¹The word of Agur the son of Jakeh, the oracle, the utterance of the man to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukal.

²For I am more brutish than any man, and I have no understanding of a human.

³I have not learned wisdom, nor do I know the knowledge of the holy.

⁴Who has gone up into the skies and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his cupped hands? Who has wrapped the waters in a cloak? Who has set up all the ends of the land? What is his name, and what is the name of his son? Tell me, if you know.

⁵Every word of God is refined; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

⁶Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be proved a liar.

⁷Two things I ask of you; do not withhold them from me before I die.

⁸Put far from me emptiness and the word of a lie; give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me the food of my allotment.

⁹Lest I be satisfied and deny, and say, 'Who is Yahweh?' or lest I become impoverished and steal, and seize the name of my God.

¹⁰Do not slander a slave to his lord, lest he curse you and you be held guilty.

¹¹A generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.

¹²A generation clean in its own eyes, yet not washed of its filth.

¹³A generation — how high its eyes are, and its eyelids are lifted up!

¹⁴A generation whose teeth are swords and whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from the land and the needy from mankind.

¹⁵The leech has two daughters: 'Give, give!' Three things are never satisfied; four never say, 'Enough!'

¹⁶Sheol, and the closing of the womb; the land that is not satisfied with water, and fire that does not say, Enough!

¹⁷The eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother — the ravens of the wadi will pick it out, and the young of the eagle will eat it.

¹⁸Three things are too wonderful for me, and four I do not know:

¹⁹The way of the eagle in the skies, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship in the heart of the sea, and the way of a man with a young woman.

²⁰So is the way of a woman who commits adultery: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, 'I have done no iniquity.'

²¹Under three the land quakes, and under four it cannot bear up:

²²Under a slave when he reigns, and a fool when he is full of food;

²³Under a hated woman when she is married, and a female slave when she dispossesses her mistress.

²⁴Four things are the small ones of the land, yet they are wise, made wise:

²⁵The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer;

²⁶The rock-rabbits are a people not mighty, yet they make their home in the crag;

²⁷The locust has no king, yet all of it goes out dividing into swarms;

²⁸A lizard you can grasp in your hands, yet it is in the palaces of a king.

²⁹Three things do well in their stride, and four do well in walking:

³⁰The lion is mighty among the beasts, and does not turn back before anything;

³¹The one girded at the loins, or the he-goat, and a king, a band of soldiers with him.

³²If you have been foolish in lifting yourself up, or if you have plotted, put a hand to your mouth.

³³For the squeezing of milk brings out curds, and the squeezing of the nose brings out blood, and the squeezing of anger brings out strife.