Proverbs 30:17

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.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
eye	עַ֤יִן 'A.yin	H5869	an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
mocketh	תִּֽלְעַ֣ג til.'Ag	H3932	to deride · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
father	לְאָב֮ le.'Av	H1	father · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
despiseth	וְתָב֪וּז ve.ta.Vuz	H936	to disrespect · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person feminine singular
obey	לִֽיקֲּהַ֫ת li.ka.Hat-	H3349	obedience · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
mother	אֵ֥ם 'em	H517	a mother (as the bond of the family) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
ravens	עֹרְבֵי 'o.re.vei-	H6158	a raven (from its dusky hue) · noun, common masculine plural construct
valley	נַ֑חַל Na.chal	H5158	a stream · noun, common masculine singular absolute
out	יִקְּר֥וּהָ yi.ke.Ru.ha	H5365	to bore (penetrate · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
young	בְנֵי ve.nei-	H1121	a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
eagles	נָֽשֶׁר Na.sher	H5404	the eagle (or other large bird of prey) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
eat	וְֽיֹאכְל֥וּהָ ve.yo.khe.Lu.ha	H398	to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they ha…
Proverbs 23:22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
Proverbs 30:11 There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
Leviticus 20:9 For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall b…
2 Samuel 18:14-17 Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he…
Genesis 9:21-27 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Proverbs 20:20 Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
Deuteronomy 28:26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 30:15-17

He had spoken before of those that devoured the poor (Pro 30:14), and had spoken of them last, as the worst of all the four generations there mentioned; now here he speaks of their insatiableness in doing this. The temper that puts them upon it is made up of cruelty and covetousness. Now those are two daughters of the horse-leech, its genuine offspring, that still cry, "Give, give, give more blood, give more money;" for the bloody are still blood-thirsty; being drunk with blood, they add thirst to their drunkenness, and will seek it yet again. Those also that love silver shall never be satisfied with silver. Thus, while from these two principles they are devouring the poor, they are continua…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 30:17

The eye--for the person, with reference to the use of the organ to express mockery and contempt, and also as that by which punishment is received. the ravens . . . eagles . . . eat--either as dying unnaturally, or being left unburied, or both.

John Gill on Proverbs 30:17

The eye that mocketh at his father,.... At his advice, admonitions, and instructions; looks upon him with scorn and disdain, and treats him as a weak, silly, old man: here Agur returns to the first generation he had observed; and despiseth to obey his mother; her orders and commands: or, "the obedience of his mother" (s); her discipline and instruction, having no regard to it. The word is rendered "gathering" in Genesis 49:10; and Jarchi interprets it of the gathering of wrinkles in her face: and so the Targum, Arabic, and Syriac versions render it, "the old age of his mother"; despising her as an old foolish woman; see Proverbs 23:22; in the Ethiopic language, signifies to "grow old", fro…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 30:17

The proverb of the ‛Alûka is the first of the proverbs founded on the figure of an animal among the "words" of Agur. It is now followed by another of a similar character: 17 An eye that mocketh at his father, And despiseth obedience to his mother: The ravens of the brook shall pluck it out, And the young eagles shall eat it. If "an eye," and not "eyes," are spoken of here, this is accounted for by the consideration that the duality of the organ falls back against the unity of the mental activity and mental expression which it serves (cf. Psychol. p. 234). As haughtiness reveals itself (Pro 30:13) in the action of the eyes, so is the eye also the mirror of humble subordination, and also of m…

The Church Fathers

"The eye that mocketh at his father, and dishonours the old age of his mother." That is to say, one that blasphemes God and despises the mother of Christ, the wisdom of God,-his eyes may ravens from the caves tear out, i.e., him may unclean and wicked spirits deprive of the clear eye of gladness; and may the young eagles devour him: and such shall be trodden under the feet of the saints.
— Hippolytus of Rome, Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments

The eye that mocks a father, and despises the birth of his mother, etc. The perverse, while they reproach divine judgments, mock the Father; and any heretics, while despising the preaching of the holy Church with ridicule, despise the birth of the mother, because from her come those who speak against her. They went out from us, he says, but they were not of us (John ...). Whose intention, while the Catholic preachers rebuke them coming from the streams of the divine Scriptures, they pluck out the hateful eye of the raven from the torrents, and the sons of the eagle eat it. For the holy teachers are called ravens, because through the grace of humility, they confess the blackness of sin in themselves. But the sons of the eagle, because they are reborn through his grace, who in the habit of assumed flesh flies to the heavens. Hence elsewhere they are called the sons of the bridegroom.
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Agur — Gatherer; the collector, mentioned as author of the sayings in Prov. 30. Nothing is known of him beyond what is there recorded.
Raven — Heb. ‘orebh, from a root meaning “to be black” (comp. Cant. 5:11); first mentioned as “sent forth” by Noah from the ark (Gen. 8:7). “Every raven after his kind” was forbidden as food (Lev. 11:15;…
Burial · Lack of, a disgrace — Lack of, a disgrace
Children, Wicked · Punishment of, for: Mocking parents — Punishment of, for: Mocking parents
Mother · 18:7;19:3;20:9; — 18:7;19:3;20:9;
Raven · A black — A black
Raven, The · Called the raven of the valley — Called the raven of the valley
Valleys · Abounded with: Ravens — Abounded with: Ravens

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Proverbs 30:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 30:15-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 30:17

John Gill on Proverbs 30:17

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 30:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 30:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 30:15-17

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 30:17

John Gill on Proverbs 30:17

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 30:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 30:17

Rashi on Proverbs 30:17