Three Things...Four Things...Seven Things: The Coherence of Proverbs 30:11-33 and the Unity of Proverbs 30

Abstract

Little agreement exists on the structure, unity or authorship of Proverbs 30. While nearly everyone agrees that at least some of the material in this chapter comes from the Agur named as author in 30:1, there is no consensus on how much of this chapter should be attributed to him. This study examines the use of numerical devices, both explicit and implied, in the text of 30:11-33. Combined with structural analysis, the use of these numerical devices demonstrates that these verses are a coherent unit within this chapter and contain literary devices linking them to 30:1-10. Thus, it is likely that the final editor of the book intended this entire chapter to be read as the work of Agur, even if it cannot be proven that all of the material in this chapter was originally composed by one author.

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