Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 30:15
The horseleach hath two daughters, [crying], Give, give. There are three [things that] are never satisfied, [yea], four [things] say not, [It is] enough:
15. The horseleach ] , LXX.; sanguisuga, Vulg. The Heb. word occurs only here, and its derivation is doubtful, but as Maurer points out, the rendering leach has the sanction of the ancient interpreters, and accords with the sense of cognate Arabic and Aramaic roots. It gives moreover an excellent meaning, and is after the manner of this chapter and of the Book of Proverbs generally, in drawing an illustration of the subject in hand from the animal world. There seems no reason therefore for seeing in the word a mythical or “quasi-mythical expression,” denoting a vampire, or Ghoul.
two daughters three things yea, four ] The climax is reached gradually. As the children of the leach, twice as many as herself, are each of them like herself insatiable, so are there, not two things only in creation, but three, yea four, of like character. Comp. for this typical use of numbers, Amo 1:3, and note there in this Series.
crying] The word is supplied. The Heb. is two daughters, Give, give. Some therefore would supply, called (R.V. marg.) instead of crying.
Dean Plumptre quotes Hor. de Art. Poet. 476:
“Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, hirudo.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15, 16. Four things that are insatiable.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Note the numeration mounting to a climax, the two, the three, the four (Amo 1:3 etc.). The word rendered horseleach is found nowhere else, and its etymology is doubtful; but there are good grounds for taking the word in its literal sense, as giving an example, in the natural world, of the insatiable greed of which the next verse gives other instances. Its voracious appetite is here represented, to express its intensity, as two daughters, uttering the same ceaseless cry for more.
Pro 30:16
The grave – Hebrew she‘ol. The Hell or Hades of Pro 27:20, all-consuming yet never full.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.] “This horseleech,” says Calmet, “is COVETOUSNESS, and her two daughters are Avarice and Ambition. They never say, It is enough; they are never satisfied; they are never contented.”
Many explanations have been given of this verse; but as all the versions agree in rendering alukah the horseleech or blood-sucker, the general meaning collected has been, “There are persons so excessively covetous and greedy, that they will scarcely let any live but themselves; and when they lay hold of any thing by which they may profit, they never let go their hold till they have extracted the last portion of good from it.” Horace has well expressed this disposition, and by the same emblem, applied to a poor poet, who seizes on and extracts all he can from an author of repute, and obliges all to hear him read his wretched verses.
Quem vero arripuit, tenet, occiditque legendo,
Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris, HIRUDO.
DE ARTE POET., ver. 475.
“But if he seize you, then the torture dread;
He fastens on you till he reads you dead;
And like a LEECH, voracious of his food,
Quits not his cruel hold till gorged with blood.”
FRANCIS.
The word alukah, which we here translate horseleech, is read in no other part of the Bible. May it not, like Agur, Jakeh, Ithiel, and Ucal, be a proper name, belonging to some well-known woman of his acquaintance, and well known to the public, who had two daughters notorious for their covetousness and lechery? And at first view the following verse may be thought to confirm this supposition: “There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough.” the grave, the barren womb, the earth, the fire. What an astonishing similarity there is between this and the following institute, taken from the Code of Hindoo Laws, chap. xx., sec. i., p. 203.
“A woman is never satisfied with the copulation of man, no more than a fire is satisfied with burning fuel; or the main ocean is with receiving the rivers; or death, with the dying of men and animals.” You can no more satisfy these two daughters of Alukah than you can the grave, c.
Some of the rabbins have thought that alukah signifies destiny, or the necessity of dying, which they say has two daughters, Eden and Gehenna, paradise and hell. The former has never enough of righteous souls the latter, of the wicked. Similar to them is the opinion of Bochart, who thinks alukah means destiny, and the two daughters, the grave and hell; into the first of which the body descends after death, and into the second, the soul.
The Septuagint gives it a curious turn, by connecting the fifteenth with the sixteenth verse: , , ; “The horseleech had three well-beloved daughters; and these three were not able to satisfy her desire: and the fourth was not satisfied, so as to say, It is enough.”
After all, I think my own conjecture the most probable. Alukah is a proper name, and the two daughters were of the description I have mentioned.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The horseleech, an insatiable creature, sucking blood till it be ready to burst,
hath two daughters; which are either,
1. The two forks into which her tongue is divided, and wherewith she sucks: but those who have more accurately observed and described the frame of that creature tell us that they have no tongue, and that they suck either by three little teeth, or several parts of the mouth gathered and compressed together. Or rather,
2. The following things, which resemble the horse leech in its insatiableness; nothing being more ordinary than to call those persons or things the sons or daughters of those whose examples they imitate. And whereas it is objected, that they are not only two, but three, yea, four, as is said in the next clause, the answer is easy, that though he begin with two, yet he proceeds from thence to three, and four, all which are said to be the daughters of the horseleech, if the words be rendered commodiously, and as they are in the Hebrew, as we shall presently see.
