What Does Proverbs 30:1 Mean?

The words of Agur son of Jakeh, the burden. The man speaks to Ithiel, to Ithiel and to Ucal.

Proverbs 30:1 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal,

THE KEY

The “prophecy” is ⁨מַשָּׂא⁩ (massa, a carried burden), spoken to ⁨אִיתִיאֵל⁩ (Ithiel, “God is with me”).

THE MEANING

Here, speech arrives with weight and is addressed to hearers rather than left as a private thought. Ithiel’s repeated name, ⁨אִיתִיאֵל⁩ (Ithiel, “God is with me”), makes the address itself part of the utterance.

THE ROOT

מַשָּׂא

massa

GROWS FROM

נשא

nasa

to lift, carry, or bear

“the burden” in this verse is massa. The verse’s word for prophecy also means a burden or load, from a root of carrying. The utterance is presented as something borne into speech, with weight attached to it.

ALSO GROWS

nasa: to lift, carry, bear

נָשָׂא

This verb is the root action beneath the verse’s image of a burden carried into speech.

massa: burden, load; also an oracle

מַשָּׂא

This is the verse’s own word: an oracle is named as something borne.

דִּבְרֵי

divrei

GROWS FROM

דבר

word, matter; the related verb means to speak

“speaks” in this verse is divrei. ⁨דִּבְרֵי⁩ (divrei, words) belongs to the same word-family as ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (davar, word or matter) and the verb for speaking. Hebrew holds the spoken words and the matter being spoken within one root-family.

ALSO GROWS

davar: word, matter

דָּבָר

The opening words are not merely sounds; the root also names the matter carried in speech.

dibber: spoke, declared

דִּבֵּר

This verb form shows the same root moving from the words themselves into the act of speaking.

THE PATTERN

Speech with weight travels through a human voice to named hearers.

I raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I set my words in his mouth, and he speaks to them all that I command him.

Deuteronomy 18:18 · SDVThe speaker carries words placed in his mouth and speaks them to hearers, as the utterance here is addressed to named people.

Then the LORD stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Look, I have set my words in your mouth.

Jeremiah 1:9 · SDVWords enter a human mouth before they become speech, showing an utterance as something carried.

For prophecy is never borne by the wanting of man, but set-apart men of God speak, borne by the Set-Apart Breath.

2 Peter 1:21 · SDVProphecy is spoken through human voices under divine movement, widening the picture of a message carried into speech.

THE THREAD

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:11 · SDV

Proverbs begins with ⁨דִּבְרֵי⁩ (divrei, words), from the same root ⁨דבר⁩ (d-b-r; davar, word or matter) as Isaiah’s “my word.” Isaiah follows that word as it goes forth and accomplishes its purpose, opening the utterance here into a word that carries its matter forward.

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