PROV 30:24 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 30:1–33: Here are the sayings of Agur

This section is a collection of verses that were written or organized by Agur the son of Jakeh.Some scholars think that Agur wrote or collected only verses 1–4, 1–6, 1–9, or 1–14. UBS (page 617), Toy (page 518), and Longman (page 513) are among those who list some of these possibilities. The GNT indicates with quotation marks that Agur’s words end after v.6. No other versions indicate that Agur’s words end before the end of the chapter. Waltke (volume I, page 26) strongly defends the entire chapter as the “oracle” of Agur on the basis of its structural unity. Kidner (page 178) divides the chapter into two sections (1–9) and (10–33), but identifies both as coming from “the sage.” The title of this section (30:1a) is the only place in Scripture that Agur is mentioned. The section is divided into paragraphs that vary from one to five verses. The Notes will suggest a paragraph heading for all paragraphs after 30:1a. It is suggested that you use similar headings in your translation to help the readers follow the changes of topic and audience.

The first nine verses contain Agur’s personal thoughts and prayers. Some are addressed to God, others to his audience. The rest of the chapter contains proverbs on various topics. Some are individual warnings or statements (30:10, 17, 20, 32–33). Others contain several kinds of lists of four items each. The lists in verses 15b–16, 18–19, 21–23, and 29–31 have the same form as the numerical proverb in 6:16–19. (See the paragraph summary for 6:16–19 and the notes on 6:16a–b.) The lists in verses 11–14 and 24–28 have different forms. These will be described in the paragraph summaries where they first occur.

Some other headings for this section are:

The Words of Agur (ESV)

Wise Words from Agur (NCV)

Words that the LORD caused Agur to make known

Paragraph 30:24–28 Four things that are small but very wise

This paragraph is a list of four items, but it is not introduced with the parallel numbers three and four like the numerical proverb in 30:21–23. The first verse introduces two contrasting characteristics which are true of each item in the list. The first line of each verse describes an apparent weakness or disadvantage of a particular animal. The second line describes the unexpected way that the animal makes up for the disadvantage.

30:24

The parallel parts in bold print contrast the small size and strength of the four animals with their wisdom or cleverness.

^24a“Four things on earth are small,

^24byet they are extremely wise:

30:24a

Four things on earth are small,

¶ There are four animals/creatures in the world that are small,
¶ Here/These are four animals that are small or have little strength,

Four things on earth are small: This line refers to four animals that are small or limited in either size or strength. Some other ways to translate this line are:

There are four animals in the world that are small (GNT)

Four animals are small or weak

Four things: The Four things in this list are all small living creatures. They include ants, hyraxes, locusts, and lizards. In English, the word “animals” can be used to refer to all of them. In other languages, a different term may be needed to describe all these different kinds. For example:

Four living creatures

on earth: In some languages, it may not be necessary to specify a phrase such as on earth or “in the world.” If that is true in your language, you may leave this phrase implied.

30:24b

yet they are exceedingly wise:

but they are very clever/wise.
but unexpectedly they have extreme wisdom/skill.

yet they are exceedingly wise: There is a textual issue here with the phrase that the BSB translates as exceedingly wise:

The Masoretic Text (MT) has “extremely wise.” For example:
yet they are exceedingly wise (NRSV) (BSB, CEV, ESV, GW, KJV, NAB, NASB, NCV, NET, NIV, NLT, NRSV, GNT)
The LXX and Latin Vulgate have “wiser than the wise,” which is equivalent to “wisest of the wise.” For example:
though they are the wisest of the wise (NJB) (NJB, NJPS, REB)

It is recommended that you follow the MT, along with most versions and scholars.The HOTTP also supports the MT with a “B” rating, indicating little doubt.

wise: The word wise here also means “clever,” “skillful,” or “cunning.”

Some other ways to translate this line are:

but they are very wise (NCV)

but very, very clever (GNT)

but unusually wise (NLT)

uW Translation Notes:

[30:24](../30/24.md)–[28](../30/28.md) is the fifth of six numerical sayings in this chapter. See the discussion of numerical sayings in the Chapter Introduction.

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / possession

קְטַנֵּי־אָ֑רֶץ

small_of earth

Here Agur is using the possessive form to describe small things that exist on the earth. If your language would not use the possessive form for this, you could use a different expression. Alternate translation: “are smalls things that exist on the earth”

Note 2 topic: writing-poetry

חֲכָמִ֥ים מְחֻכָּמִֽים

wise_ones ones_being_made_wise

Here, wise things, being made wise is an emphatic construction that uses a verb and its object that come from the same root. You may be able to use the same construction in your language to express the meaning here. Alternatively, your language may have another way of showing the emphasis.

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The Hebrew text, lemmas, and morphology are all thanks to the OSHB and some of the glosses are from Macula Hebrew.