10

AHorne for the Alien: Worldly Wisdorn and Covenantal Confession in .1-9*

The passage introduced as 'the words of Agur,' found near the end of the (30.1-9), is a strange text. Recent scholarly treatment of this passage has led to readings as different in their grasp of a single text as one could probably find anywhere in biblical interpreta• tion. In an important article, which appeared in 1983, Paul Franklyn aptly characterized the debate on the Agur text in terms of two basic views, which see the passage as featuring either an uninterrupted con• fession of piety or a startling expression of theological skepticism. 1 This latter view, which was made prominent by R.B.Y. Scott, involves displacing the difficult MT reading of Agur's opening words with a reading which yields an outrageous theological negation unparalleled elsewhere in the canon, 'There is no God, there is no God, and I am powerless.'2 Notwithstanding that this translation depends upon re• rendering this line alone as Aramaic or else emending the Hebrew with no less than five consonantal changes,3 this view has attracted support from such prominent scholars of biblical wisdom as William McKane and James Crenshaw. 4

• First published in Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschcift 106 (1994), pp. 96-107. 1 Paul Franklyn, 'The Sayings of Agur in Proverbs 30: Piety or Skepticism?' ZAW95 (1983), pp. 238-52. 2 R.Y.B. Seott, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (AneB; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), p. 176. Franklyn, 'Sayings of Agur,' p. 238, traees the view from E.J. Dillon, The Skeptics ofthe (London: Ibister, 1895), p. 137. 3 Scott retreated to this option in a later treatment (The Way of Wisdom in the Old Testament [New York: Maemillan, 1971], p. 168), eoneeding the unlikelih• ood of a single Aramaie phrase in an otherwise Hebrew text. 4 MeKane, Proverbs: A New Approach (OTL; Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1970), pp. 645-47; Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction (Atlanta: John Knox, 1981), p. 176; and more reeently 'Clanging Symbols,' in Justice and the Holy: Essays in Honor of Walter Harrelson, edited by Douglas A. Knight and Peter J. Paris (Atlanta, GA: Seholars Press, 1989), pp. 51-64. It should be noted that Crenshaw here makes a ease for viewing the Agur passage as extending 10. Worldly Wisdom and Covenantal Confession in Proverbs 30.1-9 123

Against what has become a growing scholarly trend to so read the words of Agur as confessions of an atheist or skeptic that end abruptly at v. 3 or 4 and which are then followed in vv. 5-9 with some rather bland counterpoints by a pious editor, Franklyn has offered a meticul• ous analysis that defends the more traditional interpretation. While Franklyn's viewing of the entire passage in terms of a single orthodox expression is admittedly not new, 5 his effort represents a significant counter current to the more skeptical historical-critical trend, offering a fresh and credible case for reading the words of Agur as a coherent, orthodox confession of faith that disdoses some profound and pre• viously overlooked connections to Israelite belief. I propose in this paper to build upon Franklyn's interpretation of the Agur text, reinforcing his insights on the internal workings of the pas• sage with some broader contextual considerations, which not only support the more traditional reading but also point up its profound theological implications for the book of Proverbs and the Hebrew canon. I will first summarize Franklyn's treatment before offering my own. In brief, Franklyn argues that the 'best and least damaging textual and grammatical decisions' for the Agur passage make possible a cohe• rent reading of 'beautiful structural symmetry.' He sees an opening confession and a dosing prayer surrounding a pair of quotations, which all converge upon the context of a humble man, near death, approach• ing his final covenantal oath before Yahweh. Franklyn points out how the initial confession, the conduding prayer, and the intervening quo• tations all begin with recognition of human ignorance and inadequacy and move toward concern for proper acknowledgement of God. A key thread that seems to run through and open up this interpreta• tion is the recognition of a striking confluence of sapiential and pro• phetie traditions. This begins in the superscription with the appearance of the words ~tv~:1 (hamassa), 'the orade,' and z:J~J (ne'um) , 'dedared,' both standard references to prophetie utterance and yet here attributed to man, 1Jl:1 (hageber) , rather than, as normal, to Yahweh. Franklyn notes that z:J~J is so used in reference to humans only two other times in the Old Testament: in Numbers 24 in reference to Baalam's orade and in 2 23 in reference to 's last words, a non• coincidental parallel, one might suggest, to Agur's last words here. Most all commentators note the sapiential kinship between Agur' s through v. 14. See also Derrnot Cox, Proverbs (Old Testament Message, 17; Wihnington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1982), pp. 237-43. 5 Franklyn cites C.T. Fritsch, Ihe Book of Proverbs (IB 4; Nashville, TN: Ab• ingdon, 1955), pp. 946-49, as the last scholar before him explicitly to support this view.