15 The leech has two daughters: “Give, Give!”
Three things(A) are never satisfied;
four never say, “Enough!”:
16 Sheol;(B) a childless womb;(C)
earth, which is never satisfied with water;
and fire, which never says, “Enough!”

17 As for the eye that ridicules a father(D)
and despises obedience to a mother,
may ravens of the valley pluck it out
and young vultures eat it.(E)

18 Three things are beyond me;
four I can’t understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship at sea,
and the way of a man with a young woman.

20 This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”(F)

21 The earth trembles under three things;
it cannot bear up under four:
22 a servant when he becomes king,(G)
a fool when he is stuffed with food,
23 an unloved woman when she marries,(H)
and a servant girl when she ousts her queen.

24 Four things on earth are small,
yet they are extremely wise:
25 the ants are not a strong people,
yet they store up their food in the summer;(I)
26 hyraxes are not a mighty people,
yet they make their homes in the cliffs;(J)
27 locusts have no king,
yet all of them march in ranks;(K)
28 a lizard[a] can be caught in your hands,
yet it lives in kings’ palaces.

29 Three things are stately in their stride,
even four are stately in their walk:

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 30:28 Or spider

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Moab(A)
for three crimes, even four,
because he burned the bones
of the king of Edom to lime.(B)

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Judgment on Judah

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Judah(A)
for three crimes, even four,
because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord(B)
and have not kept His statutes.(C)
The lies(D) that their ancestors followed(E)
have led them astray.

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Judgment on Israel

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing Israel(A)
for three crimes, even four,
because they sell a righteous person for silver
and a needy person for a pair of sandals.(B)

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