Proverbs 30:4-24

⁴Who has gone up to heaven and come down? who has taken the winds in his hands, prisoning the waters in his robe? by whom have all the ends of the earth been fixed? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if you are able to say?

⁵Every word of God is tested: he is a breastplate to those who put their faith in him.

⁶Make no addition to his words, or he will make clear your error, and you will be seen to be false.

⁷I have made request to you for two things; do not keep them from me before my death:

⁸Put far from me all false and foolish things: do not give me great wealth or let me be in need, but give me only enough food:

⁹For fear that if I am full, I may be false to you and say, Who is the Lord? or if I am poor, I may become a thief, using the name of my God wrongly.

¹⁰Do not say evil of a servant to his master, or he will put a curse on you, and you will get into trouble.

¹¹There is a generation who put a curse on their father, and do not give a blessing to their mother.

¹²There is a generation who seem to themselves to be free from sin, but are not washed from their unclean ways.

¹³There is a generation, O how full of pride are their eyes! O how their brows are lifted up!

¹⁴There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, their strong teeth like knives, for the destruction of the poor from the earth, and of those who are in need from among men.

¹⁵The night-spirit has two daughters, Give, give. There are three things which are never full, even four which never say, Enough:

¹⁶The underworld, and the woman without a child; the earth which never has enough water, and the fire which never says, Enough.

¹⁷The eye which makes sport of a father, and sees no value in a mother when she is old will be rooted out by the ravens of the valley, and be food for the young eagles.

¹⁸There are three things, the wonder of which overcomes me, even four things outside my knowledge:

¹⁹The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a snake on a rock; the way of a ship in the heart of the sea; and the way of a man with a girl.

²⁰This is the way of a false wife; she takes food, and, cleaning her mouth, says, I have done no wrong.

²¹For three things the earth is moved, and there are four which it will not put up with:

²²A servant when he becomes a king; a man without sense when his wealth is increased;

²³A hated woman when she is married; and a servant-girl who takes the place of her master's wife.

²⁴There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are very wise: