Proverbs 30

The tongue when it is let loose will be ready to speak loosely; watch it, lest it run beyond its bounds, in frothy and sinful discourse. (Proverbs 30:32) If you have thought evil, lay your hand upon your mouth: That is (say some) lay your hand upon your mouth in token of repenta…

The serpent uses many shifts, and glides so cunningly, that we cannot trace him. This was one of those four things which wise Agur could not find out, the way of a serpent upon a rock (Proverbs 30:19). 'Tis a deceitful creature: we should not in this sense be like the serpent, f…

So where there is sanctification there is not only God's image in the heart, but a superscription of holiness written in the life. Some say they have good hearts, but their lives are vicious (Proverbs 30:12). There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, yet is not wash…

The inanimate creatures are in motion: the sun goes its circuit, the fountain runs, the fire sparkles. And animate creatures; Solomon sends us to the ant and pismire to learn labor (Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 30:35). The bee is the emblem of industry; some of the bees trim the honey…

Judges 17:6: When there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. A wonder (Proverbs 30:27). (2.) God has promoted kings, that they may promote justice.

You cannot honor your Father in Heaven, unless you honor your earthly parents. To deny obedience to parents entails God's judgments upon children (Proverbs 30:17). The eye that mocks at his father, and despises to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and…

Poverty is a sore temptation: [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], Menand. (Proverbs 30:29) Give me not poverty. Many by their sin have brought themselves to poverty; and when a great estate is boiled away to nothing, then they are discontented, and think better to die quickly, than lan…

It is lawful to use the world, indeed, and to desire so much of it, as may, 1. Keep us from the temptation of poverty. (Proverbs 30:8.) Give me not poverty, lest I steal, and take the name of my God in vain. 2. As may enable us to honor God with works of mercy.

It is hard to carry a full cup without spilling, and a full estate without sinning. Agar feared if he were full, he should deny God, and say, Who is the Lord; (Proverbs 30:9). Prosperity breeds, 1. Pride: The children of Kohath were in a higher estate than the rest of the Levite…

In handling which, I trust I have not at all incurred that severe reproof of the Apostle, against curious speculations about angels, of intruding into those things which I have not seen ground and warrant for in the word (Colossians 2:18). Sure I am I have endeavored to follow t…

Daily] The word in the original is thus much in effect, Bread to our essence or substance: then the meaning is, give us such bread from day to day, as may nourish our substance. Thus prays Agur (Proverbs 30:8): Feed me with food convenient for me. Some there are which put an Ang…

Acts 20:35: It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive. Proverbs 30:8: Give me neither riches nor poverty. Deuteronomy 28:22: Poverty is numbered among the curses of the law, none of which are to be vowed.

If any be called to take notice of this doctrine, they are called to take notice of it. There is a generation, says Solomon (Proverbs 30:12), which are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their filthiness. They conclude they are absolved, but never look inward, t…

By Samuel Rutherford, Minister of the Gospel, and Professor of Divinity in the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland. (Proverbs 30:4) What is his name, and what is his Son's name if you can tell? (Isaiah 53:8) He was taken from prison, and from judgment, and who shall declare…

Three sorts of temptations he then uses to us, the same he did to Christ. 1. Either he tempts us to unlawful means to satisfy our hunger, so he did to Christ, who was to be governed by the Spirit, to work a miracle to provide for his bodily wants at Satan's direction: so us, pov…

"for it signifies Retreat or Concealment, which serves to denote that becoming shame which ought to be in virgins." They produce a passage from the book of Proverbs, "the way of a man with a maid," בעלמה, (Proverbs 30:19.) But it does not at all support their views.

All true spiritual Knowledge is of that Nature, that the more a Person has of it, the more is he sensible of his own Ignorance; as is evident by 1 Corinthians 8:2. He that thinketh he knoweth any Thing, he knoweth nothing yet, as he ought to know. Agur when he had a great Discov…

As (1) to the Spirit who is the principal Efficient of the whole. Not that Sanctification consists wholly herein, but firstly and necessarily it is required thereunto; Prov. 30. 12. Ezek. 36. 25.

So great is he, that all men, all kings and princes, are as worms of the dust before him, all nations are as the drop in a bucket, and the light dust of the balance; yes, and angels themselves are as nothing before him. He is so high, that he is infinitely above any need of us;…

So. Jacob, Genesis 28:20 and Agur, Proverbs 30. 8, 9. Wise Providence considers our condition as Pilgrims and Strangers, and so allots the Viaticum provision, that is needful for our passage home. It knows the mischievous influence of fulness and redundancy upon most men, though…

Extremes are very dangerous: to be extreme poor or extreme rich, is an extreme temptation. Therefore the wise man Agur (Proverbs 30:8) prays, Give me neither poverty nor riches, Lord says he, I would not be in any of the extremes: it is a sore temptation to be far on either hand…

And even so the deeper a man looks under him, the better he sees himself. But the world and man's eyes do the contrary, they look only above themselves, they will mount on high as Solomon says: (Proverbs 30): There are people which have high looks, and cast up their eyelids. Thu…

If God command us to aske him bread, and to depende upon him for it, wee must not judge basely of it: nowe in this chapter God commands us to depend upon him for foode to eate: yea, 1. Pet. 5. 7. we must cast all our care on him: and Iacobs practise in praying for bread to eate,…

Next, the commendation of her hair, in both its parts, will confirm this. 1. It is like a flock of goats: goats are stately and comely in going, and a flock of them must be very stately, as they were especially in these parts (Proverbs 30:21, 31). And so this ornament of a good…

