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Proverbs 30:8

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Remove far from me vanity and lies -

  • שוא shav, all false shows, all false appearances of happiness, every vain expectation. Let me not set my heart on any thing that is not solid, true, durable, and eternal.
  • Lies, כזב דבר debar cazab, all words of deception, empty pretensions, false promises, uncertain dependences, and words that Fail; promises which, when they become due, are like bad bills; they are dishonored because they are found to be forged, or the drawer insolvent.
  • From the import of the original, I am satisfied that Agur prays against idolatry, false religion, and false worship of every kind. שוא shau is used for an idol, a false god. Jeremiah 18:15; : "My people have forsaken me; they have burnt incense to Vanity;" לשוא lashshav, "to an Idol." Psalm 31:6; : "I have hated them that regard lying Vanities;" שוא הבלי habley shave, "vain Idols." See also Hosea 12:11; Jonah 2:8. And כזב cazab, a thing that fails or deceives, may well apply to the vain pretensions, false promises, and deceptive religious rites of idolatry. So Jeremiah 15:18; : "Wilt thou be unto me as a liar," אכזב כמו kemo achzob, like the false, failing promises of the false gods; "and as waters that fail;" נאמנו לא lo neemanu, that are not faithful; not like the true God, whose promises never fail. According to this view of the subject, Agur prays,

    1. That he may be preserved from idolatry.
  • That he may put no confidence in any words but those pure words of God that never fail them that trust in him.
  • Give me neither poverty nor riches -

    Here are three requests:

    1. Give me not poverty. The reason is added: Lest, being poor, I shall get into a covetous spirit, and, impelled by want, distrust my Maker, and take my neighbour's property; and, in order to excuse, hide, or vindicate my conduct, I take the name of my God in vain; תפשתי taphasti, "I catch at the name of God." Or, by swearing falsely, endeavor to make myself pass for innocent. Forswere the name of my God - Old MS. Bible. Coverdale, "deny or apostatize from him."
  • Give me not riches. For which petition he gives a reason also: Lest I be full, and addict myself to luxurious living, pamper the flesh and starve the soul, and so deny thee, the Fountain of goodness; and, if called on to resort to first principles, I say, Who is Jehovah! Why should I acknowledge, why should I serve him? And thus cast aside all religion, and all moral obligation.
  • 3. The third request is, Feed me with food convenient for me, חקי לחם הטריפני hatripheni leechem chukki ; the meaning of which is, "give me as prey my statute allowance of bread," i.e., my daily bread, a sufficient portion for each day. There is an allusion made to hunting: "Direct so by thy good providence, that I may each day find sufficient portion to subsist on, as a hunter in the forest prays that he may have good speed." It is the province of a preacher to show the importance and utility of such a prayer, and dilate the circumstances, and expand the reasons, after the commentator has shown the literal sense.

    Albert Barnes
    Notes on the Whole Bible

    The order of the two requests is significant. The wise man‘s prayer is first and chiefly, “truth in the inward parts,” the removal of all forms of falsehood, hollowness, hypocrisy.

    Neither poverty … - The evil of the opposite extremes of social life is that in different ways they lead men to a false standard of duty, and so to that forgetfulness of God which passes into an absolute denial.

    Food convenient for me - literally, “give me for food the bread of my appointed portion.” The prayer foreshadows that which we have been taught by the Divine Wisdom: “Give us, day by day, our daily bread.”

    Matthew Henry
    Concise Bible Commentary
    Agur wisely prayed for a middle state, that he might be kept at a distance from temptations; he asked daily bread suited to his station, his family, and his real good. There is a remarkable similarity between this prayer and several clauses of the Lord's prayer. If we are removed from vanity and lies; if we are interested in the pardoning love of Christ, and have him for our portion; if we walk with God, then we shall have all we can ask or think, as to spiritual things. When we consider how those who have abundance are prone to abuse the gift, and what it is to suffer want, Agur's prayer will ever be found a wise one, though seldom offered. Food convenient; what is so for one, may not be so for another; but we may be sure that our heavenly Father will supply all our need, and not suffer us to want anything good for us; and why should we wish for more?
    Ellen G. White
    Selected Messages Book 3, 274.5

    I saw that we should pray as Solomon did—“Feed me with food convenient for me” (Proverbs 30:8)—and as we make the prayer, act it out. Get food that is plain and that is essential to health, free from grease. Such food will be convenient for us. 3SM 274.5

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