There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother;
Agur opens his list of four evil groups with the family — the first place where authority is either honoured or despised. Older translations begin the line, "There is a generation that curses its father" — and that word raises the first question: a span of years, or a type of person?
The word does not mark off a block of time. Writers point to this verse as proof that Scripture often uses "generation" for a moral type — people of one character, whenever they live.
The meaning here is moral rather than chronological... In Deuteronomy 32:5, 20 we find "generation" used in the same way — not to convey a period, but to express the moral characteristics of Israel... So also in Proverbs 30:11-14, where the character of certain classes is considered.
So Agur is not dating a decade. He is naming a breed.
Agur builds the chapter out of groups of four. Verses 11 to 14 are one such group:
There are six sets of four things: Four generations that are evil. (Prov. 30:11-14.) Four things that nothing can satisfy. (Prov. 30:15-16) Four things that cannot be understood. (Prov. 30:18-19)
Contempt for parents heads that list of four.
The word covers more than dramatic swearing. It reaches ordinary bad-mouthing, and the law refused every excuse a child might raise.
Verse 9 deals with sin against parents. They should be recognised with at least serious respect, whether or not they are reliable. Even if they were unfair, this gave no right to the children to curse them. The ten commandments had said to honour father and mother. Therefore, cursing (speaking evil of) parents was to be punished with death.
Agur's second line matters too. The child withholds blessing from the mother, so the sin is also an honour never given. One writer weighs how common that spirit has become:
All society knows that this generation is today alarmingly large, yet the horror of it is little considered. A brazen, critical spirit will not stop short of contempt even for parents.
We do not owe parents honour because they are easy to live with. We owe it because of the place God gave them.
This is not simply God's authority giving rules. It is not even His statements about what actions lead to. It is the order He has set up in the relationships He has established among men, above all with parents. Subjection to them is really owning God in His order. It is the first commandment with promise.
God set two very different outcomes before Israel. This generation stands on the wrong side of them.
The word of God promised long and prosperous days in the land for the obedient. For the disobedient it declared a criminal's death (compare Lev. 20:9; Deut. 27:16; Prov. 20:20; Prov. 30:11). And the solemn charge spoken from Mount Ebal was, "Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother" (Deut. 27:16).
Commentators connect Agur's description with Paul's warning about the closing days, where "disobedient to parents" sits in a long list of moral collapse.
You can see the value God sets on a child's obedience from what He thinks of disobedience... The apostle also brands disobedience to parents as one of the characteristic signs of the perilous times of the last days (2 Tim. 3:1-2), and of great moral corruption (Rom. 1:30). Even a slight knowledge of real life shows that the first step in a downward path has often started with disobedience to parents.
Another writer puts the two in order. Contempt for God comes first; contempt for people follows.
"Disobedient to parents". If men are capable of blasphemy against God, it is little wonder that they are disobedient to parents. If they have little respect for divine Persons, they will have no respect for human relationships.
- Root. Contempt for God comes first; contempt for parents follows. Where there is no respect for divine Persons, there will be none for human relationships.
- Order. Parents hold a place God appointed. Submitting to them is really owning God in the order He set up — the first commandment with promise.
- Character. "Generation" here means a moral type, not a period of time. It marks a brazen, critical spirit that will not stop short of contempt even for parents.
- Reach. This is the first of four evil generations in verses 11 to 14. The family is where the wider collapse starts.
- Result. God set long life against a criminal's death. Scripture also names this sin as a mark of the last days, and as the first step in many a downward career.
there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness;
Agur lists four evil "generations" in Proverbs 30:11-14, and this one feels clean while staying dirty. So who does Scripture mean by a "generation," and if a man's own verdict on himself is worthless, who can wash him?
The word does not fix a date. It marks a kind of person, and the same moral family reappears in every century.
Parkhurst, in his Lexicon, gives this as a meaning of genea: "Men of like quality and disposition, though of neither one place nor age." The Scriptures bear this out... "There is a generation that curses their father and does not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness"... In these verses a certain moral character or kind of persons is implied.
(The writer quotes an older translation. Where it reads "There is a generation," the ESV reads "There are those.")
Proverbs 30 is built out of groups of four, and this line is the second in the opening group.
There are six sets of four things: Four generations that are evil. (Prov. 30:11-14.) Four things that are insatiable. (Prov. 30:15-16)
That placing matters. The man who curses his father in verse 11 and the man who feels spotless in verse 12 belong together.
Alongside the harsh condemnation of others, including parents, goes this arrogant self-justification. It is a proud hypocrisy that trusts self, and yet is plainly filthy and untrustworthy.
A conscience does object. It simply gets talked down.
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes." A man's conscience will trouble him about many things. But he is skilful enough to silence that unease by clever reasoning, and so make evil appear to be good. How much wiser he would be to use the Lord's scales, which would bring him to repentance. For "the LORD weighs the heart."
