Proverbs 30:15
New International Version
“The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry. “There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

New Living Translation
The leech has two suckers that cry out, “More, more!” There are three things that are never satisfied— no, four that never say, “Enough!”:

English Standard Version
The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”:

Berean Standard Bible
The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

King James Bible
The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

New King James Version
The leech has two daughters— Give and Give! There are three things that are never satisfied, Four never say, “Enough!”:

New American Standard Bible
The leech has two daughters: “Give” and “Give.” There are three things that will not be satisfied, Four that will not say, “Enough”:

NASB 1995
The leech has two daughters, “Give,” “Give.” There are three things that will not be satisfied, Four that will not say, “Enough":

NASB 1977
The leech has two daughters, “Give,” “Give.” There are three things that will not be satisfied, Four that will not say, “Enough”:

Legacy Standard Bible
The leech has two daughters, “Give,” “Give.” There are three things that will not be satisfied, Four that will not say, “Enough”:

Amplified Bible
The leech has two daughters, “Give, give!” There are three things that are never satisfied, Four that do not say, “It is enough”:

Christian Standard Bible
The leech has two daughters: “Give, Give! ” Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough! ”:

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The leech has two daughters: “Give, Give!” Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough!":

American Standard Version
The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, Yea, four that say not, Enough:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Three leeches have three beloved daughters that are not full, and a fourth does not say, "It is enough":

Brenton Septuagint Translation
The horse-leech had three dearly-beloved daughters: and these three did not satisfy her; and the fourth was not contented so as to say, Enough.

Contemporary English Version
Greed has twins, each named "Give me!" There are three or four things that are never satisfied:

Douay-Rheims Bible
The horseleech hath two daughters that say: Bring, bring. There are three things that never are satisfied, and the fourth never saith: It is enough.

English Revised Version
The horseleach hath two daughters, Crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four that say not, Enough:

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The bloodsucking leech has two daughters- "Give!" and "Give!" Three things are never satisfied. Four never say, "Enough!":

Good News Translation
A leech has two daughters, and both are named "Give me!" There are four things that are never satisfied:

International Standard Version
The leech has two daughters: "Give" and "Give". Three things will never be satisfied; four will never say "Enough"—

JPS Tanakh 1917
The horseleech hath two daughters: 'Give, give.' There are three things that are never satisfied, Yea, four that say not: 'Enough' :

Literal Standard Version
To the leech [are] two daughters—Give! Give! Behold, three things are not satisfied, | Four have not said “Sufficiency”;

Majority Standard Bible
The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

New American Bible
The leech has two daughters: “Give,” and “Give.” Three things never get their fill, four never say, “Enough!”

NET Bible
The leech has two daughters: "Give! Give!" There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, "Enough"--

New Revised Standard Version
The leech has two daughters; “Give, give,” they cry. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”:

New Heart English Bible
"The leach has two daughters: 'Give, give.' "There are three things that are never satisfied; four that do not say, 'Enough:'

Webster's Bible Translation
The horse-leech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yes, four things say not, It is enough:

World English Bible
“The leech has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ “There are three things that are never satisfied; four that don’t say, ‘Enough!’:

Young's Literal Translation
To the leech are two daughters, 'Give, give, Lo, three things are not satisfied, Four have not said 'Sufficiency;'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Words of Agur
14there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men. 15The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’: 16Sheol, the barren womb, land never satisfied with water, and fire that never says, ‘Enough!’…

Cross References
Proverbs 27:20
Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Proverbs 30:14
there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.

Proverbs 30:16
Sheol, the barren womb, land never satisfied with water, and fire that never says, 'Enough!'


Treasury of Scripture

The horse leach has two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yes, four things say not, It is enough:

the horseleach

Isaiah 57:3
But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.

Ezekiel 16:44-46
Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter…

Matthew 23:32
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

give

Isaiah 56:11,12
Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter…

Hosea 4:18
Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.

Micah 7:3
That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

there

Proverbs 30:21,24,29
For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: …

Proverbs 6:16
These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

Amos 1:3,6,9,11,13
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron: …

it is enough

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Proverbs 30
1. Agur's confession of his faith
7. The two points of his prayer
10. The meanest are not to be wronged
11. Four wicked generations
15. Four things insatiable
24. four things exceeding wise
29. Four things stately
32. Wrath is to be prevented














(15) The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.--The word "crying" is not in the Hebrew. The leech is here chosen as the emblem of insatiable greed; if it could speak, its "daughters," i.e., the words it would utter, would be "Give, give." So it forms an introduction to the quartette of "insatiable things" which follow.

