leech. This is what the people of verse 14 sound like.

Three things are never satisfied,

Now the formal list begins. The pattern of a number followed by the next number is a way of saying 'here is a set, and note the last one'.

four never say, Enough:

The second line raises the count and restates 'never satisfied' as speech. These things are pictured as mouths that never say the one word that would stop the feeding.

עלוקה · aluqah · leech: The word occurs only here in the Bible. The meaning 'leech' is supported by related words in Aramaic and Arabic.
בת · bat · daughter: In Hebrew a 'daughter of' something can mean what comes from it or belongs to it. Greed's offspring is more greed.
יהב · yahav · give! hand over!: The Hebrew is just hav hav, a blunt command form used only for demands.
שלוש · shalosh · three: The first half of the three-and-four pattern, which returns in verses 18, 21 and 29.
שבע · saba · be full, sated: The verb of verse 9. Agur feared being too full; these things cannot be filled at all.
הון · hon · wealth; enough: Usually the word for wealth (as in 1:13). Here and in verse 16 it is used as an exclamation: sufficient!

The numerical saying, a number followed by the next number up, was a well-known teaching form in the ancient Near East and appears in Amos 1 and 2, Job 5:19 and Proverbs 6:16. It works like a riddle: the hearer is asked to see what the listed things have in common.

Proverbs 30:16

They are the grave, a woman who longs for a baby and has none, dry ground that always wants more rain, and fire that never says, That's enough!

The grave, and a womb that is closed,

The first two are paired as opposites: the place where life ends and the place where life should begin. The grave never stops taking the dead. The childless woman never stops longing for a child, as Rachel shows in Genesis 30:1.

land that never gets its fill of water,

The third is dry ground. In a country that depends on rain, the soil drinks every shower and is thirsty again.

and fire, which never says, Enough.

The fourth is fire, which grows the more it is fed and only stops when there is nothing left. Two of the four destroy and two long for life, but all four share the same endless appetite, and that is the picture of human greed.

שאול · she'ol · the grave: The realm of the dead. Proverbs 27:20 says the same thing: Sheol is never full, and neither are human eyes.
עצר רחם · otser racham · closed womb: Literally 'restraint of the womb'. Otser is from a verb meaning to shut up or hold back, the verb used of closed wombs in Genesis 20:18.
שבע · saba · be full, sated: The same verb as verses 9 and 15, now said of the ground.
אש · esh · fire: The ordinary word for fire. It is feminine in Hebrew, so the fire 'says' enough as the leech's daughters do.
הון · hon · wealth; enough: Repeated from verse 15 to close the list where it opened.

In ancient Israel children were a family's future: its labor, its security in old age and the continuation of its name. Childlessness was felt as a constant ache and a public sorrow, which is why the closed womb can stand beside the grave as something that never rests.

Proverbs 30:17

The eye that sneers at Dad and will not listen to Mum will be pecked out by ravens and eaten by young eagles. That is a terrible end.

The eye that sneers at a father

The saying returns to the first portrait in verse 11. Contempt is located in the eye: the look a child gives a parent he despises.

and despises obeying a mother,

The second line names what the look means. This child thinks listening to his mother is beneath him.

the ravens of the ravine will peck it out

The punishment fits the offence exactly: the eye that sneered is the part that is destroyed. Ravens go first for the eyes of a carcass.

and the young vultures will eat it.

The picture is of a body lying unburied in the open, eaten by birds. In Israel that was the most shameful end a person could have. The child who would not honor his parents ends with no family to bury him.

עין · ayin · eye: The third appearance of the eye in the chapter. The haughty eyes of verse 13 here meet their end.
לעג · la'ag · deride: To jeer or deride. The same verb describes Wisdom mocking those who refused her in 1:26.
אב · av · father: Father and mother together, as in verse 11.
בוז · buz · hold in contempt: To look down on. The verb used of fools despising wisdom in 1:7.
ערב · orev · raven: A carrion bird, unclean under the food laws (Leviticus 11:15).
נשר · nesher · eagle or vulture: The word covers large birds of prey, both eagles and vultures. Since it is eating a corpse here, vulture fits. The same word is used in verse 19.

To be left unburied and eaten by birds was a curse in the ancient world (Deuteronomy 28:26, 1 Samuel 17:44). Burial was normally the duty of one's own children, so the fate matches the fault: the one who broke the family tie dies outside it.