Crying, Give, give; never filled, and always craving, and ready to receive more and more.
There are three things; or, yea, (which may be understood in this, as it is in our translation of the next clause,) they (to wit, the daughters of the horseleech) are three; that are never satisfied; which is added partly to explain the former clause,
Give, give, and to show the cause of that excessive desire of more, because they were not contented with what they had; and partly to give the reason why he calls them the daughters of the horseleech. Yea, four things say not; or, yea, they (the daughters forementioned) are four, which say not.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15, 16. horse leechsupposedby some to be the vampire (a fabulous creature), as being literallyinsatiable; but the other subjects mentioned must be taken as this,comparatively insatiable. The use of a fabulous creature agreeably topopular notions is not inconsistent with inspiration.
There are three . . . yea,four(Compare Pr 6:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The horse leech hath two daughters, [crying], Give, give,…. Or “the blood sucker” l; so it began to be called in the times of Pliny m, to which the last generation of men may well be compared; blood thirsty creatures, that never have enough, and are not satisfied with the flesh of men, nor with their blood; and such particularly the Papists are: and not only this generation of men, but there are three or four things besides, which resemble the horse leech for its insatiableness; for the horse leech has not two daughters only, but more. Some, by her two daughters, understand the two forks of its tongue, which some naturalists say it has; though later ones, and more diligent inquirers into those things, find it has not; but either with its three teeth, or by the compression of its mouth on all sides, sucks the blood, and will not let go until it is filled with it n: others have proposed the two sorts of leeches as its daughters, the sea leech, and that which is found in fenny and marshy places. But it is best, by its daughters, to understand such that resemble it, and are like unto it; as those that are of like nature and quality, and do the same things as others, are called their children; see Mt 23:31 1Jo 3:10; and so the number of its daughters, which are always craving and asking for more, and are never satisfied, are not only two, but more, as follows;
there are three [things]; or, “[yea], there are three [things]”
[that] are never satiated: [yea], four [things] say not, [It is] enough; not two only, but three, and even four, that are quite insatiable and are as follow. The Syriac version renders the whole thus,
“the horse leech hath three beloved daughters; three, “I say”, they are, which are not satisfied; and the fourth says not, It is enough.”
Some, as Abendana observes, interpret it of hell, by a transposition of the letters; because everyone that perverts his ways descends thither. Bochart o interprets it of fate, and so Noldius p: and Schultens renders the word, the most monstrous of evils; it signifying in the Arabic language, as he observes, anything monstrous and dreadful; such as wood demons, serpents, and dragons, which devour men and beasts. Suidas q, by the “horse leech”, understands sin, whose daughters are fornication, envy, and idolatry, which are never satisfied by evil actions, and the fourth is evil concupiscence.
l “sanguisugae”, V. L. Pagninus, Tigurine version. Mercerus, Gejerus. m Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 10. n “Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo”, Horat. de Arte Poet. fine. o Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 5. c. 19. col. 801. p Concord. Ebr. Par. p. 467. No. 1425. q In voce .
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
With the characteristic of insatiableness Pro 30:11-14 closes, and there follows an apophthegma de quatuor insatiabilibus quae ideo comparantur cum sanguisuga (C. B. Michaelis). We translate the text here as it lies before us:
15 The Aluka hath two daughters: Give! Give!
Three of these are never satisfied;
Four say not: Enough!
16 The under-world and the closing of the womb;
The earth is not satisfied with water;
And the fire saith not: Enough!
We begin with Masoretic externalities. The first in is Beth minusculum; probably it had accidentally this diminutive form in the original MSS, to which the Midrash (cf. Sepher Taghin ed. Bargs, 1866, p. 47) has added absurd conceits. This first has Pasek after it, which in this case is servant to the Olewejored going before, according to the rule Thorath Emeth, p. 24, here, as at Psa 85:9, Mehuppach. The second , which of itself alone is the representative of Olewejored, has in Hutter, as in the Cod. Erfurt 2, and Cod. 2 of the Leipzig Public Library, the pausal punctuation (cf. , 1Sa 21:10), but which is not sufficiently attested. Instead of , 15b, , and instead of f , 16b, are to be written; the Zinnorith removes the Makkeph, according to Thorath Emeth, p. 9, Accentuationssystem, iv. 2. Instead of , 16a, only Jablonski, as Mhlau remarks, has ; but incorrectly, since Athnach, after Olewejored, has no pausal force ( vid., Thorath Emeth, p. 37). All that is without any weight as to the import of the words. But the punctuation affords some little service for the setting aside of a view of Rabbenu Tam ( vid., Tosaphoth to Aboda zara 17a, and Erubin 19a), which has been lately advocated by Lwenstein. That view is, that Aluka is the name of a wise man, not Solomon’s, because the Pesikta does not reckon this among the names of Solomon, nor yet a name of hell, because it is not, in the Gemara, numbered among the names of Gehinnom. Thus would be a superscription, like and , Psa 26:1; Psa 72:1, provided with Asla Legarmeh. But this is not possible, for the Asla Legarmeh, at Psa 26:1 and Psa 72:1, is the transformation of Olewejored, inadmissible on the first word of the verse ( Accentuationssystem, xix. 1); but no Olewejored can follow such an Asla Legarmeh, which has the force of an Olewejored, as after this , which the accentuation then does not regard as the author’s name given as a superscription. is not the name of a person, and generally not a proper name, but a generic name of certain traditional signification. “One must drink no water” – says the Gemara Aboda zara 12b – “out of a river or pond, nor (immediately) with his mouth, nor by means of his hand; he who, nevertheless, does it, his blood comes on his own head, because of the danger. What danger? ,” i.e., the danger of swallowing a leech. The Aram. also designates a leech by (cf. e.g., Targ. Ps. 12:9: hence the godless walk about like the leech, which sucks the blood of men), and the Arab. by ‘alak ( n. unit. ‘alakat ), as the word is also rendered here by the Aram. and Arab. translators. Accordingly, all the Greeks render it by ; Jerome, by sanguisuga (Rashi, sangsue ); also Luther’s Eigel is not the Igel erinaceus [hedgehog], but the Egel , i.e., as we now designate it, the Blutegel [leech], or (less correctly) Blutigel . is the fem. of the adj. , attached to, which meaning, together with the whole verbal stem, the Arab. has preserved ( vid., Mhlau’s Mittheilung des Art. ‘aluka aus dem Kamus, p. 42).
(Note: Nldeke has remarked, with reference to Mhlau’s Monographie, that aluka , in the sense of tenacious ( tenax ), is also found in Syr. ( Geopon. xiii. 9, xli. 26), and that generally the stem , to cleave, to adhere, is more common in Aram. than one would suppose. But this, however common in Arab., is by no means so in Syr.; and one may affirm that, among other Arabisms found in the Proverbs of Agur, the word Aluka has decidedly an Arab. sound.)
But if, now, the Aluka is the leech,
(Note: In Sanscrit the leech is called galaukas (masc.) or galauka (fem.), i.e., the inhabitant of the water (from gala , water, and okas , dwelling). Ewald regards this as a transformation of the Semitic name.)
which are then its two daughters, to which is here given the name , and which at the same time have this cry of desire in their mouths? Grotius and others understand, by the two daughters of the leech, the two branches of its tongue; more correctly: the double-membered overlip of its sucker. C. B. Michaelis thinks that the greedy cry, “Give! Give!” is personified: voces istae concipiuntur ut hirudinis filiae, quas ex se gignat et velut mater sobolem impense diligat . But since this does not satisfy, symbolical interpretations of Aluka have been resorted to. The Talmud, Aboda zara 17a, regards it as a name of hell. In this sense it is used in the language of the Pijut (synagogue poetry).
(Note: So says e.g., Salomo ha-Babli, in a Zulath of the first Chanukka-Sabbats (beginning ): , they burn like the flames of hell.)
If Aluka is hell, then fancy has the widest room for finding an answer to the question, What are the two daughters? The Talmud supposes that (the worldly domination) and (heresy) are meant. The Church-fathers also, understanding by Aluka the power of the devil, expatiated in such interpretations. Of the same character are Calmet’s interpretation, that sanguisuga is a figure of the mala cupiditas , and its twin-daughters are avaritia and ambitio . The truth lying in all these is this, that here there must be some kind of symbol. But if the poet meant, by the two daughters of the Aluka , two beings or things which he does not name, then he kept the best of his symbol to himself. And could he use Aluka , this common name for the leech, without further intimation, in any kind of symbolical sense? The most of modern interpreters do nothing to promote the understanding of the word, for they suppose that Aluka , from its nearest signification, denotes a demoniacal spirit of the character of a vampire, like the Dakin of the Indians, which nourish themselves on human flesh; the ghouls of the Arabs and Persians, which inhabit graveyards, and kill and eat men, particularly wanderers in the desert; in regard to which it is to be remarked, that (Arab.) awlak is indeed a name for a demon, and that alaluwak , according to the Kamus, is used in the sense of alghwal . Thus Dathe, Dderlein, Ziegler, Umbreit; thus also Hitzig, Ewald, and others. Mhlau, while he concurs in this understanding of the word, and now throwing open the question, Which, then, are the two daughters of the demoness Aluka ? finds no answer to it in the proverb itself, and therefore accepts of the view of Ewald, since 15b-16, taken by themselves, form a fully completed whole, that the line ‘ is the beginning of a numerical proverb, the end of which is wanting. We acknowledge, because of the obscurity – not possibly aimed at by the author himself – in which the two daughters remain, the fragmentary characters of the proverb of the Aluka ; Stuart also does this, for he regards it as brought out of a connection in which it was intelligible – but we believe that the line ‘ is an original formal part of this proverb. For the proverb forming, according to Mhlau’s judgment, a whole rounded off:
contains a mark which makes the original combination of these five lines improbable. Always where the third is exceeded by the fourth, the step from the third to the fourth is taken by the connecting Vav: Pro 30:18, ; Pro 30:21, ; Pro 30:29, . We therefore conclude that ‘ is the original commencement of independent proverb. This proverb is:
Four things say not: Enough!
The under-world and the closing of the womb [i.e., unfruitful womb] –
The earth is not satisfied with water,
And the fire says not: Enough!
a tetrastich more acceptable and appropriate than the Arab. proverb (Freytag, Provv. iii. p. 61, No. 347): “three things are not satisfied by three: the womb, and wood by fire, and the earth by rain;” and, on the other hand, it is remarkable to find it thus clothed in the Indian language,
(Note: That not only natural productions, but also ideas and literary productions (words, proverbs, knowledge), were conveyed from the Indians to the Semites, and from the Semites to the Indians, on the great highways by sea and land, is a fact abundantly verified. There is not in this, however, any means of determining the situation of Massa.)
as given in the Hitopadesa (p. 67 of Lassen’s ed.), and in Pantschatantra, i. 153 (ed. of Kosegarten):
nagnis trpjati kashthanan napaganan mahodadhih
nantakah sarvabhutanan na punsan vamalocanah .
Fire is not sated with wood, nor the ocean with the streams,
Nor death with all the living, nor the beautiful-eyed with men.
As in the proverb of Agur the 4 falls into 2 + 2, so also in this Indian sloka. In both, fire and the realm of death ( antaka is death as the personified “end-maker”) correspond; and as there the womb and the earth, so here feminarium cupiditas and the ocean. The parallelizing of and is after passages such as Psa 139:15; Job 1:21 (cf. also Pro 5:16; Num 24:7; Isa 48:1); that of and is to be judged of
(Note: The parallelizing of and , Berachoth 15b, is not directly aimed at by the poet.)
after passages such as Deu 32:22, Isa 56:1-12:24. That repeats itself in is now, as we render the proverb independently, much more satisfactory than if it began with ‘ : it rounds itself off, for the end returns into the beginning. Regarding , vid., Pro 1:13. From , to be light, it signifies living lightly; ease, superabundance, in that which renders life light or easy. “Used accusatively, and as an exclamation, it is equivalent to plenty! enough! It is used in the same sense in the North African Arab. brrakat (spreading out, fulness). Wetzstein remarks that in Damascus lahon i.e., hitherto, is used in the sense of hajah , enough; and that, accordingly, we may attempt to explain of our Heb. language in the sense of (Arab.) hawn haddah , i.e., here the end of it!” (Mhlau).
But what do we now make of the two remaining lines of the proverb of the Aluka ? The proverb also in this division of two lines is a fragment. Ewald completes it, for to the one line, of which, according to his view, the fragment consists, he adds two:
The bloodsucker has two daughters, “Hither! hither!”
Three saying, “Hither, hither, hither the blood,
The blood of the wicked child.”
A proverb of this kind may stand in the O.T. alone: it sounds as if quoted from Grimm’s Mhrchen, and is a side-piece to Zappert’s altdeutsch. Schlummerliede. Cannot the mutilation of the proverb be rectified in a less violent way without any self-made addition? If this is the case, that in Pro 30:15 and Pro 30:16, which now form one proverb, there are two melted together, only the first of which lies before us in a confused form, then this phenomenon is explained by supposing that the proverb of the Aluka originally stood in this form:
The Aluka has two daughters: Give! give! –
The under-world and the closing of the womb;
There are three that are never satisfied.
