Proverbs 30:13-23

13 There is a generation-how haughty its eyes and pretentious its looks.^[a]

14 There is a generation whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, devouring the oppressed from the land and the needy from among mankind.

15 The leech has two daughters: Give, Give. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, "Enough!":

16 Sheol;^[b] a barren womb; earth, which is never satisfied with water; and fire, which never says, "Enough!"

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

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."

21 The earth trembles under three things; it cannot bear up under four:

22 a servant when he becomes king, a fool when he is stuffed with food,

23 an unloved woman when she marries, and a serving girl when she ousts her lady.^[c]

Proverbs 30:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 17

This chapter begins with a prophecy of Elijah, that there should be want of rain for some years to come, and he is directed to go first to the brook Cherith, where he should be fed by ravens, 1Ki 17:1-7, and afterwards he is sent to a widow at Zarephath, where he, she, and her son, were supported for a considerable time with a handful of meal, and a little oil in a cruse miraculously increased, 1Ki 17:8-16, whose son falling sick and dying, he restored to life, 1Ki 17:17-24.

Footnotes

• [a] Lit and its eyelids lifted up
• [b] Pr 27:20; Hab 2:5
• [c] Pr 19:10