If you have foolishly exalted yourself or if you have plotted evil, put your hand over your mouth.
Parallel translations
- WEB “If you have done foolishly in lifting up yourself, or if you have thought evil, put your hand over your mouth.
- KJV If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
- NKJV If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, Or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.
- NASB ¶If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, Or if you have plotted evil, put your hand on your mouth.
- NLT If you have been a fool by being proud or plotting evil, cover your mouth in shame.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If you have acted foolishly through pride or evil scheming, stop and put your hand over your mouth.
Overview
Agur counsels immediate restraint when pride or wicked intent has led one astray, urging silence rather than self-justification. Covering the mouth is a gesture of humble self-checking before words make matters worse. This wisdom calls for swift repentance and a guarded tongue, reflecting the humility that the gospel cultivates in every believer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 21:5Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
- Job 40:4“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
- Prov 26:12Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
- Mic 7:16–17Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.
- Rom 3:19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- Prov 17:28Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue.
- Eccl 8:3–4Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 30:32 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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