⁴ Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
    Who has gathered the wind by the handful?
    Who has bound up the waters in a garment?
    Who has established all the ends of the earth?
    What is this person’s name and the name of this person’s child—
            if you know it?

⁵ All God’s words are tried and true;
    a shield for those who take refuge in him.
⁶ Don’t add to his words,
    or he will correct you and show you to be a liar.

⁷ Two things I ask of you;
    don’t keep them from me before I die:
⁸ Fraud and lies—
    keep far from me!
Don’t give me either poverty or wealth;
    give me just the food I need.
⁹     Or I’ll be full and deny you,
    and say, “Who is the Lord?”
    Or I’ll be poor and steal,
    and dishonor my God’s name.

¹¹ There are those who curse their father
    and don’t bless their mother.
¹² There are those who think they are clean,
    but haven’t washed off their own excrement.
¹³ There are those—
    how arrogant are their eyes;
    how their eyebrows are raised!
¹⁴ There are those whose teeth are swords;
    their jaw is a butcher’s knife,
    ready to devour the needy from the earth,
    and the poor from humanity.

¹⁵ The leech has two daughters: “Give, give!”
    There are three things that are never satisfied,
    four that never say, “Enough!”:
¹⁶         the grave^[a] and a barren womb,
        a land never filled with water,
        and fire that doesn’t say, “Enough!”

¹⁷ An eye that mocks a father
    and rejects obedience to a mother,
    may the ravens of the river valley peck it out,
    and the eagle’s young eat it.
¹⁸ Three things are too wonderful for me,
    four that I can’t figure out:
¹⁹         the way of an eagle in the sky,
        the way of a snake on the rock,
        the way of a ship out on the open sea,
        and the way of a man with a young woman.

²⁰ This is the way of an adulterous woman:
    she eats and wipes her mouth,
    and she says, “I’ve done nothing wrong!”

²¹ At three things the earth trembles,
    at four it can’t bear up:
²²         at a servant when he becomes king
        and fools when they are full of food;
²³         at a detested woman when she gets married
        and a female servant when she replaces her mistress.

²⁴ Four things are among the smallest on earth,
    but they are extremely wise:
²⁵     Ants as creatures aren’t strong,
            but they store away their food in the summer.
²⁶     Badgers as creatures aren’t powerful,
            but they make their homes in the rocks.
²⁷     Locusts don’t have a king,
            but they march together in ranks.
²⁸     You can catch lizards in your hand,
            but they are in kings’ palaces.

²⁹ There are three things that are excellent in their stride,
    four that are excellent as they walk:
³⁰     a lion, a warrior among beasts,
            which doesn’t back down at anything;
³¹     the strut of a rooster or a male goat;
    and a king with his army.

³² If you’ve been foolish and arrogant,
    if you’ve been scheming,
    put your hand to your mouth,
³³         because churning milk makes curds,
        squeezing the nose brings blood,
        and stirring up anger produces strife.