Thus completed, this tristich presents itself as the original side-piece of the lost tetrastich, beginning with . One might suppose that if and have to be regarded as the daughters of the Aluka , which Hitzig and also Zckler have recognised, then there exists no reason for dividing the one proverb into two. Yet the taking of them as separate is necessary, for this reason, because in the fourth, into which it expands, the Aluka is altogether left out of account. But in the above tristich it is taken into account, as was to be expected, as the mother with her children. This, that sheol ( is for the most part fem.), and the womb ( = , which is fem., Jer 20:17) to which conception is denied, are called, on account of their greediness, the daughters of the Aluka , is to be understood in the same way as when a mountain height is called, Isa 5:1, a horn of the son of oil. In the Arab., which is inexhaustibly rich in such figurative names, a man is called “a son of the clay ( limi );” a thief, “a son of the night;” a nettle, “the daughter of fire.” The under-world and a closed womb have the Aluka nature; they are insatiable, like the leech. It is unnecessary to interpret, as Zckler at last does, Aluka as the name of a female demon, and the , “daughters,” as her companions. It may be adduced in favour of this view that is without the article, after the manner of a proper name. But is it really without the article? Such a doubtful case we had before us at Pro 27:23. As yet only Bttcher, 394, has entered on this difficulty of punctuation. We compare Gen 29:27, ; 1Ki 12:32, ; 1Ch 13:7, ; and consequently also Psa 146:7, ; thus the assimilating force of the Chateph appears here to have changed the syntactically required and into and . But also supposing that in is treated as a proper name, this is explained from the circumstance that the leech is not meant here in the natural history sense of the word, but as embodied greediness, and is made a person, one individual being. Also the symbol of the two daughters is opposed to the mythological character of the Aluka . The imper. , from , occurs only here and at Dan 7:17 (= ), and in the bibl. Heb. only with the intentional ah , and in inflection forms. The insatiableness of sheol (Pro 27:20) is described by Isa; Isa 5:14; and Rachel, Gen 30:1, with her “Give me children,” is an example of the greediness of the “closed-up womb” (Gen 20:18). The womb of a childless wife is meant, which, because she would have children, the nuptiae never satisfy; or also of one who, because she does not fear to become pregnant, invites to her many men, and always burns anew with lust. “In Arab. ‘aluwak means not only one fast bound to her husband, but, according to Wetzstein, in the whole of Syria and Palestine, the prostitute, as well as the , are called ‘ulak (plur. ‘alwak ), because they obtrude themselves and hold fast to their victim” (Mhlau). In the third line, the three: the leech, hell, and the shut womb, are summarized: tira sunt quae non satiantur . Thus it is to be translated with Fleischer, not with Mhlau and others, tira haec non satiantur . “These three” is expressed in Heb. by , Exo 21:11, or ( ) , 2Sa 21:22; (which, besides, does not signify haec , but illa ) is here, taken correctly, the pred., and represents in general the verb of being (Isa 51:19), vid., at Pro 6:16. Zckler finds the point of the proverb in the greediness of the unfruitful womb, and is of opinion that the poet purposely somewhat concealed this point, and gave to his proverb thereby the enhanced attraction of the ingenious. But the tetrastich ‘ shows that hell, which is compared to fire, and the unfruitful womb, to which the parched and thirsty earth is compared, were placed by the poet on one and the same line; it is otherwise with Pro 30:18-20, but where that point is nothing less than concealed.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Four Things Unsearchable. | |
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: 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.
He had spoken before of those that devoured the poor (v. 14), and had spoken of them last, as the worst of all the four generations there mentioned; now here he speaks of their insatiableness in doing this. The temper that puts them upon it is made up of cruelty and covetousness. Now those are two daughters of the horse-leech, its genuine offspring, that still cry, “Give, give, give more blood, give more money;” for the bloody are still blood-thirsty; being drunk with blood, they add thirst to their drunkenness, and will seek it yet again. Those also that love silver shall never be satisfied with silver. Thus, while from these two principles they are devouring the poor, they are continually uneasy to themselves, as David’s enemies, Psa 59:14; Psa 59:15. Now, for the further illustration of this,
I. He specifies four other things which are insatiable, to which those devourers are compared, which say not, It is enough, or It is wealth. Those are never rich that are always coveting. Now these four things that are always craving are, 1. The grave, into which multitudes fall, and yet still more will fall, and it swallows them all up, and returns none, Hell and destruction are never full, ch. xxvii. 20. When it comes to our turn we shall find the grave ready for us, Job xvii. 1. 2. The barren womb, which is impatient of its affliction in being barren, and cries, as Rachel did, Give me children. 3. The parched ground in time of drought (especially in those hot countries), which still soaks in the rain that comes in abundance upon it and in a little time wants more. 4. The fire, which, when it has consumed abundance of fuel, yet still devours all the combustible matter that is thrown into it. So insatiable are the corrupt desires of sinners, and so little satisfaction have they even in the gratification of them.