F. B. Hole finds this same habit in the religious leaders Jesus rebuked.
They cared only about outward cleanliness, so that they would look good to other people. They had no concern for the inside, which was open to the eye of God. They were very careful about dirt they might pick up from outside, yet very careless about the dirt they produced within themselves. The result was that they became centres of defilement. Far from catching it from others, they spread it to others. This is a very subtle evil, and we may well pray to be kept from any hint of it.
The verse says these people "are not washed of their filth." The failure is not for lack of effort. Scrubbing harder does not reach the thing that needs removing.
The blood of Christ is the only means of cleansing from guilt. God appointed this way and God gives it. So it shuts out every other method. "Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD" (Jer. 2:22). "If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me" (Job 9:30-31). It is only the blood of Christ which can make the sinner whiter than snow.
The problem runs deeper than behaviour. It is in the source.
Our nature is defiled, so how can our actions be pure? If the water in the well is foul, it cannot be clean in the bucket.
Proverbs itself asks the question this verse leaves hanging. The answer takes the work out of our hands.
"Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin'?" If one dared to say that, he would only be adding to his sin the guilt of gross falsehood. Only God can cleanse people's hearts, and that by virtue of the sacrifice of His beloved Son.
Naaman was a foreign army commander with leprosy. His case shows what self-cleansing is worth.
Naaman might have washed his leprous skin in his own rivers, and he would have been no cleaner. In the same way, the sinner will be no cleaner in God's sight for all his useless attempts at cleansing himself. "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
- Generation: the word names a moral type, not a date. It covers people "of like quality and disposition, though of neither one place nor age," so this verse is never about someone else's era.
- Eyes: a man reaches the verdict "I am pure" by silencing a conscience that was already objecting. Clever reasoning makes his evil look good.
- Outside: this generation scrubs what people can see and ignores what God sees. It ends up spreading the dirt it thinks it has escaped.
- Filthiness: the stain is in the nature, not just the conduct. Foul water in the well cannot come up clean in the bucket, so lye, soap and snow leave the guilt where it was.
- Washed: no one can truthfully say he has made his own heart clean. God alone cleanses, and He does it by the sacrifice of His Son, whose blood "cleanses us from all sin."
there is a generation, -- how lofty are their eyes, how their eyelids are lifted up!
This saying is the third of four, and it pictures people whose eyes look down on everyone else. Two questions follow: who are they, and why does Scripture name something as small as a lifted eyelid?
Older translations open this saying with "there is a generation." The ESV has "There are those." Either way, the word does not mark off a span of years. Commentators point to a lexicon — a dictionary of Bible words — for a definition that groups people by character, not by date.
Parkhurst, in his Lexicon, gives this meaning for genea: "Men of like quality and disposition, though of neither one place nor age." … These verses point to a certain moral character or type of person.
The same use appears in other books too.
The meaning here is moral, not chronological… Deuteronomy 32:5 and 32:20 use the word in the same way. It does not stand for a period of time. It expresses the moral character of Israel.
Proverbs 30 groups its sayings in fours. This verse falls in the first group.
There are six sets of four things: four generations that are evil (Prov. 30:11-14); four things that are never satisfied (Prov. 30:15-16); four things too wonderful to understand (Prov. 30:18-19); four things that are unbearable (Prov. 30:21-23); four things that are weak, yet wise (Prov. 30:24-28); four things that are truly grand (Prov. 30:29-31).
The saying just before this one describes people who are clean in their own opinion. This one goes further. Now they measure themselves against other people.
This goes further than simply self-righteousness. It is not only the case of people who consider themselves pure when they are not. It is the case of people who proudly consider themselves superior to everyone else. All man-made religions have this character, and they produce these effects in their deceived followers. In the end it is merely the worship of self.
A raised eye seems too small to count as sin. Scripture does not agree. Among the things the Lord hates, the proud look comes first.
People may think of a proud look as of little importance, but even this is abomination to the Lord.
Why first? Set that look beside the One who made the world and then entered it.
Haughty eyes come first, or a proud look. What a contrast with Him who made heaven and earth and everything in them! He was pleased to become man here below. He was the dependent and obedient man, gentle and lowly in heart. He always looked up and did only what pleased His Father. He was full of compassion toward suffering people, and ready to forgive the sinful.
The same book returns to pride and shows what follows it.
Pride is most offensive to Jehovah, and dangerous — even destructive — to man. A person tends to be at his most lifted up just when the blow falls. Scripture shows this again and again: a haughty spirit comes before a fall. So it was with Nebuchadnezzar, where mercy stepped in; so with Haman, where there was only judgment.
This generation is not a distant class. The same writer warns that a sense of position and duty can be the very thing that lifts the eyes.
