For the modern village in Israel, see Agur, Israel

Agur, Israel

Agur |Crane]]) is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2007 it had a population of 351....

.

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

JPS

JPS is an acronym that may refer to:* Jewish Publication Society of America* Jewish Publication Society of America Version * John Player Special * J. P...

 translation), and bears great similarity to . This translation is not universally accepted as correct; see below.
The text (ver. 1) seems to say that he was a "Massaite," the gentilic termination not being indicated in the traditional writing "Ha-Massa." This place has been identified by some Assyriologists with the land of Mash, a district between Judea

Judea

Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...

 and Babylonia

Babylonia

Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...

, and the traces of nomadic or seminomadic life and thought found in and give some support to the hypothesis. Heinrich Graetz

Heinrich Graetz

Heinrich Graetz was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective....

, followed by Bickell and Cheyne, conjectures that the original reading is המשל ("Ha-Moshel," = "the collector of proverbs"). The true explanation is still uncertain.

In Rabbinical Literature

"Agur," and the enigmatical names and words which follow in , are interpreted by the Aggadah

Aggadah

Aggadah refers to the homiletic and non-legalistic exegetical texts in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash...

as epithets of Solomon

Solomon

Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...

, 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 naki, "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"); we-Ukal, "the master".

Alternate explanations of first verse

Scholars, including Perdue, have considered other meanings for "le-ithiel" and "ukhal". Observing that "it is highly unlikely that the two Hebrew terms refer to personal names" (note that the names Agur and Jakeh are not seen anywhere else in the Bible or any other Israelite document), Perdue points out that some better translations for le-ithiel would be "There is no God"; or: "I am weary, O God"; or: "I am not God". "Ve-ukhal" would complement it: "How can I prevail/I am exhausted?". Yet another translation could be: "I am without a God, and I have prevailed". The highly non-standard Hebrew and the lack of parallel language elsewhere makes it difficult to settle on a particular shade of meaning.

Some of these alternative interpretations would suggest Agur advancing an atheistic viewpoint; Agur's other words, then, could be read as Agur daring his listeners to produce proof of God's existence. This interpretation is not consistent with the larger message of the Book of Proverbs. Thus, some have speculated that Agur is a "foreign sage from the East" (Perdue, op cit), who is quoted here only to be later rebuked.

Status as Prophet of Christianity

Agur's question "What is his name or his son's name, if you know it?" was interpreted by several Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 authors as one of the allusions in Old Testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

 to the coming of the Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

, the Son of God. This viewpoint is also expressed in John Witherspoon

John Witherspoon

John Witherspoon was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey. As president of the College of New Jersey , he trained many leaders of the early nation and was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration...

's "On the Purity of The Heart,". See also "His Son's Name," by Dr. Henry M. Morris

Henry M. Morris

Henry Madison Morris was an American young earth creationist and Christian apologist. He was one of the founders of the Creation Research Society and the Institute for Creation Research...

 of the ICR

Institute for Creation Research

The Institute for Creation Research is a Christian institution in Dallas, Texas that specializes in education, research, and media promotion of Creation Science and Biblical creationism. The ICR adopts the Bible as an inerrant and literal documentary of scientific and historical fact as well as...

.

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article on AGUR, by J. Frederic McCurdy
  J. Frederic McCurdy
  James Frederic McCurdy was Professor of Oriental Languages, University College, Toronto, Canada. He studied at the University of New Brunswick, then at the University of Gottingen and University of Leipzig, then Princeton Theological Seminary under William Henry Green. His main area of study was...
  
   and Louis Ginzberg
  Louis Ginzberg
  Rabbi Louis Ginzberg was a Talmudist and leading figure in the Conservative Movement of Judaism of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kovno, Lithuania; he died on November 11, 1953, in New York City.-Biographical background:...