Sixth Sentence
Exhortation to denounce ambition
Whether thou hast acted foolishly in exalting thyself,
Or whether thou hast done wisely, lay thy hand upon thy lips!316
For pressure of milk produces butter,
And pressure of vanity produces anger;
Pressure of the nose317 produces blood,
And pressure of wrath produces strife.
Footnotes
[312] To this and the following Sayings, Agur’s orthodox opponent replies
thus:
Every word of God is purified:
He is a shield to them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words,
Lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
Two things have I demanded of thee, O Jahveh,
Deny me them not before I die:
Frivolity and blasphemous words
And negation remove far from me.
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with food suitable for me.
Lest I be sated and deny thee,
And say, Who is the Lord?
Or lest I be poor and yield to seduction
And offend against the name of my God.
Accuse not a servant to his master,[312a]
Lest he curse thee and thou be found guilty.
There is a bad generation that curses its father
And doth not bless its mother,[312b]
A bad generation which is pure in its own eyes,
And yet is not washed from its filthiness.
A bad generation, how lofty are its eyes!
And how uplifted its eyelids!
A bad generation whose teeth are as swords,
And whose jaw-teeth are as knives
To devour the poor from off the earth,
And the needy from among men.[312c]
[312a] As if Agur were an aristocrat from blind unreasoning sympathy for the heathen aristocracy. Allusion to Agur’s 4th Saying.
[312b] Against Agur’s 2nd and 3rd Sayings.
[312c] Against Agur’s 4th Saying.
[313] I.e., birth and death. (Cf. Agur, the Agnostic, pp. 139, 140.) The champion of orthodoxy evidently took the passage literally and consequently condemned Agur as guilty of a lack of filial respect for his mother, venting his feelings in the following lines:
“The eye that scoffeth at the grey hair of the father
And that despiseth the old age of the mother,
The ravens of the valley shall pick it out
And the young eagles shall devour it.”
[314] Verse 20 A.V. is an addition inserted by a later writer who having misunderstood the last line of the fourth sentence, deemed it his duty to give it a moral turn.
[315] The Sentence following (vv. 24-24 A.V.) dealing with Four Cunning Ones is probably not from Agur’s pen; for not only has it five distichs, but it lacks the point which characterises his Sayings, besides which it does not begin, as his “numerical” Sentences do, with three before proceeding to four.
examples of interpolations reconstructive changes do not affect inspiration Job’s natural philosophy his dynamic theory of the Universe his monotheism not Jewish his moral system, based on pity, found in Buddhism, and here first preached in the Old Testament belief in eternal justice the secret of Job’s resignation the ancient legend of Job, use of it by the poet analysis of the Poem the appearance of Jehovah not literal but symbolical of Job’s illumination Judaism, the influence of Buddhism on
Kant and Koheleth
Koheleth—
its inclusion in the Canon
the literary problem of
its metaphysical basis the same as that of the philosophy of
Buddha, Kant, and Schopenhauer
chaotic and conflicting character of text Prof. Bickell’s theory as to the confusion of the book instances of similar confusion in other works the proposed re-arrangement illustrations in support of Prof. Bickell’s theory
Koheleth’s theory of life
source of happiness not wealth
nor wisdom
nor virtue
Koheleth’s system
relation of God to man
the practical moral
the view of “moral order”
the world all Maya, illusion
Koheleth’s theory not inconsistent with Christianity
the reach of our knowledge; happiness the only true good
Koheleth knows nothing of future life or of divine promises or
revelations
his belief in eternal justice renunciation, the great doctrine wisdom the great boon content and moderation the golden rule the sources of his philosophy opposition of Jewish orthodoxy to the book admission of the book to the Canon its incompatibility with Messianic hopes of Israel disbelief in a personal God in retribution and immortality Greek influences questioned; probable influence of Buddhism date and locality of Koheleth
Life to come (see Future Life)
Lucretius compared with Job
Luther and the Book of Job
Magicians mentioned in Job
Maya, illusion, the teaching of Koheleth
Metre in Hebrew, laws of
Nirvana, Koheleth’s only real good
view of
Old Testament, untrustworthiness of historical books
Origen and the Hexapla
Parallelism in Hebrew poetry
Paul, St., and a lost version of Job
“Praise of Wisdom,” its place in “Proverbs,” Prof. Bickell’s discovery
Priests’ Code, the
“Proverbs,” analysis of
not written by Solomon
their history
date of
Plants, tenderness of Buddhism towards
Renunciation, the teaching of Koheleth, Buddha, Christ, etc.
Resurrection, the (in Job)
“Redeemer liveth, I know that my”
Saidic or Thebaic version of Job Sariputto, and the desire for life (tanha) Satan, “a son of God” Scotus Erigena and free-will Schopenhauer and Koheleth and Renunciation and the four things insatiable Semites, remains of ancient speculation among and Aryans, contrast of mental characteristics Septuagint, the value of, in regard to text of Job
Tanha, the terrible Ghoul
Tennyson’s opinion of Job
Thebaic or Saidic version of Job
Theodore of Mopsuestia condemned for declaring Job to be fiction
Theodotion’s version of the Old Testament
Thomas Aquinas on Job
Transmigration of souls
Veda, the
Vedanta, the
Vowel points in Hebrew
“Wisdom, Praise of,” its place in “Proverbs,” Prof. Bickell’s discovery
Notes
316 Keep silence.
317 In Hebrew the same word signifies “nose” and “strife.”