NASB shortens the second line. The Hebrew has a rare noun there, yiqhah, meaning obedience: literally 'despises obedience to a mother'. The same noun appears in Genesis 49:10.

Proverbs 30:18

There are three things too amazing for me, four that I cannot understand.

Three things are too amazing for me,

A new list, and the mood changes from disgust to wonder. Agur, who admitted his limits in verses 2 and 3, now gives examples of ordinary things he cannot explain.

four I do not understand:

The count rises to four, and 'too amazing' is restated plainly as 'I do not know them'. As usual in this form, the fourth item will be the one he most wants you to notice.

שלוש · shalosh · three: The three-and-four pattern again, as in verse 15.
פלא · pala · be beyond, be marvellous: To be beyond one's power to do or grasp. The word is used for God's wonders in the Psalms and in Job 42:3.
ידע · yada · know by experience: The verb of verses 3 and 4. Agur's not-knowing covers the things of earth as well as the things of heaven.

Proverbs 30:19

An eagle gliding in the sky, a snake sliding over a rock, a ship finding its way across the sea, and a man and a young woman falling in love.

the way of an eagle in the sky,

The bird crosses the open air with no road to follow and leaves no mark behind it. How it holds its course is beyond him.

the way of a snake on a rock,

A snake moves with no legs across bare stone and leaves no trail. The movement is smooth, silent and hard to account for.

the way of a ship in the heart of the sea,

A ship finds its way across deep water where there are no landmarks, and its wake closes behind it.

and the way of a man with a young woman.

The fourth is the one the list was built for: how a man and a young woman are drawn together. Like the other three it follows no visible road, cannot be predicted, and leaves no trace an observer could point to. Agur finds love as mysterious as flight.

דרך · derek · road, way of acting: Repeated four times. It means both the path taken and the manner of going.
נשר · nesher · eagle or vulture: The same bird as verse 17, here admired for its flight.
נחש · nachash · snake: The ordinary word for a snake, the same as in Genesis 3.
אניה · oniyyah · ship: A seagoing vessel. The plural is used for the merchant ships in 31:14.
לב · lev · heart: Literally 'in the heart of the sea': far out on the open water, away from any coast.
עלמה · almah · young woman: A young woman of marriageable age. The word itself speaks of her youth; it is the word used in Isaiah 7:14.

Almah means a young woman old enough to marry; versions translate it 'virgin', 'maiden' or 'young woman'. What the four ways share is also read differently: that they leave no trace, that they cannot be explained, or that each moves easily through a setting where you would expect difficulty. The trace reading fits best with verse 20.

Proverbs 30:20

A wife who is not faithful to her husband acts as if it were only a snack. She wipes her mouth and says, I did nothing wrong.

This is the way of a woman who commits adultery:

The word 'way' links this verse to the list before it, but the tone is the reverse. The four ways were wonders. This fifth way is also hard to believe, for a different reason.

she eats, wipes her mouth,

Adultery is described as a meal. She treats it as satisfying an appetite, and afterwards removes the evidence as easily as wiping crumbs off her lips. Like the eagle and the ship, she leaves no trace.

and says, I have done nothing wrong.

This is the real shock. It is not only that she sinned but that her conscience registers nothing. The verse describes what repeated sin does: it becomes as ordinary as lunch.

דרך · derek · road, way of acting: The fifth use in two verses. Here it means her habitual manner of behaving.
נאף · na'af · commit adultery: The verb of the seventh commandment (Exodus 20:14).
אכל · akal · eat: Eating is a common Hebrew picture for sexual appetite; compare the stolen water and secret bread of Proverbs 9:17.
מחה · machah · wipe off: To wipe clean, as one wipes a dish (2 Kings 21:13).
פה · peh · mouth: She wipes her mouth and then uses it to deny. Verse 32 will tell the reader to put a hand over his.
און · aven · wickedness, harm: Wrongdoing that causes trouble for others. She denies there has been any.

Proverbs 30:21

There are three things that make the earth shake, four that it cannot put up with.

Under three things the earth shakes,

The third numbered list. The earth trembling is deliberate exaggeration: these are social upheavals that feel like earthquakes to the people who have to live through them.

and under four it cannot hold up:

The earth is pictured as someone carrying a load that is too heavy. What follows are four situations that make life unbearable for everyone nearby.

שלוש · shalosh · three: The same pattern as verses 15 and 18.
ארץ · erets · earth, land: The land and the society living on it. The word can mean the whole earth or a single country.
רגז · ragaz · tremble, be agitated: To shake, whether of ground in an earthquake or of people in fear or rage.
נשא · nasa · bear, carry: To lift or carry a load. The same verb as the raised eyelids of verse 13.

