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Journey of a Passage

Proverbs 30:1

Agur, Ithiel and Ucal, or "I am weary, O God"

"The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the massa: the man said to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal." Read as names, the line introduces a sage and two hearers. With different word division and vowels the same consonants can read: "I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and I am spent" (le'iti el, le'iti el ve'ekhel). The Greek does not name Agur ("My son, fear my words…"). Jerome translated the names as words: "the words of the Gatherer, son of the Vomiter."

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The proverb as first composedCollections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Proverbs
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew
New Testament quotation

    Every witness, in order

    1. Collections from the monarchy to the Persian period (debated)

      The proverb as first composed

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. The oldest Hebrew copies of Proverbs are two small Qumran fragments (4Q102, 4Q103, 1st century BC – 1st century AD, reported).

    2. Jerome c. AD 398, from Hebrew; edition 1592

      Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Verba Congregantis, filii Vomentis. Visio quam locutus est vir cum quo est Deus, et qui Deo secum morante confortatus, ait:

      Latin position: Proverbs 30:1. Jerome translated Proverbs from Hebrew (c. AD 398).

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The proverb as first composed

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      דִּבְרֵ֤י ׀ אָג֥וּר בִּן־יָקֶ֗ה הַמַּ֫שָּׂ֥א נְאֻ֣ם הַ֭גֶּבֶר לְאִֽיתִיאֵ֑ל לְאִ֖יתִיאֵ֣ל וְאֻכָֽל׃

      The words of Agur son of Jakeh, the massa (oracle / of Massa). The man declares: to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal (or: I am weary, O God, I am weary, O God, and I am spent)

      Hebrew position: Proverbs 30:1.

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal,

    5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

      Greek Proverbs (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Proverbs

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Ô mon fils, révère mes paroles; recueille-les et repens-toi. Voici ce que dit un homme à ceux qui se confient en Dieu; mais je m’arrête,

      Greek (digital file) position: Proverbs 30:1. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check). In chapters 24–31 the Greek follows a different order of collections, which the digital file squeezes into Hebrew slots; the matching line was found by content. No Göttingen critical edition of Greek Proverbs is published; a C check needs Rahlfs–Hanhart and specialist studies.

    What changed, and why

    The consonants l'yty'l l'yty'l w'kl can be divided as names (le-Iti'el… ve-Ukhal) or as a lament (la'iti el… va'ekhel, "I have wearied myself, O God… and I am consumed"). The second reading fits verse 2–3 ("Surely I am more brutish than any man") and is adopted by many modern translations (NRSV: "I am weary, O God, I am weary, O God. How can I prevail?"). The Masoretic vowels support names. This is a reading of the same letters, not a manuscript variant.

    Massa may be "oracle" (KJV "the prophecy") or the north Arabian tribe Massa (Genesis 25:14), making Agur a foreign sage. Jewish tradition read Agur as a name of Solomon ("gatherer" of wisdom) and Jakeh as "obedient" or as David; Jerome followed these meanings in Latin (Congregantis, filii Vomentis). The Greek translator understood the line differently again and dropped the names.

    The site shows the options; it does not treat Agur's identity as known.

    What the evidence shows

    • Independently documentedThe library's Greek does not name Agur.
    • Independently documentedThe Vulgate translates the names Agur and Jakeh as words.
    • Independently documentedThe consonants allow 'I am weary, O God.'
    • Matter of faithAgur was Solomon. A later tradition.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • Proverbs 30: The Words of Agur →Proverbs 30 belongs to "Agur the son of Jakeh," otherwise unknown. He begins in humility ("Surely I am more brutish than any man," v. 2) and asks God's questions: "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?… what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?" (v. 4). He affirms "Every word of God is pure" (v. 5) and prays for two things: freedom from falsehood, and "neither poverty nor riches" (vv. 7–9). Then come numbered sayings: the leech's daughters, four things never satisfied, four things too wonderful (the way of an eagle, a serpent, a ship, a man with a young woman), four things the earth cannot bear, four small but wise creatures (ants, rock badgers, locusts, lizards), and four stately walkers (vv. 15–31).