Proverbs 30:10–33

¹⁰Do not slander a servant to a master,

lest the servant curse you, and you be held guilty.^*

¹¹There are those who curse their fathers

and do not bless their mothers.^*

¹²There are those who are pure in their own eyes,

yet are not cleansed of their filthiness.^*

¹³There are those—how lofty are their eyes,

how high their eyelids lift!—^*

¹⁴there are those whose teeth are swords,

whose teeth are knives

to devour the poor from off the earth,

the needy from among mortals.^*

¹⁵The leech has two daughters;

“Give, give,” they cry.

Three things are never satisfied;

four never say, “Enough”:

¹⁶Sheol, the barren womb,

the earth ever-thirsty for water,

and the fire that never says, “Enough.”^*

¹⁷The eye that mocks a father

and scorns to obey a mother

will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley

and eaten by the vultures.^*

¹⁸Three things are too wonderful for me;

four I do not understand:

¹⁹the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a snake on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a woman.

²⁰This is the way of an adulteress:

she eats and wipes her mouth

and says, “I have done no wrong.”^*

²¹Under three things the earth trembles;

under four it cannot bear up:

²²a slave when he becomes king

and a fool when glutted with food,^*

²³a contemptible woman when she gets a husband

and a maid when she supplants her mistress.

²⁴Four things on earth are small,

yet they are exceedingly wise:

²⁵the ants are a people without strength,

yet they provide their food in the summer;^*

²⁶the badgers are a people without power,

yet they make their homes in the rocks;^*

²⁷the locusts have no king,

yet all of them march in rank;

²⁸the lizard^x can be grasped in the hand,

yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

²⁹Three things are stately in their stride;

four are stately in their gait:

³⁰the lion, which is mightiest among wild animals

and does not turn back before any;^*

³¹the strutting rooster,^y the he-goat,

and a king against whom none can stand.

³²If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,

or if you have been devising evil,

put your hand on your mouth.^*

³³For as pressing milk produces curds

and pressing the nose produces blood,

so pressing anger produces strife.^*