From agar, "to collect." "The collector," a symbolical name, like Ecclesiastes, "the preacher" or "assembler." Son of Jakeh ("obedience"); author of inspired counsels to Ithiel and Ucal (Proverbs 30). Called "the prophecy;" rather "the weighty utterance" (Hebrew massa), "burden." Hitzig imaginatively makes him son of the queen of Massa, and brother of Lemuel. An unknown Hebrew collector of the wise sayings in Proverbs 30, and possibly as Ewald thinks in Proverbs 31:1-9; the three sections of this portion are mutually similar in style. Lemuel means "devoted to God" is probably an ideal name. The rabbis, according to Rashi and Jerome, interpreted the name as symbolizing Solomon the Koheleth. frontECCLESIASTES, THE BOOK OF.)