Proverbs 30:2

Surely I am more brutish than [any] man,.... "Every man is [become] brutish in his knowledge"; man in his original state was a knowing creature but sinning lost his knowledge, and "became like the

Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. Surely I (am) more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.

You come to me with a great opinion of my wisdom, and you expect that I should inform and instruct you in all things, yea, even in the greatest mysteries: but you are much mistaken in me; I am as ignorant and foolish as other men generally are, yea, more than many others; which he utters either, 1. From a deep sense of the common corruption of human nature, and of the blindness of men’ s minds in things concerning God and their own duty, and of the necessity of instruction from God’ s word, and of illumination from his Spirit, without which they can never understand these matters. Or, 2. From a modest and humble apprehension of his own ignorance, which hath extorted such-like expressions even from heathen philosophers; whence Pythagoras rejected the title of a wise man when it was ascribed to him; and Socrates, though reputed the wisest man of his age, professed that he knew nothing but this, that he knew nothing.

Proverbs 30:2 Surely I [am] more brutish than [any] man, and have not the understanding of a man.Ver. 2. Surely I am more brutish than any man.] Or, Surely I have been brutish since I was a man. See how this good man vilifies, yea, nullifies himself to the utmost. This was true humility, that like true balm ever sinks to the bottom, when hypocritical, as oil, swims on the top. Humilitas, ab humo, because it lays a man flat on the ground. Agur had seen Ithiel and Ucal; hence he seeth so little by himself: "Now mine eyes have seen thee; wherefore I abhor myself." "Woe is me! for I am undone," saith Isaiah; "for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." He that looks intently upon the sun hath his eyes dazzled; so he that beholds the infinite excellencies of God, considers the distance, cannot but be sensible of his own naughtiness, nothingness. It is fit the foundation should be laid deep, where the building is so high. Agur’ s humility was not more low than his aims lofty: "Who hath ascended up into heaven?" It is a high pitch that he flies, for he knew well that godliness, as it begins in the right knowledge of ourselves, so it ends in the right knowledge of God. And have not the understanding of a man.] Or, Neither is there in me the understanding that was in Adam. Man, when he came first out of God’ s mint, shone most glorious in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Socinians feign him silly, and therein betray their own silliness. He had a large measure of objective knowledge, both in natural things and supernatural; which we have lost in him. This we should, with Agur here, sit down and bewail, as those in Ezra did the burnt temple. Tanta fuit Adami recens conditi stupiditas, ut maior in infantes cadere non possit. - Socin.

(2) Surely I am more brutish than any man.—Rather, than that I can be called a man, one “formed in the image of God.” (Comp. Psalms 73:22.)

Verse 2. Surely I am more brutish] These words can in no sense, nor by any mode of speech, be true of Solomon: for while he was the wisest of men, he could not have said that he was more brutish than any man, and had not the understanding of a man. It is saying nothing to the purpose, to say he was so independently of the Divine teaching. Had he put this in, even by innuendo, it might be legitimate: but he does not; nor is it by fair implication to be understood. Solomon is not supposed to have written the Proverbs after he fell from God. Then indeed he might have said he had been more brutish than any man. But Agur might have used these words with strict propriety, for aught we know; for it is very probable that he was a rustic, without education, and without any human help, as was the prophet Amos; and that all that he knew now was by the inspiration of the Almighty, independently of which he was rustic and uneducated.

A confession of ignorance, with which compare the saying of Socrates that he was wise only so far as he knew that he knew nothing, or that of Asaph Psalms 73:22.

2. Brutish — Stupid, lacking intelligence, as compared with many others. Psalms 73:22.