John Trapp on Proverbs 30:1

CHAP. XXX. Verſ. 1. The words of Agur the ſon of Jakeh]

THe Vulgar renders it, Verba Congregantis filii Vomentis, taking theſe proper Names for appellatives: as if the Pen-man of this Chapter meant to tell us,Aelian. Hiſt. var. that he would here give us his ſacred Collectanies, or Miſcellanies, ſuch as he had taken up from the mouthes of wiſeſt men, who had vomited or caſt them up, in a like ſenſe as that Painter in Aelian drew Homer vomiting, and all the other Poets licking it up. This Agur (whether he lived in Salomon's days, or Hezekiah's) was an excellent man (as the word Gheber here uſed imports) Vir bonus & prudens, minus tamen clarus (as one ſaith of Jeſſe, Davids father) a godly wiſe man, though nothing be elſewhere ſpoken of him in Scripture. Some think, that being requeſted by Ithiel and Ucal, two of his Diſciples, to give them a leſſon, Socrates-like, he anſwered, Hoc unum ſcio, quod nihil ſcio. This one thing I know, that I know nothing: Surely I am more brutiſh than any man, ſc. of my ſelf, further than taught of God: for every man is a brute by his own underſtanding, as Jeremy hath it.Jer. 10. But I rather incline to thoſe that take Ithiel and Ucal for Chriſt; whoſe goodneſs and power (thoſe two pillars of a Chriſtians faith, as Jachin and Boaz were of Salomons Temple) is by theſe two names deciphered: and whom hee propounds as the matter of his Prophecy. Now becauſe ſenſe of miſery muſt precede ſenſe of mercy: neither can any be welcome to Chriſt, but the weary and heavie laden, therefore he firſt bewails his own brutiſhneſs (fetching it up as low as Adam fallen, verſ. 2. and aggravating it in that he had not yet acquired better abilities, verſ. 3.) Next hee flyes to Ithiel and Ucal by the force of a particular faith (Ithiel God with me, and Ucal God Almighty, through whom I can do all things.) This, this was the right ready way of coming to Chriſt: and him that thus cometh, hee will in no wiſe caſt out, Joh. 6.37. There is a good Interpreter that paralelling this text with Jer. 9.23, 24, reads it thus.Muffet. A gathering together of the words of Agur the Son of Jakeh; Let the excellent man ſay, Let God be with me, let God bee with me, and I ſhall prevail.