Proverbs 30:22

They are a servant who is suddenly made king, and a rude fool who has all the food he wants.

under a slave when he becomes king,

The first unbearable thing. The point is not that low birth is a fault but that someone with no training in rule and long experience of being ruled suddenly holds unchecked power, and tends to use it harshly.

and a godless fool when he has all the food he wants,

The second. This kind of fool is already coarse and contemptuous of God and people. Prosperity removes the one thing that restrained him, and his arrogance becomes unbearable. Agur prayed in verse 9 not to become this man.

עבד · eved · servant, slave: The word of verse 10. There he was a victim to be protected; here he is given a power he is not fit for.
מלך · malak · reign as king: The verb from melek, king. Proverbs 19:10 makes the same point about a slave ruling over princes.
נבל · naval · coarse, godless fool: Not one of the usual fool words of Proverbs. The naval is morally coarse and dismisses God (Psalm 14:1). Nabal in 1 Samuel 25 bears the name and shows the type.
שבע · saba · be full, sated: The verb of verses 9, 15 and 16. Fullness is dangerous in the wrong person.

Proverbs 30:23

And a bitter woman nobody loved who at last gets a husband, and a maid who takes the place of the lady she worked for.

under a hated woman when she gets married,

The third. A woman who has long been rejected and embittered finally gains the standing of a wife, and the resentment she has stored up is turned on the household.

and a servant girl when she takes her mistress's place.

The fourth. The maid displaces the woman she used to serve, by inheriting from her or by replacing her in the husband's affection. All four cases are the same: a sudden rise with no matching growth in character, so the new power is used to settle scores.

שנואה · senu'ah · hated woman: From sane, to hate. It is the term used of Leah in Genesis 29:31 and of the less favored wife in Deuteronomy 21:15.
בעל · ba'al · be married: The verb from ba'al, husband or owner. In this form it means to be taken as a wife.
שפחה · shifchah · maidservant: A female slave attached to the lady of the house. Hagar is called this in Genesis 16.
ירש · yarash · take possession, inherit: To take over what belonged to another, or to become the heir. The same verb in another form meant 'become poor' in verse 9.
גבירה · gevirah · lady, mistress: The feminine of a word for lord. The woman who rules the household.

In a household with more than one wife, or with slave women who could bear the master's children, rank among the women was a constant source of strife. Hagar despising Sarah once she was pregnant (Genesis 16:4) and the rivalry between Leah and Rachel (Genesis 29 and 30) show the situations this verse has in mind.

Proverbs 30:24

There are four things on earth that are small but very, very wise.

Four things are among the smallest on earth,

After four people who rose and wrecked things come four creatures that are low and stay low. This list drops the three-and-four opening and simply says four.

yet they are wiser than the wise:

The contrast is the point of the whole list. Size and strength are not what make a creature succeed. Each of the four has a kind of wisdom that makes up for what it lacks.

ארבע · arba · four: The number that completes each of the other lists, here standing alone.
קטן · qatan · small, insignificant: Small in size, and also in importance. The phrase is literally 'the small ones of the earth'.
חכם · chakam · wise, skilled: The Hebrew doubles the root: chakamim mechukkamim, 'wise ones made wise'. It suggests a wisdom built into them by their Maker.

Proverbs 30:25

Ants are not strong at all. But all summer they store up food for later.

The ants are a people with no strength,

An ant can be crushed with a finger. Agur calls them a 'people', as if they were a small nation, which invites the reader to compare them with human communities.

yet they get their food ready in summer;

Their wisdom is foresight. They gather when food is available so that they have it when it is not. Weakness is overcome by planning ahead. Proverbs 6:6-8 sends the lazy person to learn the same lesson.

נמלה · nemalah · ant: The ant appears in the Bible only here and in Proverbs 6:6.
עם · am · a people, nation: The usual word for a human nation, applied to insects. Joel 1:6 does the same with locusts.
עז · az · strong, fierce: Having force or might. The related noun oz, strength, describes the woman of 31:17 and 31:25.
כון · kun · make ready, establish: To set firmly in place, to make ready in advance.
קיץ · qayits · summer, harvest time: The hot dry season when grain and fruit are ripe. The word also means the summer fruit itself.

Proverbs 30:26

Rock badgers are not tough little animals. But they make their homes high up in the rocks, where they are safe.

