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.