What Does Proverbs 30:17 Mean?
The eye that mocks its father, and scorns to obey its mother, the ravens of the streambed dig it out, and the young eagles eat it.
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 eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.THE KEY
The eye that mocks its parents is exposed as vulnerable flesh, picked clean by ravens and young eagles.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a brutal image: the eye mocking a father and scorning a mother is plucked out by ravens and eaten by young eagles. The rare Hebrew expression rendered “to obey his mother” is also read as referring to the mother’s old age, so the contempt may be aimed at her instruction or her aged vulnerability. The image makes the eye that looks down become prey.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Parental contempt costs nothing and leaves the one who mocks untouched.
THE ROOT
עַיִן
ʿayin
GROWS FROM
עין
ʿ-y-n
Eye; the same Hebrew noun also denotes a spring or source.
Hebrew uses עַיִן (ʿayin, eye) for both the organ of sight and a spring, while מַעְיָן (ma’yan, spring or fountain) carries that source image forward. The verse’s eye is the organ through which sight comes, yet it is named as a vulnerable part of the body that can be torn away.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye, the organ of sight.
עַיִן
This is the eye the proverb names as the object of the birds’ violence.
ʿayin: Spring or source.
עַיִן
The shared word opens an image of the eye as an opening or source, making its removal especially stark.
ma'yan: Spring or fountain.
מַעְיָן
This related word extends the source image carried by עַיִן (ʿayin, eye).
תִּלְעַג
tilla'ag
GROWS FROM
לעג
l-ʿ-g
To mock, ridicule, or deride.
“mocketh” in this verse is tilla'ag. This root makes the act overt ridicule, not merely private disagreement. Beside the next verb, it portrays contempt as both making a father an object of mockery and treating a mother as beneath regard.
ALSO GROWS
la'ag: To mock or deride.
לָעַג
The verbal form shares the root of the verse’s “mocketh,” making ridicule the visible action.
la'ag: Mockery or derision.
לַעַג
The noun names the contempt that the verse makes concrete in the mocking eye.
תָּב֥וּז
tabuz
GROWS FROM
בזה
b-z-h
To despise, treat as worthless, or regard with contempt.
“scorns” in this verse is tabuz. The root depicts contempt as treating someone or something as negligible. The rare phrase the KJV renders “to obey his mother” is also read as referring to the mother’s old age, directing the contempt toward either her instruction or her aged vulnerability.
ALSO GROWS
nivzeh: Despised or held in contempt.
נִבְזֶה
This form shows the state of being treated as worthless, the attitude the verse places toward the mother.
bizzayon: Disgrace or contempt.
בִּזָּיוֹן
This noun makes explicit the disgrace carried by the root behind “despiseth.”
THE PATTERN
The way one regards father and mother is shown as shaping the course and conditions of one’s own life.
Give weight to your father and your mother, that your days may lengthen upon the ground which the LORD your God gives you.Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp goes out in the pupil of darkness.Give weight to your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise.THE THREAD
Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp goes out in the pupil of darkness.Both proverbs connect contempt toward parents with the loss of light: here the mocking eye is torn away, and there the lamp is put out in darkness. The parallel makes the eye’s fate a bodily image of extinguished light.
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