II. He adds a terrible threatening to disobedient children (v. 17), for warning to the first of those four wicked generations, that curse their parents (v. 11), and shows here,
1. Who they are that belong to that generation, not only those that curse their parents in heat and passion, but, (1.) Those that mock at them, though it be but with a scornful eye, looking with disdain upon them because of their bodily infirmities, or looking sour or dogged at them when they instruct or command, impatient at their checks and angry at them. God takes notice with what eye children look upon their parents, and will reckon for the leering look and the casts of the evil eye as well as for the bad language given them. (2.) Those that despise to obey them, that think it a thing below them to be dutiful to their parents, especially to the mother, they scorn to be controlled by her; and thus she that bore them in sorrow in greater sorrow bears their manners.
2. What their doom will be. Those that dishonour their parents shall be set up as monuments of God’s vengeance; they shall be hanged in chains, as it were, for the birds of prey to pick out their eyes, those eyes with which they looked so scornfully on their good parents. The dead bodies of malefactors were not to hang all night, but before night the ravens would have picked out their eyes. If men do not punish undutiful children, God will, and will load those with the greatest infamy that conduct themselves haughtily towards their parents. Many who have come to an ignominious end have owned that the wicked courses that brought them to it began in a contempt of their parents’ authority.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Insatiable Four
Verse 15, using the blood-sucking horseleach to illustrate, introduces in verse 16 four things that are never satisfied. The horseleach was abundant in Palestine and was noted for its- insatiable appetite for blood.
Verse 16 lists the four things never satisfied as (1) the grave which is never filled because death continues, Pro 27:20; Rom 5:12; (2) the barren womb because it had never borne children, the foremost desire of women in Agur’s time, Psa 127:3; Psa 128:3; (3) the earth, which without sufficient water is never satisfactory, Num 20:2-4; 2Ki 3:9; Isa 1:30; Jer 14:3-4; Jer 17:6; and (4) the fire which burns all the more as it is fed.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. The horseleech , ( ‘ halukah.) This word occurs nowhere else in the Bible, and the critics are by no means agreed as to its meaning. Dr. A. Clarke thinks it may have been the proper name of some well-known woman of the time. Stuart thinks it means the fabled vampire, and so translates. All the ancient versions however, render it leech, or bloodsucker. But the ancients and some moderns, according to their principles of mystical interpretation, had various notions of what it symbolized. Some of the Rabbies thought it meant “destiny,” and the two daughters, paradise and sheol. The former never has enough of the righteous, the latter of the wicked. Bochart makes the two daughters, “the grave and hell.” Calmet says, ‘halukah is covetousness, and the two daughters, avarice and ambition. All this is fanciful. Alukah, the leech, is the emblem of insatiableness, and the two daughters are probably its two suckers, whose continual cry is, “Give, give.” (See Webster’s Dictionary for a description of the leech and its two suckers.) The horseleech is a less powerful leech, commonly attacking the membranes of the month and nostrils of animals that drink at the pools where it exists. It is probable, although no comparison is expressed between the leech and the following things named, that similitude is implied. So the Septuagint understood it, or made it: The bloodsucker has three daughters well beloved, and these three were not able to fill her, and the fourth was not content to say, Enough.
Three four It was common among the Hebrews to specify a number, and then to add another, somewhat as we say three or four. See on Pro 6:16.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God’s Wonderful Creation – In Pro 30:15-31, Agur sees God’s wonderful creation as too glorious to comprehend. In his divine encounter with God, Agur saw creation in its glorified body. We know from Romans 8 that creation will received a glorified body after mankind receives their glorified bodies (Rom 8:21-23). Then a simple blade of grass will seem awesome to behold.
Rom 8:21-23, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”
Numerical Collections – Pro 30:15-31 consists of a number of numerical collections. This style of wisdom literature is also used in Job 5:19; Job 33:14, Pro 6:16, Ecc 11:2 as well as in Amos 2, 3.
Job 5:19, “He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.”
Job 33:14, “For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.”
Pro 6:16, “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:”
Ecc 11:2, “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.”
Amo 2:1, “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:”
Pro 30:15 The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
Pro 30:15
Pro 30:16 The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.
Pro 30:17 Pro 30:17
Mic 1:16, “Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle ; for they are gone into captivity from thee.”
Job 39:27-30, “Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she .”
Pro 30:17, “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 .”
Note also a more likely reference to the vulture than the eagle in the New Testament:
Mat 24:28, “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”
Comments – It can be noted in nature that the vultures often pick out the soft flesh of the eyes of their carcasses first before they begin to tear through the hide and devour the inner parts.