God sets Himself against haughty men, and gives grace to the humble… It is a lesson for every soul in the church, day by day, and none can afford to overlook it. It is needed all the more because the danger is close at hand. A mistaken idea of position and duty can make us haughty. Then we lose the grace God is so willing to give, because we fail to hold on to the lowliness that is found perfectly only in Christ.
William Kelly — see also his comment on 1 Peter 5 — William Kelly
- Character — "Generation" here means a type of person, not a span of years. That type turns up in every age, including ours.
- Climb — The type climbs. Verse 12 thinks itself clean. Verse 13 thinks itself above everyone else. Self-esteem hardens into self-worship.
- Contrast — The proud look tops the list of what God hates. The reason is a Person: the Maker of heaven and earth came down as the dependent, lowly man.
- Collapse — A lifted spirit runs just ahead of a fall. Nebuchadnezzar met mercy in it; Haman met only judgment.
- Cure — God sets Himself against the haughty and gives grace to the humble. That grace goes to the lowly, and perfect lowliness is found only in Christ.
-- a generation whose teeth are swords, and their jaw-teeth knives, to devour the afflicted from off the earth, and the needy from [among] men.
Agur's list of four "generations" ends here, and it ends at the worst place: a mouth turned into a weapon. Is this one age of people, or a type that keeps coming back? And why does the writer move from proud eyes straight to bared teeth?
The chapter is not a scrapbook of sayings. One commentator reads Agur's words as a survey that runs in one direction.
There is little doubt that here we have a broad survey of the generations of mankind. It takes in how good and evil develop on the earth. It takes in the coming of the Ruler who will bring everything under God.
The word does not fence off one century. Older translations begin this verse "there is a generation whose teeth are swords," and one writer shows what that word carries in prophetic Scripture.
The meaning here is moral rather than chronological. Take Psalm 12:7: "You, O LORD, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever." The word "forever" proves a lasting force... So also in Proverbs 30:11-14: "There is a generation that curses their father… There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes," and so on. There the character of certain classes is in view.
Verse 13 has just described lifted-up eyes. This verse shows what those eyes do when they get power. One commentator reads verses 10 to 14 as one exposure of the human heart.
The heart of the ungodly is here made clear beyond mistake. Pride is not content to be merely proud. It expresses itself in cruelty toward those who cannot defend themselves. In this way it asserts its superiority, trying to force others to bow down in fear. This section, then, from verse 10 to 14, is the third, showing the heart of man as in the light of God's presence.
The image is animal, not human. One writer starts with the simplest question: what are teeth for?
Teeth are made to eat with. Only the teeth of wild beasts are used to tear their prey. It is a sad comment on man when Joel 1:6 must be said of him: "its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness." So must Psalm 57:4: "whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords" (see also Psalm 58:6; 3:7; and Proverbs 30:14)... But the Christian should never use his mouth to snap at others or bite them behind their backs, tearing and wounding with sharp cutting words. It is so easy for the natural heart to do it, and it is done often so carelessly and thoughtlessly.
The same writer turns the picture round: God gave teeth so we may feed on the food He spreads for us.
The verse names the victims: the poor and the needy. One writer explains the cold logic behind that choice.
It may seem strange to say, "Do not rob the poor," and above all "because he is poor." But we need that warning, since human nature is so base, selfish, and cruel. The rich might look like the more inviting prey for unscrupulous men. Yet they can take care of themselves in ways the poor would not or could not try. So bad men flatter the rich for gain, while they also rob or oppress those who ought to be objects of pity. But the LORD has His eye on such villainy, at the very gate where justice should flow. He pleads the cause of the poor and the afflicted. He makes those who plunder them pay dearly.
This hunger is not limited to obvious criminals. One writer lists what men who trade on religion love, and what it will cost them.
Such men love display — "long robes." They love public recognition — "greetings in the marketplaces." They love religious pre-eminence — "the best seats in the synagogues," and social standing — "the places of honor at feasts." They love self-advancement, even at the expense of widows, and religious show, when "for a pretense" they "make long prayers." How solemn are the Lord's words: "They will receive the greater condemnation." The greater the pretension, the greater the judgment.
- Generation — the word marks a moral kind, not a date; this description keeps finding new people to fit.
- Pride — the proud eyes of the verse before become bared teeth here. Pride will not stay a private feeling; it looks for someone weaker to prove itself on.
- Teeth — made for feeding, twisted into swords and knives. The sharpest warning is about words that snap, tear and wound.
- Prey — the poor are chosen because they cannot fight back. That is what makes the cruelty so base.
- Advocate — the LORD watches the gate where justice should flow. He takes up the case of the poor and makes their plunderers pay. Where the devouring wears religious dress, the judgment is heavier still.