Proverbs 30:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Surely I am more brutish than any man, And have not the understanding of a man;
Basic English Translation (BBE)
For I am more like a beast than any man, I have no power of reasoning like a man:
Webster's Revision
Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.
World English Bible
"Surely I am the most ignorant man, and don't have a man's understanding.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man:
Definitions for Proverbs 30:2
Clarke's Proverbs 30:2 Bible Commentary
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.
Barnes's Proverbs 30:2 Bible Commentary
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 Psalm 73:22.
Wesley's Proverbs 30:2 Bible Commentary
30:2 Surely - This he utters from a modest and humble apprehension of his own ignorance.