Pro 30:17 Comments – The eyes of man are often figurative of the heart. Thus, Pro 30:17 is referring to a child whose heart is rebellious against his or her parents. The ravens and vultures would symbolize demonic spirits. A rebellious child becomes a victim of the devil. Thus, Pro 30:17 tells us that a rebellious child will have his heart darkened by Satan so that he can no longer see his way through life, and thus, encounter many problems.
Pro 30:23 For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.
Pro 30:23
Gen 16:4, “And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.”
Pro 30:26 The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
Pro 30:26
Lev 11:5, “And the coney , because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.”
Deu 14:7, “Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney : for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.
Psa 104:18, “The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies .”
Pro 30:24-28 Comments – God’s Divine Character Revealed in Nature – Each of these animals described in Pro 30:24-28 show an aspect of divine wisdom in God’s creation. The ant shows the strength of wise planning. The conies show us the security and safety that wisdom brings. The locusts show us the wisdom of cooperation and unity. The spider shows us the wisdom of determination.
Pro 30:30 A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any;
Pro 30:30
Isa 31:4, “For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice , nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.”
Pro 30:31 A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.
Pro 30:32-33
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Pro 30:15. The horse-leach hath two daughters This passage seems in my judgment, says Bishop Patrick, to be an answer to some such question as this (which the scholars had propounded to Agur, after the manner of enigmatical discourses), What is most unsatiable? which he chooses to give an account of in this place, the better to represent the nature of those wicked men of whom he had spoken before; especially the two last, the proud and the tyrannical, or extortioner; whose desires are a gulph which can never be filled. At first he seems to have thought but of two things; namely the grave, and the barren womb, which might properly be called the daughters of the horse-leach: but he presently adds another; nay, and a fourth came into his mind, as no less insatiable: this he expresses after the mariner of the Hebrews, who, intending to mention four things, or more, separate them at first, and begin with a lesser number, and then proceed to all that they designed. We have an example hereof in the 18th and 21st verses; in chap. Pro 6:10.; and in Amo 5:9. The LXX, in the Roman edition, read: The horse-leach hath three beloved daughters, and these three are never satisfied; and there is a fourth, which saith not, it sufficeth: and the unlearned reader will remark, that in our translation a number of words are thrown in, which being taken away, would very much assimilate ours to the translation of the LXX. See Scheuchzer on the place.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough. 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. There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat; For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress. There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces. There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth. Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.
I include the whole of these verses into one reading. They are all descriptive of one and the same thing, namely, the depth of iniquity in the human heart, which, as the Lord hath said by the Prophet, none but He that searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins can know. Jer 17:9-10 . But reader! what a strength of argument do all these things furnish, to endear, and make interesting, Jesus, and his great salvation. Where, or to whom, blessed Lord, can such poor polluted creatures as are here described, look for deliverance, but to thee, who art the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! Reader! while meditating these things, and learning therefrom the universal depravity and corruption of the heart, can you join issue in that blessed scripture, in a consciousness of being the happy partaker of it? And such were some of you: but ye are washed: but ye are sanctified; but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 1Co 6:11
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 30:15 The horseleach hath two daughters, [crying], Give, give. There are three [things that] are never satisfied, [yea], four [things] say not, [It is] enough:
Ver. 15. The horseleech a hath two daughters.] That is, Two forks in her tongue, whereby she first pricketh the flesh, and then sucketh the blood. Hereunto Solomon seemeth to resemble those cruel cormorants spoken of in the former verse. By the horseleech some understand the devil, that great red dragon, red with the blood of souls, which he hath sucked and swallowed, 1Pe 5:8 seeking whom he may ( ) let down his wide gullet, while he glut gluts their blood, as the young eaglets are said to do, Job 39:30 by a word made from the sound, b By the horseleech’s two daughters they understand covetousness and luxury, whom the devil hath long since espoused to the Romish clergy.
“Cuius avaritiae totus non sufficit orbis,
Cuius luxuriae meretrix non sufficit omnis.”
a Sanguisuga. Hirudo, ab haerendo. Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo.
b Iegna legundum.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
horseleach. Occurs only here. It is like the “flesh” in man. In the natural and spiritual spheres “the dose has to be increased”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 30:15-17
Pro 30:15-17
“The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.
There are three things that are never satisfied,
Yea, four that say not, Enough:
Sheol, and the barren womb;
The earth that is not satisfied with water;
And the fire that saith not, Enough.
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.”
It is noted that the verses do not follow the patterns of the tetrads; and, now and then, one finds a verse (Pro 30:17) that is diverse from the pattern. Fritsch wrote that, “Pro 30:17 is probably misplaced. The ‘eagles’ are generally identified here as vultures; and the implication of the young eagles eating the eyes of the disobedient son is that, “His body was left unburied.
