Proverbs 30:15
The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
The verse is one of the sayings of Agur, a figurative riddle that pictures a set of things that never rest satisfied and is finished by what follows it.
Its plain sense is that grasping desire is like a bloodsucking creature with twin hungers always demanding more, never full and never content to stop.
The grave belongs to that company, always receiving life and claiming the living.
Above all this warns against the love of riches, where getting what is craved only feeds the craving, so the mind invents new wants, withholds what belongs to generosity, oppresses the poor to increase gain, and in the last days grasps for markets and money with ever fiercer hunger.
The same unfilled hunger is seen in gluttony and drink and tobacco, where a little whets the appetite for much and enslaves the user, and in selfish love and the spirit of war and grasping religion, while delay leaves men unready for judgment that does not sleep.
Words and Context
The saying belongs to the words of Agur, a division of Proverbs set apart from the earlier collections. It is cast as a brief figurative and puzzling utterance, in keeping with the book's manner of teaching by maxims, figures and riddles. It opens the picture of things that cannot be satisfied, a thought that is finished in the verse that follows. That picture is drawn through the horseleech with two daughters crying for more, an emblem of desire and greed that is never satisfied and never says enough. The demand is heard as a continuing voice calling for more.
Among those unfilled things is the grave, likened to the daughters of the leech in its endless crying for more. It goes on taking life and claiming people without ceasing.
Greed for Wealth
Applied to the appetite for riches, insatiable desire keeps demanding more, and receiving what is coveted enlarges desire rather than satisfying it, leaving even the wealthy perpetually craving more. This is the misery of an appetite that never says enough. Like the horseleech and its daughters' cry for more, wants can continually grow in the mind. Retaining what is due for benevolent uses can enlarge personal wants and foster covetousness.
A life devoted to acquiring property expresses this selfishness by withholding from charity, exploiting the poor, making sharp bargains, and even depriving children so that wealth will grow. The same image describes the last-days controllers of markets and money, who desire more fiercely the more wealth they acquire and cannot be satisfied.
The rich pursuer of ever greater gain echoes this insatiable desire that never says enough. His lavish temple gift cannot make amends for the suffering and deaths caused by such wealth.
Appetites and Warnings
The horseleech with its two daughters crying for more portrays insatiable desire, and gluttony answers to it with two corresponding effects, grossness and heaviness, which feed an earthly sensual appetite. The glutton's chief concern then becomes what to eat and what to drink rather than spiritual things and readiness for the Lord's return. Alcoholic drink bears the same mark, for it creates a continuing desire for more rather than satisfying thirst. A small amount whets the appetite for a larger one, making moderation difficult and increasing the danger of drunkenness. The American appetite for drink, especially intoxicating liquor, shows this unceasing demand by its enormous yearly cost. The craving for tobacco is likewise an appetite that never has enough, where what begins as a seemingly small indulgence can become a tyrannical habit that enslaves a person and is difficult to resist.
The desire for more can also refuse to be satisfied in a victorious patriotic war spirit that keeps wanting further conquest, bloodshed, booty and glory. Selfish self-love shows the same insatiable demand in its cry of give, give, taking love and service and sacrifice without gratitude or generosity in return and bringing no blessing to others. The religions summoned to the proposed Congress of Religions exhibit this insatiable greed by demanding contributions and attention.
The grave is endlessly demanding like the leech's daughters crying for more, continually taking life and claiming people while time passes. While people delay their spiritual work they may remain unprepared and unaware until divine judgment comes. That judgment approaches without sleeping, as in the days of Noah and Lot and at the revelation of the Son of man.