to widen (in any direction) · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
vanity
שָׁ֤וְאshav'
H7723
evil (as destructive) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
lies
וּֽדְבַרu.de.var-
H1697
a word · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
give
תִּֽתֶּןti.ten-
H5414
to give · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
poverty
רֵ֣אשׁresh
H7389
poverty · noun, common masculine singular absolute
riches
וָ֭עֹשֶׁרVa.'o.sher
H6239
wealth · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
feed
הַ֝טְרִיפֵ֗נִיhat.ri.Fe.ni
H2963
to pluck off or pull to pieces · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
food
לֶ֣חֶםLe.chem
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular construct
convenient
חֻקִּֽיchu.Ki
H2706
an enactment · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Timothy 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
Psalms 62:9-10 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
Psalms 119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Psalms 119:29 Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.
Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Proverbs 21:6 The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 30:7-9
After Agur's confession and creed, here follows his litany, where we may observe,
I. The preface to his prayer: Two things have I required (that is, requested) of thee, O God! Before we go to pray it is good to consider what we need, and what the things are which we have to ask of God. - What does our case require? What do our hearts desire? What would we that God should do for us? - that we may not have to seek for our petition and request when we should be presenting it. He begs, Deny me not before I die. In praying, we should think of dying, and pray accordingly. "Lord, give me pardon, and peace, and grace, before I die, before I go hence and be no more; for, if I be not renewed and sanct…
vanity--all sorts of sinful acts (Job 11:11; Isa 5:18).
John Gill on Proverbs 30:8
Remove far from me vanity and lies,.... This is the "first" request, to be preserved from sin, in general; which is a vain, lying, and deceitful thing; promising pleasure, profit, liberty, and impunity, which it does not give. Agur desires to have vain thoughts removed out of his mind, vain words from his mouth, and vain actions from his life and conversation; to have his eyes turned from beholding vanity, and his feet from walking in it; and his affections taken off from the vain things of the world, the lusts, pleasures, profits, and honours of it; as well as to be kept from all errors and false doctrines, which are lies in hypocrisy; with which men that lie in wait to deceive would, if it…
In what now follows, the key-note struck in Pro 30:1 is continued. There follows a prayer to be kept in the truth, and to be preserved in the middle state, between poverty and riches. It is a Mashal-ode, vid., vol. i. p. 12. By the first prayer, "vanity and lies keep far from me," it is connected with the warning of Pro 30:6.
7 Two things I entreat from Thee,
Refuse them not to me before I die.
8 Vanity and lies keep far away from me
Poverty and riches give me not:
Cause me to eat the bread which is allotted to me,
9 Lest in satiety I deny,
And say: Who is Jahve?
And lest, in becoming poor, I steal,
And profane the name of my God.
We begin with the settlement and explanation of the tradition…
The Church Fathers
Surely you see that this sufficiency is not to be coveted for its own sake but to provide for health of body and for clothing which accords with one's personal dignity and which makes it possible for him to live with others honorably and respectably.
Solomon says, "Give me neither beggary nor riches; give me only what is necessary and sufficient," lest being filled I should deny and say, Who sees me? Or being poor, I should steal and forswear the name of my God; thus representing riches as satiety, poverty as a complete lack of the necessities of life, and sufficiency as a state both free from want and without superfluity. Sufficiency varies, however, according to physical condition and present need.… In every case, care must be taken for a good table, yet without overstepping the limits of the actual need.
Therefore, pay attention to yourself, poor man, pay attention, wealthy man; because there are trials in both poverty and riches. And therefore the Wise Man says: Do not give me riches or poverty, give me only what is sufficient for me. Because riches, like feasts, stretch the stomach and the mind with worries and anxieties. And therefore he asks to be established with what is necessary and sufficient: Lest, he says, being filled, I become a liar and say: Who sees me? But if I become poor, I will commit theft and swear in the name of the Lord (Ibid.). Therefore, the temptations of the world must be avoided and guarded against; lest the poor despair and the wealthy become arrogant.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agur — Gatherer; the collector, mentioned as author of the sayings in Prov. 30. Nothing is known of him beyond what is there recorded.
Blasphemy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Covetousness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Food · FROM GOD — FROM GOD
Lying · Saints: Pray to be preserved from — Saints: Pray to be preserved from
Poverty · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Prayer · For temporal blessings — For temporal blessings
Riches · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Vanity · Saints: Pray to be kept from — Saints: Pray to be kept from
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Agur requests two favors from God: that God will help him not to lie (cp. 6:16-19; 14:5, 25; 25:18; 26:18-19) and that he not be given too much or too little. It is not sinful to be rich (3:9-10, 15-16; 10:15, 22) or poor (3:27; 11:24; 28:27; 29:7, 14), but Agur wisely wanted to avoid the pitfalls of both.
Rashi on Proverbs 30:8
poverty Heb. ראש, poverty.
provide me Heb. הטריפני, an expression of food, and similarly (Ps. 111: 5): “He has given food (טרף) to those who fear Him.”
