Proverbs 30:18

THE MESSAGE

Three things amaze me, no, four things I'll never understand— how an eagle flies so high in the sky, how a snake glides over a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, why adolescents act the way they do.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Three things are too wondrous for me;four I can’t understand:

Hebrew Names Version
"There are three things which are too amazing for me, Four which I don't understand:

King James Version
There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

English Standard Version
Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand:

New American Standard Bible
There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Four which I do not understand:

New Century Version
"There are three things that are too hard for me, really four I don't understand:

Amplified Bible
There are three things which are too astounding and unexpectedly wonderful for me, Four which I do not understand:

World English Bible
"There are three things which are too amazing for me, Four which I don't understand:

Geneva Bible (1587)
There be three thinges hid from me: yea, foure that I knowe not,

Legacy Standard Bible
There are three things which are too wonderful for me,Four which I do not understand:

Berean Standard Bible
There are three things too wonderful for me, four that I cannot understand:

Contemporary English Version
There are three or four things I cannot understand:

Complete Jewish Bible
Three things are too wonderful for me, four beyond my knowledge —

Darby Translation
There are three [things] too wonderful for me, and four that I know not:

Easy-to-Read Version
There are three things that are hard for me to understand—really, four things that I don't understand:

George Lamsa Translation
There are three things that are hidden from me, yea, four which I do not know:

Good News Translation
There are four things that are too mysterious for me to understand:

Lexham English Bible
Three of these are too wonderful for me, and four, I do not understand them:

Literal Translation
Three things are too wonderful for me; yea, I do not know the way of four:

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
There be thre thinges to hye for me, and as for the fourth, it passeth my knowlege.

American Standard Version
There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yea, four which I know not:

Bible in Basic English
There are three things, the wonder of which overcomes me, even four things outside my knowledge:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

King James Version (1611)
There be three things which are too wonderfull for me; yea foure, which I know not:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
There be three thynges whiche are wonderfull to me, yea foure whiche passe my vnderstandyng:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He that walks justly is assisted: but he that walks in crooked ways shall be entangled therein.

English Revised Version
There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thre thingis ben hard to me, and outirli Y knowe not the fourthe thing;

Update Bible Version
There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yes, four which I don't know:

Webster's Bible Translation
There are three [things which] are too wonderful for me, yes, four which I know not:

New English Translation
There are three things that are too wonderful for me, four that I do not understand:

New King James Version
There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yes, four which I do not understand:

New Living Translation
There are three things that amaze me— no, four things that I don't understand:

New Life Bible
There are three things which are too great for me, four which I do not understand:

New Revised Standard
Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand:

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Three, things there are, too difficult for me, yea, four, which I do not understand:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Three things are hard to me, and the fourth I am utterly ignorant of.

Revised Standard Version
Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand:

Young's Literal Translation
Three things have been too wonderful for me, Yea, four that I have not known:

New American Standard Bible (1995)
There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Four which I do not understand:

Contextual Overview

¹⁸Three things amaze me, no, four things I'll never understand— how an eagle flies so high in the sky, how a snake glides over a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, why adolescents act the way they do. ²⁰ Here's how a prostitute operates: she has sex with her client, Takes a bath, then asks, "Who's next?" ²¹Three things are too much for even the earth to bear, yes, four things shake its foundations— when the janitor becomes the boss, when a fool gets rich, when a whore is voted "woman of the year," when a "girlfriend" replaces a faithful wife.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

too: Job 42:3, Psalms 139:6

Reciprocal: Proverbs 6:16 - six Micah 5:5 - seven

Cross-References

Genesis 30:14
One day during the wheat harvest Reuben found some mandrakes in the field and brought them home to his mother Leah. Rachel asked Leah, "Could I please have some of your son's mandrakes?"

Genesis 30:15
Leah said, "Wasn't it enough that you got my husband away from me? And now you also want my son's mandrakes?" Rachel said, "All right. I'll let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son's love-apples."

Genesis 35:23
God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau." Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we're going to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I've gone since." They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they'd been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree in Shechem. Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob. Jacob and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan. He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel) because that's where God revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother. And that's when Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping-Oak). God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from Paddan Aram and blessed him: "Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that's your name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler)." God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants. And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him. Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God's-House). They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor—hard, hard labor. When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid—you have another boy." With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune). Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, "Rachel's Grave Stone." Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder. While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah. And Israel heard of what he did. There were twelve sons of Jacob. The sons by Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun. The sons by Rachel: Joseph Benjamin. The sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid: Dan Naphtali. The sons by Zilpah, Leah's maid: Gad Asher. These were Jacob's sons, born to him in Paddan Aram. Finally, Jacob made it back home to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. Isaac was now 180 years old. Isaac breathed his last and died—an old man full of years. He was buried with his family by his sons Esau and Jacob.

Genesis 46:13
Issachar's sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

Deuteronomy 33:18
Zebulun and Issachar: "Celebrate, Zebulun, as you go out, and Issachar, as you stay home. They'll invite people to the Mountain and offer sacrifices of right worship, For they will have hauled riches in from the sea and gleaned treasures from the beaches."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

There be three [things which] are too wonderful for me,.... Which were above his reach and comprehension; what he could not find out, nor account for, nor sufficiently admire;

yea, four things which I know not; the way of them; as follows.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Another enigma. The four things of Proverbs 30:16 agreed in the common point of insatiableness; the four now mentioned agree in this, that they leave no trace behind them.

Proverbs 30:19

The way of a man with a maid - The act of sin leaves no outward mark upon the sinners.