The leech hath two daughters Give, give. There are three [things] never satisfied; four which say not, It is enough
The proverb opens with a small blood-sucking creature whose two daughters know only one word: "Give." It then widens into a list of four things that never say "Enough," and it leaves the reader asking whether his own heart belongs on that list.
The horseleech was a real and familiar pest, and its feeding habits gave the proverb its bite.
Leeches are plentiful in Palestine. The horseleech may simply be a large species that would settle on a horse's foot if the horse stood in water where they swarm. A horse has been known, while drinking, to get a leech into its mouth, which at once began to suck its blood. The leech stands as a symbol of a greedy person who is never satisfied, pictured vividly by the leech's two daughters, who say, "Give, give."
One writer turns the picture on the reader. He hears the same cry from Israel, a nation God had treated with wonderful grace.
Is there not an implied lesson here? Does not man by nature resemble a leech, a parasite, always ready to draw from a supply that is not really his own? God showed Israel wonderful grace in the wilderness, yet she responded only with continual dissatisfaction and complaining. "Give, give" was her language, with little spirit of thankfulness.
The verse counts three, then four, and the list climbs as it goes. One writer names each of the four and says what they all reflect.
Then follow four things which are insatiable. The list reaches its climax gradually. The horseleech (or vampire) has two daughters named "Give." So it is with the poor heart of man. There are three and four things of the same character. First, the unseen regions where the spirits of the dead go day after day, year after year. Then the barren womb. Then the earth on which rain falls, yet it is never filled with water. And the fourth thing is the fire, which never says it is enough, and consumes until nothing remains. These insatiable things are symbols of the condition of the natural man, always taking in, yet always restless and never satisfied.
The proverb sets the human appetite beside the grave. One writer says the heart is the greedier of the two, then names men who had almost everything and still wanted more.
There is hardly anything in the universe harder to satisfy than the human heart. In it live the horseleech's two daughters, endlessly crying, "Give, give." The heart is more insatiable than the grave. The mouth of the sea and the gaping earthquake are less greedy. Apicius killed himself because he had only eighty thousand pounds left. Ahab had all Israel, but grew sick over Naboth's vineyard.
The last of the four is fire. The same writer turns it into a warning for anyone who keeps taking but never drinks what God offers.
The devouring fire will rage as long as it can find an object to fasten on. Lack of rain, for instance, will leave the forests tinder dry. Once the awesome, relentless fire begins, it will spare nothing. In the same way, suppose a man refuses the precious water of God's Word and becomes like a dry and withered tree. How can he escape the fire of the judgment of God?
Since the appetite itself is not the problem but its object, the proverb quietly points past everything it names.
Solomon says, "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full" (Ecclesiastes 1:7). The sea is the human heart. Pour every river of earthly pleasure into those discontented hearts, and they would still remain empty and unsatisfied. Men hunt for satisfaction in places where they will never find it. An iceberg gives no heat, salt no sweetness, and you cannot press wine from turnips. Man's heart was made for God, and only God, in Christ, can fill and satisfy it.
- Give, give — the leech's two daughters have one word between them, and it is the only word a greedy heart knows.
- Enough — four things refuse to say it: the unseen world of the dead, the barren womb, dry ground, and fire. Each swallows all it receives and asks again.
- Mirror — the list is a portrait of the natural man: always taking in, always restless, never satisfied. Israel in the wilderness said "Give, give" to the God who had already shown her wonderful grace.
- Warning — fire spares nothing dry. A man who refuses the water of God's Word becomes the fuel that judgment finds.
- Rest — pour every river of earthly pleasure into the human heart and it stays empty. The heart was made for God, and only God in Christ fills it.
-- Sheol, and the barren womb; the earth which is not filled with water, and the fire which saith not, It is enough.
Agur has just pictured a leech with two daughters whose only word is "Give." Now he names four more things that never say "enough," and they press one question: can anything in this world fill a human heart?
Agur's chapter is built out of numbered groups, and this pair of verses forms one of them.
Proverbs 30 has a heading: "The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle." As these names are not known, it has been supposed that they are symbolic. There are six sets of four things: four generations that are evil (30:11-14); four things that are insatiable (30:15-16); four things that are inscrutable (30:18-19); four things that are intolerable (30:21-23); four things that are weak, yet wise (30:24-28); four things that are very stately (30:29-31).
The four are not random. They build, and they hold up a mirror.
Then follow four things which are insatiable. The climax builds step by step. The leech has two daughters named "Give." So is the poor heart of man, and there are three and four things of the same character. First, the unseen regions into which the spirits of the dead go, day after day, year after year. Then the barren womb. Then the earth on which rain falls, yet is never filled with water. And the fourth thing, the fire, which never says it is enough, which consumes till nothing is left. These insatiable things are pictures of the natural man: always taking in, yet always restless and never satisfied.
The leech that opens the list does not produce; it attaches and draws. One writer sees the same pattern in Israel's history after they left Egypt.
Is there not here the implied lesson that man by nature resembles a leech, a parasite, always ready to draw from a supply not really his own? God showed Israel wonderful grace in the wilderness, and Israel answered only with constant dissatisfaction and grumbling. "Give, give" was her language, with little spirit of thankfulness.
The first of the four is the unseen state of the dead. It interrupts anyone still busy piling things up.
"Sheol" is the unseen state of the soul and spirit when death separates them from the body. Relentlessly, without pause, this dreaded king of terrors takes its victims one by one. So let man stop in his tracks of material self-seeking and consider this: death and the unseen may claim him too, and very soon.
The second is a longing rather than a threat, and it turns the proverb into a positive test of our own lives.
Next is "the barren womb." Like Hannah, any wife who has a mother's heart cries out with a longing that only the birth of a child can satisfy. The spiritual lesson here is of the utmost value. Our hearts are so made that if we do not bear true fruit for God we shall not enjoy true satisfaction. And only a heart that submits to the working of the Spirit of God bears fruit.
The third picture — ground that swallows rain and stays dry — has a remedy attached to it.
A dry land thirsts for water, and seems never to be filled. Man's soul too is so made that it thirsts, and only the living water of the Word of God can meet such thirst. So Hebrews compares the believer to "land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it" and "receives a blessing from God" (Heb. 6:7). But without this there can be no satisfaction.
The fourth is where the list lands. Refusing the water of the third picture is what leaves a person exposed to it.
The devouring fire will rage as long as it can find something to fasten on. Lack of rain will leave the forests tinder dry, and the awesome, relentless fire, once it begins, will have pity on nothing. In the same way, a man may refuse the precious water of God's Word and become like a dry, withered tree. How can he then escape the fire of the judgment of God? The words describing the eternal torment of hell are terrible: "where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). It is time now to seek true satisfaction, not to wait until all hope of it is impossible.
Set beside the four, the human heart outdoes them all — from a king who wanted one more vineyard to the Antichrist.
Hardly anything in the universe is harder to satisfy than the human heart. In it live the leech's two daughters, crying without stopping, "Give, give." It is more insatiable than the grave. The mouth of the sea and the yawning earthquake are less greedy. Ahab had all Israel, but craved Naboth's vineyard. "To be equal with God" would not satisfy the Antichrist: he will exalt himself "above all that is called God."
The proverb names the emptiness but not the cure. One writer speaks of that same want, and of finding his thirst met.
There is a longing in the heart that this world can never satisfy. I know what it was to be thirsty, but I have got what satisfied my thirst.
- Give, give — By nature man is a parasite. He draws on supplies not his own, and answers grace with grumbling instead of thanks.
- Never enough — Sheol, the barren womb, the dry earth and the fire all take without end. They picture the restless natural man: always taking in, never full.
- Enough for the grave — Death's appetite is the first item on the list, meant to stop the self-seeker in his tracks.
- Enough through fruit and water — Real satisfaction comes two ways. A heart yielded to the Spirit bears fruit, and the living water of God's Word meets the thirst.
- Enough at last — Refuse the water and only the fire is left. Take it, and the longing this world can never fill is met at last.