What Does Proverbs 30:15 Mean in the King James?
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 analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The leech’s repeated “Give” exposes the trap: what cannot reach fullness turns every gift into another demand.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks through a stark image: some appetites turn receiving into an endless command, asking again before the previous gift can become enough. Its fourfold rhythm makes the lack feel like a pattern rather than an accident; the question is whether the appetite can arrive at fullness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that one more gain will finally quiet an appetite whose pattern is to ask again.
THE ROOT
הַב הַב
hav hav
GROWS FROM
יהב
y-h-b
To give or grant.
“Give, give” in this verse is hav hav. The doubled command makes wanting audible: the first gift does not end the demand, but gives way to the next one. The verse presents giving as something this appetite consumes without becoming full.
ALSO GROWS
hābû: A plural command to give.
הָבוּ
The same giving root appears in Psalm 29:1, where the command is also repeated; here repetition sounds like appetite that keeps asking.
yehav: The Aramaic form of the verb “to give,” as in Daniel 2:21.
יְהַב
This branch keeps the verse’s focus on the act of giving: more can be handed over while the demand remains open.
תִשְׂבַּעְנָה
tisbaʿnāh
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
ś-b-ʿ
To be full or satisfied.
“Satisfied” in this verse is tisbaʿnāh. The verse names the failure as an inability to become full, not merely as wanting something. Hebrew ties satisfaction to fullness: these appetites keep receiving, yet never arrive at the state of being sated.
ALSO GROWS
sāvēaʿ: Full or satisfied, as in “full of years” in Genesis 25:8.
שָׂבֵעַ
This branch names the state the verse’s appetites never reach.
sovaʿ: Abundance or fullness, as in “fullness of joy” in Psalm 16:11.
שֹׂבַע
The verse turns fullness into its measure: the demand continues because satiety never arrives.
THE PATTERN
Appetite organized around acquiring more has no natural stopping point, while fullness is described as something that actually answers hunger.
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.THE THREAD
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.The Hebrew verb translated “be satisfied” here comes from the same root, שׂבע (ś-b-ʿ), as “satisfied” in Proverbs 30:15. Ecclesiastes states the mechanism plainly: adding more silver cannot make an appetite arrive at fullness.
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