Agur

Agur son of Jakeh is identified as the author of the collection of sayings in Proverbs 30. He is described as the man who spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal (Proverbs 30:1), though the identity of these addressees and the exact meaning of the superscription have been disputed. Agur presents himself with remarkable humility — 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 (Proverbs 30:2–3) — before launching into a series of numerical proverbs that observe patterns in the natural world with precise, almost scientific attention.

Agur is identified neither with Solomon nor with any known Israelite figure, and some scholars have suggested he may have been a sage from a non-Israelite tradition incorporated into the canon of wisdom. His prayer in Proverbs 30:7–9 — asking for neither poverty nor riches, only the daily bread that preserves from both denial and excess — is among the most theologically balanced petitions in the wisdom literature.