Agur articulates his deepest spiritual fears by framing them as questions, making the dangers of wealth and poverty vivid and personal. By asking rather than declaring, he invites hearers to examine their own hearts. The interrogative form exposes the self-deception that prosperity breeds and the desperation that poverty creates.

No direct response is recorded; this rhetorical question functions as part of Agur’s prayer request in verse 8 for God to give him neither poverty nor riches. The question itself constitutes the reasoning behind his petition.

Agur’s questions expose the inner corruption that both wealth and poverty can produce, making them pedagogically powerful rather than mere statements. The first question, ‘Who is the LORD?’ captures the Hebrew kachash (to deny or disown), suggesting prosperity’s amnesia, when abundance makes God seem unnecessary. Why phrase this as a question? Because it represents the actual thought process of the self-sufficient: a genuine wondering whether God matters when everything seems under control. The parallel concern about poverty and theft introduces the Hebrew taphas (to seize wrongfully), where desperation profanes God’s name by making Him appear unable to provide. The theological weight here is profound: spiritual health requires material sufficiency without surplus, a radical middle way that trusts God for daily bread while refusing both hoarding and grasping.