¹⁵ The leech has two daughters:
    Give and Give.^[a]
Three things are never satisfied;
    four never say, “Enough”:
¹⁶ Sheol, the barren womb,
    the land never satisfied with water,
    and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

¹⁷ The eye that mocks a father
    and scorns to obey a mother
will be picked out by the ravens of the valley
    and eaten by the vultures.

¹⁸ Three things are too wonderful for me;
    four I do not understand:
¹⁹ the way of an eagle in the sky,
    the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
    and the way of a man with a virgin.

²⁰ This is the way of an adulteress:
    she eats and wipes her mouth
    and says, “I have done no wrong.”

²¹ Under three things the earth trembles;
    under four it cannot bear up:
²² a slave when he becomes king,
    and a fool when he is filled with food;
²³ an unloved woman when she gets a husband,
    and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

²⁴ Four things on earth are small,
    but they are exceedingly wise:
²⁵ the ants are a people not strong,
    yet they provide their food in the summer;
²⁶ the rock badgers are a people not mighty,
    yet they make their homes in the cliffs;
²⁷ the locusts have no king,
    yet all of them march in rank;
²⁸ the lizard you can take in your hands,
    yet it is in kings' palaces.

²⁹ Three things are stately in their tread;
    four are stately in their stride:
³⁰ the lion, which is mightiest among beasts
    and does not turn back before any;
³¹ the strutting rooster,^[b] the he-goat,
    and a king whose army is with him.^[c]

³² If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,
    or if you have been devising evil,
    put your hand on your mouth.
³³ For pressing milk produces curds,
    pressing the nose produces blood,
    and pressing anger produces strife.

² What are you doing, my son?^[d] What are you doing, son of my womb?
    What are you doing, son of my vows?
³ Do not give your strength to women,
    your ways to those who destroy kings.
⁴ It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
    it is not for kings to drink wine,
    or for rulers to take strong drink,
⁵ lest they drink and forget what has been decreed
    and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
⁶ Give strong drink to the one who is perishing,
    and wine to those in bitter distress;^[e]
7 let them drink and forget their poverty
    and remember their misery no more.
⁸ Open your mouth for the mute,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.^[f]
9 Open your mouth, judge righteously,
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.