Pro 30:15. This verse and the one following will deal with things that seemingly cannot get enough, are never satisfied. To begin with, he compares them with the blood-sucking horseleach whose two daughters can never get enough blood (Give, give, they cry). But the number of things he has in mind are not two, so he raises it to three; and finally he says there are Four that say not, Enough.
Pro 30:16. What are those four? (1) Sheol-the abode of mens departed spirits. Sheol is never satisfied: it keeps claiming new victims and never says, Enough. Pro 27:20 and Hab 2:5 also states that Sheol is never satisfied. (2) The barren womb-the married woman who has not been able to bear children. It keeps crying out for conception. Recall that the barren Rachel said to her husband Jacob, Give me children, or else I die (Gen 30:1). Elkannahs words to his barren wife Hannah (Am I not better off to thee than ten sons?-1Sa 1:8) did not satisfy her longing for offspring (read 1Sa 1:4-11). (3) The earth-oh, how quickly it dries out after a heavy rain and is ready for more! (4) Fire-instead of being extinguished from fuel put upon it, fire leaps higher and roars louder as if to say, More, more. Actually, what is the moral of such a verse? We conjecture a guess: not so much for the sake of the earth and fire not being satisfied but to remind man of the coming of death and that the barren womb of woman can be a problem.
Pro 30:17. Mixed in with the groupings of this chapter are occasional single-proverbs (such as this verse and Pro 30:10). This verse returns to the subject of Pro 30:11. Other passages on showing disrespect to ones parents: Gen 9:22; Lev 20:9, Pro 20:20. On this verse: Such an undutiful son shall die a violent death; his corpse shall lie unburied, and the birds of prey shall feed upon him…Ravens, vultures, and other birds that live on carrion first attack the eyes of their prey (Pulpit Commentary).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The horseleach: Isa 57:3, Eze 16:44-46, Mat 23:32, Joh 8:39, Joh 8:44
Give: Isa 56:11, Isa 56:12, Hos 4:18, Mic 7:3, Rom 16:18, 2Pe 2:3, 2Pe 2:13-15, Jud 1:11, Jud 1:12
There: Pro 30:21, Pro 30:24, Pro 30:29, Pro 6:16, Amo 1:3, Amo 1:6, Amo 1:9, Amo 1:11, Amo 1:13, Amo 2:1, Amo 2:4
It is enough: Heb. Wealth
Reciprocal: Gen 33:9 – have enough Jdg 18:20 – heart Pro 27:20 – Hell Ecc 1:8 – the eye Ecc 5:10 – He that Ecc 6:9 – wandering of the desire Hab 2:5 – as hell
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 30:15. The horseleech An insatiable creature, sucking blood till it be ready to burst; hath two daughters The following things, which resemble the horseleech in their insatiableness, nothing being more common than to call those persons or things the sons or daughters of those whose example they imitate. And whereas it is objected that they are not only two, but three, yea, four, as is said in the next clause, the answer is easy, that though he begin with two, yet he proceeds from thence to three and four, all which are said to be the daughters of the horseleech, if the words be rendered properly, as they are in the Hebrew, as we shall presently see. Crying, Give, give Never filled, but always craving, and ready to receive more and more. There are three It should rather have been rendered, Yea, three, or they (namely, the daughters of the horse- leech) are three; that are never satisfied This is added to explain the former clause, Give, give, and to show the cause of that excessive desire of more, namely, they are not contented with what they have. Four things Or, yea, they are four; which say not, It is enough Hebrew, , it is wealth, it is abundance. Those are never rich that are always coveting.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30:15 The horseleach hath two {h} daughters, [crying], Give, give. There are three [things that] are never satisfied, [yea], four [things] say not, [It is] enough:
(h) The leach has two forks in her tongue, which here he calls her two daughters, by which she sucks the blood, and is never satisfied: even so, the covetous extortioners are insatiable.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Here the warning is against greediness.
"’Give! Give!’ [Pro 30:15] can be taken as the names-with more pointed wit than as the cries-of these identical twins, who are made of the same stuff as their mother-other people’s blood." [Note: Kidner, p. 180. F. S. North, "The Four Insatiables," Vetus Testamentum 15 (1965):281-82, argued that the two daughters are the two suckers on the leach.]
Greediness is not just silly (Pro 30:15), it is dangerous ("Sheol" and "fire," Pro 30:16) and pathetic (being childless and parched, Pro 30:16). Sheol ever yearns to end life, and the barren womb ever yearns to produce it. [Note: Waltke, The Book . . . 31, p. 487.]