Week 25 Proverbs 30
A man named Agur wrote this chapter – the only part of the bible he wrote.
He started with a prayer. At least I thought he started with a prayer. The bible I’m reading says: I am weary, O God; I am weary and worn out, O God. That sounds like a prayer.
The problem is that I looked at two other bibles and neither one of them said anything about being weary or worn-out. So is Agur weary or not? (I finally saw that the bible I’m reading says in a footnote that: “the Hebrew can be translated (differently)”).
So that left me in a Hebrew-language deficit.
But I do see that Agur says four other things in his intro. And all three versions say more-or-less the same:
I’m the most ignorant man
I lack common sense
I haven’t mastered human wisdom
I don’t know the Holy One.
Three versions. Three language differences. But the same self-critical assessment. Agur will go on to give some good proverbs but he starts with some pretty negative self-talk.
Common advice against self-criticism in southern Alberta these days is: don’t-be-too-hard-on-yourself. But the impression I get from Agur (and as far as that goes from other parts of Proverbs) is that being self-critical is only unhealthy if it’s wrong. On the other hand if I am – for instance – a genuine fool I’ll be staying that way as long as I keep telling myself I’m not.
Note: quotes & paraphrases from Proverbs 30:1-2 (NLT NASB NIV)