Proverbs 30:8-19

English Standard Version

⁸Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
    give me neither poverty nor riches;
    feed me with the food that is ^(A)needful for me,
⁹lest I be ^(B)full and ^(C)deny you
    and say, ^(D)“Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
    ^(E)and profane the name of my God.

¹⁰^(F)Do not slander a servant to his master,
^(G)lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

¹¹There are those^[a] who ^(H)curse their fathers
    and do not bless their mothers.
¹²There are those who are ^(I)clean in their own eyes
    but are not washed of their filth.
¹³There are those—how ^(J)lofty are their eyes,
    how high their eyelids lift!
¹⁴There are those whose teeth are ^(K)swords,
    whose ^(L)fangs are knives,
to ^(M)devour the poor from off the earth,
    the needy from among mankind.

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

¹⁷The eye that ^(R)mocks a father
and ^(S)scorns to obey a mother
will ^(T)be picked out by ^(U)the ravens of the valley
and eaten by the vultures.

¹⁸^(V)Three things are ^(W)too wonderful for me;
    ^(X)four I do not understand:
¹⁹the 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.