What is "agur"

Agur ben Jakeh was the compiler of a collection of proverbs found in , which is sometimes known as the Book of Agur or Sayings of Agur. The initial text of the chapter runs as follows ( JPS translation), and bears great similarity to . This translation is not universally accepted as correct; see below.

The text (ver. 1) seems to say that he was a "Massaite," the gentilic termination not being indicated in the traditional writing "Ha-Massa." This place has been identified by some Assyriologists with the land of Mash, a district between Judea and Babylonia, and the traces of nomadic or seminomadic life and thought found in and give some support to the hypothesis. Heinrich Graetz, followed by Bickell and Cheyne, conjectures that the original reading is המשל ("Ha-Moshel," = "the collector of proverbs"). The true explanation is still uncertain.