The hyraxes are a people with no might,

The hyrax is a small, soft animal with no claws or teeth for fighting. On open ground it is easy prey.

yet they make their home in the crags;

Its wisdom is knowing where to live. It cannot defend itself, so it lives where it does not need to: among cliffs and boulders where predators cannot reach. Weakness is overcome by choosing a secure refuge.

שפן · shafan · rock hyrax: A rabbit-sized animal that lives in colonies among rocks in Israel. Psalm 104:18 says the same: the crags are a refuge for them.
עצום · atsum · powerful, numerous: Strong through numbers or force. Used of mighty nations.
בית · bayit · house, home: The ordinary word for a house, used of the animals' dens.
סלע · sela · crag, cliff: A cliff or rocky height. The Psalms use it as a picture of God as a safe place (Psalm 18:2).

Older translations have 'conies' or 'badgers'. The animal is the rock hyrax, still common in the cliffs around the Dead Sea. It posts lookouts and bolts into cracks in the rock at any sign of danger.

Proverbs 30:27

Locusts have no king. But they all march out together in neat rows, like an army.

The locusts have no king,

A human army without a commander is a mob. Locusts have no one giving orders.

yet they all march out in formation;

Their wisdom is cooperation. Each one keeps its place, and together they become a force nothing can stop. Weakness is overcome by unity and order without anyone having to compel it.

ארבה · arbeh · locust: The swarming locust, the eighth plague on Egypt (Exodus 10).
מלך · melek · king: The slave of verse 22 became a king and the earth shook. The locusts have none and move in perfect order.
יצא · yatsa · go out, march out: The regular verb for an army going out to battle.
חצץ · chatsats · divide into companies: A verb meaning to divide. The swarm goes out divided up, that is, in companies like an army.

A locust swarm advances as a single front and strips every green thing in its path. Joel 2:7-8 describes one as an army in which each soldier marches in his own lane and none breaks rank.

Proverbs 30:28

A lizard is so small you can catch it in your hands. But it gets into the palaces of kings.

A lizard can be caught in your hands,

The fourth creature is so small and harmless that anyone can pick it up.

yet it is found in the palaces of kings.

And yet it gets into the place most people are never admitted to. Its wisdom is quiet persistence: it goes where it wants in spite of being nothing. Lowness does not shut a creature out of high places.

שממית · semamit · lizard, gecko: The word occurs only here in the Bible. A small wall-climbing creature is meant, most likely a gecko.
תפש · tafas · seize, catch: To take hold of. The same verb was used for seizing God's name in verse 9.
יד · yad · hand: The ordinary word for the hand, here in the form meaning two hands.
היכל · heikal · palace, temple: A great house: a king's palace or the temple of God. The Hebrew phrase is 'palaces of a king', using melek.

Two things are uncertain. The creature may be a lizard (most modern versions) or a spider (older versions). And the verb can be read 'you can catch it with your hands' or 'it grasps with its hands', which would describe a gecko's feet clinging to the palace walls. Either way the contrast is between a tiny creature and the grand place it lives in.

Proverbs 30:29

There are three things that walk tall and proud, four that are grand to watch.

Three things have a fine stride,

The last numbered list. After four creatures that are small and clever come creatures that are impressive to watch. The subject is bearing: the way something moves when it is afraid of nothing.

four have a fine way of walking:

The same thought with the higher number. As in the other lists, the three examples from nature lead up to a fourth from human life.

שלוש · shalosh · three: The final three-and-four saying in the chapter.
יטב · yatav · do well: From the root of tov, good. Literally 'those who make their step good', who do it well.
צעד · tsa'ad · step, stride: A single pace. The measured step of something walking with confidence.
הלך · halak · go, walk: The everyday verb for walking, and in Hebrew for the way a person conducts his life.

Proverbs 30:30

The lion is the strongest of all the animals. It does not back away from anything.

the lion, the champion among the animals,

The first example. The lion's dignity comes from real strength. It is described with the word for a warrior.

which turns back from nothing,

This is what makes its walk stately. It has no need to hurry or look over its shoulder, because nothing it meets can make it give way.

ליש · layish · lion: A rare poetic word for a lion, one of several lion words in Hebrew. It appears also in Job 4:11 and Isaiah 30:6.
גבור · gibbor · warrior, champion: The word for a fighting man or hero, as in David's 'mighty men'. The lion is the warrior of the animal world.
בהמה · behemah · beasts: Four-footed animals as a class.
שוב · shuv · turn back: The verb for turning around. Elsewhere it is the word for repentance; here it simply means the lion does not back away.

