Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 30:15 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 15. 15The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea,…”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 30:15–17
Read Proverbs 30:15 with 30:15–17. Read alone, “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea,…”; by 30:17, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it…”. Together the unit concentrates on generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, life, death, safety, and the long direction of choices, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life within “Words of Agur and numbered observations.”
Why This Verse Appears Here
Proverbs 30:15–17 develops by example “Humility, teachability, pride, and reputation — Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee,…” by carrying “Insatiable desires counted” within the same sustained discourse, admonition, numbered form, or poem. Within that relationship, this verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea,…”.
Follow the Context
- Opening (30:15): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea,…”.
- Development (30:15–17): adjacent lines test generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, life, death, safety, and the long direction of choices, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (30:17): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it…”, creating the next supported pause.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Proverbs 30:15 does not allow “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There…” to become a universal promise, complete policy, diagnosis, insult, or authorization detached from Proverbs 30:15–17. The saying does not promise a financial return, compel giving under manipulation, erase prudent limits, or let charity substitute for justice.
What Remains True
Wisdom treats timely material care and openhandedness as moral practices, not merely private feeling. In Proverbs 30:15, that bounded truth is expressed through “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There…,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Identify the concrete need, preserve the recipient's agency, give transparently, and combine immediate help with fair structures. Proverbs 30:15 names that responsibility through “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There…,” so the response must remain accountable to the person, action, comparison, or consequence in this line.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 30:15's exact role in Proverbs 30:15–17. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “The horseleach hath two daughters,…,” name one uncertainty, and explicitly reject one harmful use.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 30:15–17 — Insatiable desires countedSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The verse belongs to a larger speech, instruction, prayer, number saying, or poem; its voice and complete literary movement control how strongly an isolated line may be stated.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 30:15–17, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 30:15-30:17
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1178-1181, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 30:15–17
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Proverbs
K. T. Aitken
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Exact location: Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 30:15–17 and the Words of Agur and numbered observations outline
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access journal article
The situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth in the Book of Proverbs
G. H. Wittenberg
Scriptura 21, 1987; open archive 2020
Supports: One historical-social account of poverty, wealth, interest, oppression, labor, and differing evaluations within the collection.
Exact location: Wittenberg, ‘Situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth,’ Scriptura 21, pp. 1-23, especially the sayings and redactional comparison relevant to Proverbs 30:15–17
Open source ↗