Verses 15, 16. - Having spoken of insatiate cupidity, the writer now introduces four things which are insatiable. The form of the apothegm is climacteric, mounting from two to three, and thence to four, like the famous passage in Amos 1:3, etc. (comp. Proverbs 6:16, though there is no special stress there laid on the last member of the climax; Job 5:19; Job 33:29; Ecclesiastes 11:2). Verse 15. - The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. The word "crying" is not in the Hebrew, which says, "The alukah hath two daughters: Give! Give!" The insatiable appetite of this creature is represented by two words, which are personified as daughters, whom the mother has produced and dearly loves. This word alukah is not found again in the Old Testament; but in later Hebrew and in Aramaic it means "leech" or "bloodsucker;" and so it is translated by the Septuagint, βδέλλα, and by St. Jerome sanguisuga. The word is derived from a root which in Arabic means "to adhere." There are several kinds of leeches common in Palestine, and their bloodthirsty nature is well known; as Horace says, 'Ars Poet.,' 476 -

"Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo." It seems simple and quite satisfactory to accept the word thus, and to see in the voracity of the leech an example of the greed further developed in the following clauses; but commentators have not been contented with this explanation, and have offered various suggestions which are either unnecessary or inadmissible. Thus the Talmud considers alukah to be an appellation of hell, and the two daughters to be the Power of the world, and Heresy. Some of the Fathers regard it as a symbol of the devil and his dominion; others, as a personification of cupidity with its two offshoots avarice and ambition. Some moderns deem it to mean a vampire or blood thirsty demon, a ghoul, in accordance with Eastern myth. But, as we have said, such interpretations are unnecessary and unsupported by sufficient authority. The allusion to the tastes of the leech is found elsewhere. Thus Theocritus, 'Idyll.,' 2:55 -

Αι} αι} ἔρως ἀνιαρέ τί μευ μέλαν ἐκ χροὸς αἵμα
Ἐμφὺς ὡς λιμνᾶτις ἅπαν ἐκ βδέλλα πέπωκας And Plautus, 'Epidic.,' 2:2, 5 -

"Jam ego me convortam in hirudinem atque
Eorum exsugebo sanguinem,
Senati qui columen cluent."
Ewald and others find traces of mutilation in this proverb, and endeavour to supply what is lost in various ways; but the text as it stands is intelligible, and needs no addition. The rest of the verse is an application of the truth first stated. The type of cupidity there enunciated is instanced and exemplified in four special cases. There are three things that are never satisfied. And then a corrective climax is addressed. Yea, four things say not, It is enough. The four in the following verse are divided into two plus two. Septuagint, "The leech had three daughters dearly beloved, and these three did not satisfy her, and the fourth was not contented to say, Enough."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
The leech
לַֽעֲלוּקָ֨ה ׀ (la·‘ă·lū·qāh)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5936: The leech

has two
שְׁתֵּ֥י (šə·tê)
Number - fdc
Strong's 8147: Two (a cardinal number)

daughters:
בָנוֹת֮ (ḇā·nō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 1323: A daughter

Give
הַ֤ב ׀ (haḇ)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 3051: To give, to put, imperatively, come

[and] Give.
הַ֥ב (haḇ)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 3051: To give, to put, imperatively, come

There
הֵ֭נָּה (hên·nāh)
Pronoun - third person feminine plural
Strong's 2007: Themselves

are three
שָׁל֣וֹשׁ (šā·lō·wōš)
Number - feminine singular
Strong's 7969: Three, third, thrice

[things that] are never
לֹ֣א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

satisfied,
תִשְׂבַּ֑עְנָה (ṯiś·ba‘·nāh)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person feminine plural
Strong's 7646: To be sated, satisfied or surfeited

four [that]
אַ֝רְבַּ֗ע (’ar·ba‘)
Number - feminine singular
Strong's 702: Four

never
לֹא־ (lō-)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

say,
אָ֥מְרוּ (’ā·mə·rū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“Enough!”:
הֽוֹן׃ (hō·wn)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1952: Wealth, sufficiency


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 30:15 The leach has two daughters: 'Give give (Prov. Pro Pr)
Proverbs 30:14
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