Proverbs 30:31

Then come the rooster that struts about, the billy goat, and a king with his army around him.

the strutting rooster, or the he-goat,

Two more animals known for how they carry themselves. The first is hard to identify, but the idea is a creature that moves with its body tight and proud. The he-goat walks at the head of the flock as its leader.

and a king with his army around him.

The fourth and the point of the list. A king at the head of his troops has the same unhurried confidence as the lion. Set after verse 22, it shows the proper version of rule: a real king, with real backing, in his proper place.

זרזיר מתנים · zarzir motnayim · one girded at the loins: Literally 'girt of loins'. Zarzir occurs only here. The phrase describes an animal that looks belted in at the waist; which animal is debated.
תיש · tayish · he-goat: The male goat that leads the flock. The leading goat is a picture of a ruler in Jeremiah 50:8.
מלך · melek · king: The last of the chapter's kings. The lists that began with a slave on the throne end with a true king.

This is one of the least certain verses in Proverbs. 'Girt of loins' has been taken as a rooster (following the ancient Greek and Latin versions), a greyhound or a war horse. The last phrase contains a word, alqum, found nowhere else; it is read as 'his army with him' or as 'against whom no one rises up'. Both readings give a king no one can challenge.

Proverbs 30:32

If you have been foolish and bragged about yourself, or if you have planned something bad, stop. Put your hand over your mouth.

If you have played the fool by promoting yourself,

After kings and stately creatures, a warning for the reader who would like to be one of them. Pushing yourself forward is called acting like the godless fool of verse 22.

or if you have been scheming, hand over mouth!

Whether the fault was open boasting or private plotting, the remedy is the same and immediate: stop talking. The Hebrew has no verb, just 'hand to mouth'. Saying nothing more is the one thing that prevents what verse 33 describes.

נבל · naval · act the godless fool: The verb from the noun in verse 22. To behave like the naval, coarse and without regard for God.
נשא · nasa · lift yourself up: The reflexive of nasa, to lift: lifting yourself. The same verb described the raised eyelids of verse 13.
זמם · zamam · plan, scheme: To think something out with a purpose. The verb is neutral; in 31:16 it is used of the capable wife planning to buy a field. Here the context makes it a bad plan.
יד · yad · hand: The gesture of clapping a hand over the mouth to silence yourself. Job does it before God in Job 40:4.
פה · peh · mouth: The adulteress wiped her mouth and went on talking (verse 20). The wise response to your own fault is to close it.

Proverbs 30:33

Stir milk for long enough and you get butter. Twist a nose and it bleeds. In the same way, keep stirring up anger and you get a fight.

For pressing milk brings out butter,

The reason for the silence, given as three examples of cause and effect. The first is harmless and familiar: work milk long enough and curds come out.

and pressing a nose brings out blood,

The second is painful. Squeeze or twist a nose and it bleeds. The result is just as certain as the butter.

and pressing anger brings out a quarrel.

The third is the point. Keep pushing at someone's temper and a fight will come, as surely as butter and blood. So if you have been arrogant or plotting, stop pressing. The chapter that began with a man too humble to boast ends by warning the reader off self-assertion.

מיץ · mits · pressing, squeezing: A noun meaning pressure or squeezing. The Hebrew uses this one word in all three lines; English versions vary it.
חמאה · chem'ah · curds, butter: Thickened milk: curds or butter. It is what Abraham serves his guests in Genesis 18:8.
אף · af · nose; anger: The word means nose and also anger, since anger shows in flared nostrils and hard breathing.
דם · dam · blood: The ordinary word for blood. Here simply a nosebleed, though the word often stands for bloodshed.
אפים · appayim · anger: The dual form of af in the line above, literally 'two nostrils'. Nose and anger are the same word, so the third line grows directly out of the second.
ריב · riv · quarrel, dispute: A quarrel, from an argument to a lawsuit.

Butter and curds were made by putting milk in a skin bag and rocking, shaking or squeezing it until it thickened. The process is steady pressure over time, which is the point of the comparison.

English hides two things. The same noun, 'pressing', stands in all three lines where NASB has 'churning', 'pressing' and 'churning'. And 'nose' and 'anger' are one Hebrew word in two forms, so the saying is a pun: press the nose and you get blood, press the 'noses' and you get a fight.