Proverbs 30:5-23

⁵Every word God says has been proved true. He defends everyone who comes to him for protection.

⁶Don't add anything to his words, or he will criticize you and you'll be shown to be a liar.

⁷God, I want to request two things from you. Please don't refuse to let me have them before I come to die.

⁸Keep me from being false, help me not to tell lies. Don't make me poor or rich; just provide me with the food I need.

⁹Otherwise if I have plenty of money, I may give up on you, saying, “Who is the Lord?” while if I'm poor I may steal and bring the name of my God into disrepute.

¹⁰Don't slander a servant to his master, or he will curse you and you'll suffer for it.

¹¹There are some who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.

¹²There are some who see themselves as pure but they're still filthy—they have not been washed.

¹³There are some who think themselves so high and mighty, and who look down on others.

¹⁴There are some who have teeth like swords, incisors like knives, ready to devour the poor from the earth, the needy from society.

¹⁵The leech has two daughters who cry out, “Give me! Give me!” There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, “Enough!”:

¹⁶The grave, the womb that doesn't become pregnant, the earth thirsty for water, and the fire that never says, “Enough!”

¹⁷People who ridicule their fathers and despise obedience to the mother will have their eyes pecked out by wild ravens and eaten by young vultures.

¹⁸These three things are amazingly hard for me, four things I just can't understand:

¹⁹The way an eagle soars in the sky, the way a snake slides over a rock, the way a ship sails across the sea, the way a man and a woman fall in love.

²⁰This is the way of a woman who commits adultery: she eats, she wipes her mouth, and then says, “I haven't done anything wrong!”

²¹Three things make the earth tremble, there are four things it can't support:

²²a slave becoming a king, a stupid person eating like a pig,

²³an unbearable woman getting married, and a maidservant taking her mistress's place.