Proverbs 30:10–33

¹⁰“Do not say bad things about servants to their masters,

or they will curse you, and you will suffer for it.

¹¹“Some people curse their fathers

and do not bless their mothers.

¹²Some people think they are pure,

but they are not really free from evil.

¹³Some people have such a proud look!

They look down on others.

¹⁴Some people have teeth like swords;

their jaws seem full of knives.

They want to remove the poor from the earth

and the needy from the land.

¹⁵“Greed has two daughters

named ‘Give’ and ‘Give.’

There are three things that are never satisfied,

really four that never say, ‘I’ve had enough!’:

¹⁶the cemetery, the childless mother,

the land that never gets enough rain,

and fire that never says, ‘I’ve had enough!’

¹⁷“If you make fun of your father

and refuse to obey your mother,

the birds of the valley will peck out your eyes,

and the vultures will eat them.

¹⁸“There are three things that are too hard for me,

really four I don’t understand:

¹⁹the way an eagle flies in the sky,

the way a snake slides over a rock,

the way a ship sails on the sea,

and the way a man and a woman fall in love.

²⁰“This is the way of a woman who takes part in adultery:

She acts as if she had eaten and washed her face;

she says, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’

²¹“There are three things that make the earth tremble,

really four it cannot stand:

²²a servant who becomes a king,

a foolish person who has plenty to eat,

²³a hated woman who gets married,

and a maid who replaces her mistress.

²⁴“There are four things on earth that are small,

but they are very wise:

²⁵Ants are not very strong,

but they store up food in the summer.

²⁶Rock badgers are not very powerful,

but they can live among the rocks.

²⁷Locusts have no king,

but they all go forward in formation.

²⁸Lizards can be caught in the hand,

but they are found even in kings’ palaces.

²⁹“There are three things that strut proudly,

really four that walk as if they were important:

³⁰a lion, the proudest animal,

which is strong and runs from nothing,

³¹a rooster, a male goat,

and a king when his army is around him.

³²“If you have been foolish and proud,

or if you have planned evil, shut your mouth.

³³Just as stirring milk makes butter,

and twisting noses makes them bleed,

so stirring up anger causes trouble.”