Four ways too wonderful to trace

Four paths are too wonderful to track, and a fifth speech is the adulterous shrug

There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yes, four which I do not know: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, I have done no wickedness.

Wonderful here is beyond tracing: flight, a snake's unmarked rock, a ship's wake that closes, and the mystery of desire between a man and a young woman. Agur admits he cannot map them. Maid in this list is the untraceable human way, not a warrant to treat a young woman as a riddle to be taken, and not a romance that erases consent.

The adulterous way is not wonder; it is appetite with the evidence wiped off

Eats, wipes the mouth, and claims no wickedness is the shrug after using someone: the act treated as a meal, the face cleaned, innocence declared. The comparison is the untraceable path, now used of a person who leaves no confession. Adulterous names covenant-breaking sex, not a survivor, not a woman alone as the guilty type, and not a reason to police women's bodies. Men wipe their mouths too.

Keep the wonder and the warning distinct. Eagle, serpent, and ship remain marvels. The wiped mouth is moral denial, not a marvel.