Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: ENOUGH (01/07/21)
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TITLE: Four Things Never Say, "Enough" | Previous Challenge Entry
By Bruce Phenix
01/14/21 -
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Verses 15-16 of chapter 30, in striking language, give a number of examples of insatiable things, things that are never satisfied and never say, ‘Enough.’
The first half of verse 15 is perhaps one of the most peculiar statements in the Bible:
The sucking one has two daughters;
Give, give.
Most scholars interpret the ‘sucking one’ as the leech, probably the horse leech or another aquatic type found in ponds and springs, dangerous for people and animals to ingest in drinking-water. (The word is less likely to refer to a blood-sucking female demon.) ‘Give, give’ may be what the daughters say, but it is quite possibly their names – ‘Give (me)!’ and ‘Give (me)!’ There would then be a comical, if repulsive, image of a mother leech with her identical twin daughters, all gorging themselves on the blood of their victims. This picture of insatiable ‘blood-lust’ may perhaps be compared with the lust of the seductive adulteress who in Proverbs 7:18 urges, ‘Come, let us take our fill of love until morning.’
Verse 15 continues:
Three things are never satisfied;
four never say, ‘Enough.
The pattern ‘three things…four’ occurs also in verses 18, 21 and 29 and is, according to Derek Kidner, a way of indicating that the list of things that follows, though specific, is not exhaustive.
There follow four examples of insatiable things, two sympathetic and two unsympathetic:
Sheol, the barren womb,
the earth ever thirsty for water,
and the fire that never says, ‘Enough.’
Sheol, the realm of the dead, is described elsewhere in the Old Testament as having a large appetite and a wide-open mouth and throat (Isaiah 5:14 and Habakkuk 2:5) . But while Sheol pitilessly swallows up all mortal creatures in the course of nature, Proverbs also teaches that sin and folly can bring a premature, living death: the guests in the house of the ‘foolish woman’ are already dead and in the depths of Sheol (9:18).
The second unsympathetic thing is fire, which can pitilessly swallow up crops and livelihoods, especially during the hot, dry summer months. This danger is clear from Exodus 22:6, which prescribes restitution if someone starts a fire that spreads and causes damage or loss to another’s field of grain. But again, fire may have a figurative sense, as it does in Proverbs 6:27, where it symbolises the danger a would-be adulterer brings on himself when he lusts after another man’s wife: ‘Can fire be carried in the bosom without burning one’s clothes?’
The two other examples, the barren womb and the parched earth, evoke a feeling of pity and a sense of the absence of God’s blessings. In ancient Hebrew society childlessness brought not only sorrow but shame to a woman, because it was seen as a judgement from God. The dry barrenness or lack of fertility of land was regarded in the same way: ‘He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants’ (Psalm 107:33-34).
Verses 15-16 of chapter 30, with their examples of insatiable things, are perhaps an indirect warning to moderate one’s desires and learn wisdom so as to avoid the path of blind, destructive forces and be able to enjoy the blessings God bestows on the righteous and the faithful. In Proverbs, true wisdom is based on revering God and obeying his law. The fear of the Lord is called ‘the beginning of knowledge’ (1:7), ‘the beginning of wisdom’ (9:10) and ‘life indeed’ (19:23). Of God’s law and blessing the book says: ‘Those who keep the law are wise children’ (28:7); ‘The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it’ (10:22).
As for the message of moderation, it is probably significant that earlier in chapter 30 (verses 8-9) the author, Agur, asks God to give him enough, neither too much nor too little:
Give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that I need,
or I shall be full, and deny you,
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
or I shall be poor, and steal,
and profane the name of my God.
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