🔼The name Agur: Summary
- Meaning
- Collector, Gatherer
- Etymology
- From the verb אגר (agar), to collect or get paid.
🔼The name Agur in the Bible
The only Agur in the Bible is the mysterious author of Proverbs 30, son of Jakeh. We don't know anything about this man, where he lived or even when he lived, why he wrote or why his writings were preserved in the best-selling book of all time.
He declares his words to Ithiel and Ucal, and in Christian circles he's probably most celebrated for asking the question, "What is [God's] name or his son's name?" (Proverbs 30:4).
It's not even wholly sure whether Agur is a personal name. The authors of the Septuagint and the Vulgate didn't think so, and most recently, the Young Translation omitted it. Proverbs 30:1 according to Young goes like this:
Proverbs 30:1, Young Translation
Words of a Gatherer, son of an obedient one, the declaration, an affirmation of the man: — I have wearied myself [for] God, I have wearied myself [for] God, and am consumed.
🔼Etymology of the name Agur
It's not even clear whether the name Agur was originally a Hebrew name, but to the Hebrews it must have seemed so, and it must have seemed to have to do with the verb אגר (agar):
אגר
The verb אגר (agar) means to gather food, and either had an unrelated doppelganger to do with getting paid, or else began to be used as such (rather alike the English words bread and dough). The noun אגורה (agora) means payment. The noun אגרת (iggeret) means letter, which may be an unrelated loanword, but it may also tie into the Biblical theme of the Word of God being the Bread of Heaven.
🔼Agur meaning
Our name Agur may be derived from any of the above, but most commentators go with the verb agar I, meaning to gather. For a meaning of the name Agur, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Collector. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Assembler, and BDB Theological Dictionary has Hireling (after agar II) or Gatherer (after agar I).
Note that the form אגור occurs with the apparent meaning of Had I Feared, taken from the verb גור (gur III).