Agur

Proverbs 30:1 - The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh

I wonder who Agur was. He, along with King Lemuel, are right up there with Solomon amongst the proverbial elite. Most people probably think the whole book of Proverbs belongs to Solomon, but not so. Here is Agur with his own n+1 style of wisdom.

At least in the few proverbs recorded here, we see he likes numbers. 'There are 3 things -- no, wait -- 4 things....' He's not the only writer to use this technique, and I believe it was (is?) a fairly common style in that culture.

Agur is also the one to write the well-known passage about disobedient children and overzealous birds. There's a trivia question for you!

I wonder if Agur was one of Solomon's officials.

I wonder in general how many of these writers actually did their own writing. We know that Paul used a secretary to write much of the New Testament. I wonder if Solomon sometimes used one too. I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Agur, on the other hand, seems like a guy who'd do his own writing. I don't know why I think so; I just have that feeling.