Proverbs 30:3

I have not learned wisdom, nor do I have knowledge ¹  of the Holy One. ² 

Job 11:7-9; Isa 6:3,10; Isa 30:11; Isa 57:15; Am 7:14,15; Mt 11:27; Mt 16:17; Joh 17:3; Ro 11:33; Eph 3:18,19; Re 3:7; Re 4:8

¹ sn The construction uses repetition to make the point emphatically: “I do not know the knowledge of the Holy One.” Agur’s claim to being “brutish” is here clarified – he is not one of those who has knowledge or understanding of God. C. H. Toy thinks the speaker is being sarcastic in reference to others who may have claimed such knowledge (Proverbs [ICC], 521).

² tn The epithet “the Holy One” is the adjective “holy” put in the masculine plural (as in 9:10). This will harmonize with the plural of majesty used to explain the plural with titles for God. However, NRSV takes the plural as a reference to the “holy ones,” presumably referring to angelic beings.