Proverbs 30 and 31

Proverbs 30 and 31 closed out the collection compiled by King Hezekiah's scribes. Noboby really knows who the authors were; whether Agur and Lemuel were actual people or just pseudonyms of Solomon. For example, Lemuel means "belonging to God"' and Agur means "gatherer or collector", both of which could be construed as alternate names for Solomon. And several times in Proverbs, Solomon refers to himself as "the preacher", so it would not have been out of character to use a pen name. However, there are a few clues that work against this theory. For example, the writing style of Agur's poetry was very different than the remaining proverbs. He repeatedly uses the phrase..."there are three things, no four...". A second clue is from one of my favorite verses from Proverbs 30. Agur asks that God give him neither riches nor poverty, yet Solomon was known to be the wealthiest man on earth at the time.

In regard to Lemuel, there is no record in Kings or Chronicles of any king in Israel by that name, so if not Solomon, then he must have been a God-fearing foreign king. There are evidently a number of words borrowed from other languages in the poem, which is consistent with this theory. Some object to the notion that a non-Jew could have penned any book of the Old Testament, but if these men were true believers, why not?! I don't see how this would cause any problems with the authenticity of Scripture because God can inspire whomever He chooses. Many scholars suppose that when Hezekiah's scribes were assembling the king's favorite proverbs, others were included as being the king's current favorites, written much later than Solomon's time.

Proverbs 31 speaks for itself, but I do want to draw your attention to the verse in the previous chapter that asked several questions about the identity of God, specifically the name of His son!!! Awesome....

Tomorrow's reading: Psalm 42-46