Passage

Proverbs 30.16

Book: Proverbs · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"14. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. 15. The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, Yea, four that say not, Enough:"

"16. Sheol; And the barren womb; The earth that is not satisfied with water; And the fire that saith not, Enough."

"17. The eye that mocketh at his father, And despiseth to obey his mother, The ravens of the valley shall pick it out, And the young eagles shall eat it. 18. There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yea, four which I know not:" (Proverbs 30:14-18, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"14. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men. 15. “The leach has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ “There are three things that are never satisfied; four that don’t say, ‘Enough:’"

"16. Sheol, the barren womb; the earth that is not satisfied with water; and the fire that doesn’t say, ‘Enough.’"

"17. “The eye that mocks at his father, and scorns obedience to his mother: the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, the young eagles shall eat it. 18. “There are three things which are too amazing for me, four which I don’t understand:" (Proverbs 30:14-18, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"14. There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. 15. The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: ^{It is: Heb. Wealth}"

"16. The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough."

"17. The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it. ^{the valley: or, the brook} 18. There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:" (Proverbs 30:14-18, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"14. A generation, swords [are] their teeth, And knives, their jaw-teeth, To consume the poor from earth, And the needy from [among] men. 15. To the leech [are] two daughters, 'Give, give, Lo, three things are not satisfied, Four have not said 'Sufficiency;'"

"16. Sheol, and a restrained womb, Earth, it [is] not satisfied [with] water, And fire, it hath not said, 'Sufficiency,'"

"17. An eye that mocketh at a father, And despiseth to obey a mother, Dig it out do ravens of the valley, And eat it do young eagles. 18. Three things have been too wonderful for me, Yea, four that I have not known:" (Proverbs 30:14-18, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: TBD
Audience: TBD
Location: TBD
Time period: TBD

Theological reading

Patristic / early-church-father exegesis, to be added.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

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Quoted in

G5020 - tartaroo

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.