Proverbs 30:15–29

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 which never says, “Enough.”

¹⁷The eye that mocks a father

and scorns to obey a mother

will be picked 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 serpent on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a maiden.

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 he is filled with food;

²³an unloved woman when she gets a husband,

and a maid when she succeeds her mistress.

²⁴Four things on earth are small,

but they are exceedingly wise:

²⁵the ants are a people not strong,

yet they provide their food in the summer;

²⁶the badgers are a people not mighty,

yet they make their homes in the rocks;

²⁷the locusts have no king,

yet all of them march in rank;

²⁸the lizard you can take in your hands,

yet it is in kings’ palaces.

²⁹Three things are stately in their tread;

four are stately in their stride: