JAKEH the pious or obedient, from the unused root 7,, derived from the Arab. 2, .
ta venerate ; viii. to fear God, to be pious,' Ges.) oc curs only in Prov. xxx. as a proper name. Yet, that it is a proper name is disputed. Stuart, how ever, admits there can be no doubt ' that this word and Ithiel and Ucal were regarded by the punctuators by the Chal. and Syr. translators, and by nearly all the modern commentators, as proper names ;' but he declines their authority. The Vulg. renders the whole verse thus : Perba consre gantis filii VOMENTIS (following the var. lec. of some 'MSS., Np,), visio loczitus est vir, cunt into est Dens et qui Deo secum morante confortadts ad. The LXX. : robs iduobs X6-yo,us, v14, cpoph ScEcipevor atiorolis dueravbec. Td5c Xe-yri civiip rois rcarcOomccv 06;2,, Kai vabopac—renderings which not only alter the points, but dislocate the words. Stuart, following Hitzig and Bertheau, takes equal liberties with the text. He renders the words thus : The words of Asmr, the son of her who was obged 112 Alassa. Thus spake the man : I have toiled, have toiled for God, and have failed.' He converts rip, into mrlp, by adding to it the ri from NtnZrI, and altering the vowel points, and by a Few more such alterations opens the way for his tramslation. Then Massa becomes the proper name of a country near Dumah, in Arabia (see Gen. xxv. 14 ; Chron. 30), and 'her who was obeyed,' the queen who reigned over it, the mother of Agur and Lemuel (Prov. xxxi. t) and whom Lemuel suc ceeded on the throne—The strangeness of attributing the proverbs which follow to Arabians and Amale kites is removed by the historic notice ' Chron. iv. 41-43) that this district of Arabia had been con quered in the reign of Hezekiah by a colony of Simeonites, who, having expelled the former in habitants, took possession of it, taking Nvhich his torical events into view,' it will be easily seen how a writer in Massah should develope an acquaint ance with the Hebrew Scriptures.' The only
objections to this whole course are : that it is arbi trary, involving principles which might be applied to dislocate the entire Hebrew text • that the alter ations made are no improvement Of the text, but rather exceedingly awkward, it being impossible to educe with ease the Eng. rendering from the altered original (Mnp4 cannot be fairly rendered 'her Nvho was obeyeCI,' or her whose domain is') ; and lastly, the entire theory of the Hebrew queen in Massa is simply a fancy of learned men, who often toil to bring forth wind. It remains for us, therefore, to abide by the Hebrew text and the A. V. as our best course. Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ucal may be the names of real persons ; or they may be symbolical. Ithiel and Ucal may be either the sons or disciples of Agur ; and the fol lbwing proverbs may have been written for their special instruction. Beyond this we can aver nothing positive. Stuart's hypercritical objections do not throw any serious hindrance in the way of the following rendering: the words of Agur ben Jakeh, the weighty utterance, the oracle of the man to Ithiel—to Ithiel and Ucal.' The heaping together of words in such a connection, designed to call emphatic attention to what follows, has a remarkable parallel in 2 Sam. xxiii. t, 2 (see more in the Crilid Sacri).-1. J.