What Does Proverbs 30:16 Mean?
The grave, and the shut womb, and the earth that is never filled with waters, and the fire that never says, It is enough.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.THE KEY
The earth is not sated, while fire never cries “enough”, Hebrew names two different forms of limitlessness: thirst that remains and consumption that continues.
THE MEANING
The verse places before you four realities that do not yield to a simple measure: the grave keeps receiving, the womb stays closed, the earth remains thirsty, and the fire keeps consuming. It holds appetite, barrenness, and destruction together without pretending they share one cause.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that every emptiness will resolve if only more is supplied: some hungers keep taking, and some closures remain closed.
THE ROOT
שָׂבְעָה
śāḇəʿāh
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
ś-b-ʿ
To be sated, satisfied, or have enough.
“filled” in this verse is śāḇəʿāh. The land is not merely unfilled like an empty container; the Hebrew says it does not become sated by water. The same root describes eyes that are “never satisfied” in Proverbs 27:20, joining elemental thirst with human appetite.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: Sated, full, satisfied.
שָׂבֵעַ
This adjective names the state the earth does not reach.
śōvaʿ: Satiety, fullness.
שֹׂבַע
This noun names the fullness that the earth and other unsated forces lack.
רָחָם
rāḥām
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ḥ-m
Womb; the same consonantal root also carries the sense of compassion and tender care.
The Hebrew word for womb shares its root-shape with words for compassion, a connection English hides. Here that life-bearing interior is closed, giving the image of barrenness a resonance with compassion that is present but not flowing.
ALSO GROWS
reḥem: Womb.
רֶחֶם
This is the familiar Hebrew form for womb, the life-bearing interior named in the verse.
raḥamim: Compassion, tender mercy.
רַחֲמִים
This branch shares the root רחם (r-ḥ-m), linking the womb with a language of deep tenderness.
עֹצֶר
ʿōṣer
GROWS FROM
עצר
ʿ-ṣ-r
To restrain, stop, hold back, or shut.
The Hebrew phrase depicts a restraint or closing of the womb; “barren” names the condition, while the root sharpens the image of something held shut. It does not say why the womb is closed.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṣar: To restrain, stop, or hold back.
עָצַר
This verb names the action carried in the phrase’s image of a womb held closed.
ʿāṣūr: Restrained, shut up, held back.
עָצוּר
This form describes the state of being closed or withheld that the verse evokes.
THE PATTERN
Some forces keep receiving or spreading without reaching a point where they declare themselves full.
Sheol and the place of perishing are never filled, and the eyes of man are never filled.All the streams go into the sea, and the sea is not filled; to the place where they go, there they return to go again.Even so the tongue is a small limb, and it lifts its neck over great things. Look how great a forest a little fire kindles!THE THREAD
Sheol and the place of perishing are never filled, and the eyes of man are never filled.Both verses use the root שבע (ś-b-ʿ, to be sated) for what does not become full: the earth in Proverbs 30:16 and human eyes in Proverbs 27:20. The shared root joins elemental thirst and human desire in one image of appetite without satiety.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us