The second step or degree of this love, and the similitude illustrating it, is in these words, jealousy is cruel as the grave: it is the prosecution of the same purpose, only, what she called love before, is here termed jealousy; jealousy may be taken in a good sense, or an evil…

Certainly the hand of Joab is in all this. Concerning these, I shall say no more, but what the wise man observed of such a race of confident self-justiciaries in his days (Proverbs 30:12): There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their f…

Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall your poverty come as one who travels; drawing nearer and nearer to you by soft and silent degrees; and your want as an armed man; who, though his pace be slow, by reason of the weight of his a…

So we find (Genesis 48:12) that Joseph, as highly exalted as he was in the court of Pharaoh, when he brought out his sons to receive the blessing of Jacob his father, he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And on the contrary, that an ill-conditioned look towards a parent…

To make him who is truth itself attest that which is falsehood and deceit. And therefore (Proverbs 30:9) Agur prays against pinching poverty, as well as superfluous riches, "Lest," says he, "I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." That is, lest poverty compel…

1. Alas, says one, I fear I have no such treasure as here is described, for I have a very ignorant head, and therefore an empty heart, these treasures enter in by the door and window of knowledge, but I know nothing yet as I ought to know; I cannot conceive aright of one truth,…

The Scripture says, The heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). Solomon said, there were four things too wonderful for him that he could not know (Proverbs 30:19). He might have added a fifth; the way of man's heart.

When our outward enjoyments are by providence shaped and fitted to our condition, as a suit is to the body, that fits close and neat, neither too curt nor long; we cannot desire a better condition in this world. This was it that wise Agur requested of God (Proverbs 30:8-9): Give…

So pride, that will make a man singular. There is a holy singularity (Proverbs 30:31) — the going of the he-goat is comely, that is as he walks before the flock. Thus to be a leading man in religion is honorable, but pride puts a man upon an evil singularity (Colossians 2:19), i…

It is to the tongue as the helm is to the ship (it is the apostle's comparison, James 3:3-4) — not to silence it, but to guide it, to steer it wisely, especially when the wind is high. If at any time we have conceived a passion, and thought evil, meekness will lay the hand upon…

If the spirit of any ruler rise up against you, and you be chided for a fault, leave not your place, as an inferior, for yielding pacifies great offenses done, and prevents the like (Ecclesiastes 10:4). If you have thought evil, lay your hand upon your mouth, to keep that evil t…

Indeed, Verse 18. God appropriates it as a peculiar work of his; He causeth [His wind to hlow.] Hence, He is said in Scripture, to bring them forth of his treasury, Psalm 137:7. There they are locked up and reserved, not a gust can break forth, till he command and call for it to…

It is deeper than hell, what can we know; the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea (Job 11:7-9). We may all say one to another of this, surely we are more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man; we neither learned wisdom, nor…

Without special assistance, it has an inconceivably malignant influence on believers themselves. Hence Agur prays against riches because of the temptation that attends them: 'lest I be full and deny you, and say, who is the Lord?' (Proverbs 30:8–9). We know how David was mistake…

2. Think much of your unacquaintedness with him; though you know enough to keep you low and humble, yet how little a portion is it that you know of him! The contemplation hereof cast that wise man into that apprehension of himself, which he expresses (Proverbs 30:2-4): Surely I…

Look to this, that this blood be sprinkled on your souls, that the destroying Angel may pass by you. There is a generation (not some few, but a generation) deceived in this, they are their own deceivers, pure in their own eyes (Proverbs 30:12). How earnestly does David pray wash…

Possibly the trial there might lie in this, because they had but from hand to mouth; or, because it was not that meat which their lusts craved, but that which God saw fit for them. But however, though prosperity be not called so, yet certainly it is in itself a trial (Proverbs 3…

1. The things of the world. All conditions of life become a snare to us, prosperity, adversity (Proverbs 30:8-9): Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me, etc. Lest I be full and deny you, etc.

Christ teaches us here to pray for bread, which is a necessary allowance. (Proverbs 30:8) Feed me with food convenient for me. And, (1 Timothy 6:8) If we have food and raiment, let us therewith be content.

When we beg freedom from temptation, it is that we may not dishonor God: (Proverbs 30:8-9) Lest I be full, and deny you, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Still that God may be glorified in every condition.

A Sermon (Number 2140) delivered on Lord's Day, April twenty-seventh, 1890 by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.”—Proverbs 30:2. Sometimes it is necessary for a speaker to ref…

We say Thoughts are free; so they are in mans Court; but God will punish for Thoughts: it was set upon Herods score, that he thought to have destroyed Christ under a pretence of worshipping him, Matthew 2:8. Let us be humbled for the sins of our Thoughts, Proverbs 30:32. If you…

Those that went to Athens, first they counted themselves [in non-Latin alphabet], wise men; afterward only [in non-Latin alphabet], lovers of wisdom; then they were only men that could talk a little; afterward they found themselves nothing. So a Christian in communion with God,…

How much more sensible would they have been of their defects in the knowledge of spiritual things, if they had in a little measure been acquainted with the mysteries of godliness, that pass all understanding, and are so much from human sense, and above the capacities of our reas…

Indeed, the more we know, the more is our ignorance discovered to us. (Proverbs 30:2-3): Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the Holy.

Most go this way, Remove from me the way of lying (that is) the way of sin; and the rather, because the Septuagint translation read it thus, Remove from me the way of iniquity: and Chrysostom in his gloss, He means, every evil deed should be removed from him; or it proves a lie…