Proverbs 30:24

THE MESSAGE

There are four small creatures, wisest of the wise they are— ants—frail as they are, get plenty of food in for the winter; marmots—vulnerable as they are, manage to arrange for rock-solid homes; locusts—leaderless insects, yet they strip the field like an army regiment; lizards—easy enough to catch, but they sneak past vigilant palace guards.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Four things on earth are small,yet they are extremely wise:

Hebrew Names Version
"There are four things which are little on the eretz, But they are exceeding wise:

King James Version
There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:

English Standard Version
Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise:

New American Standard Bible
Four things are small on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise:

New Century Version
"There are four things on earth that are small, but they are very wise:

Amplified Bible
There are four things that are small on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise:

World English Bible
"There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceeding wise:

Geneva Bible (1587)
These be foure small things in the earth, yet they are wise and full of wisedome:

Legacy Standard Bible
Four things are small on the earth,But they are exceedingly wise:

Berean Standard Bible
Four things on earth are small, yet they are exceedingly wise:

Contemporary English Version
On this earth four things are small but very wise:

Complete Jewish Bible
Four things on the earth are small; nevertheless, they are very wise —

Darby Translation
There are four [things] little upon the earth, and they are exceeding wise:

Easy-to-Read Version
There are four things on the earth that are small but very wise:

George Lamsa Translation
There are four things that are small upon the earth, but they are wiser than wise men:

Good News Translation
There are four animals in the world that are small, but very, very clever:

Lexham English Bible
There are four small things on the earth, and they are exceedingly wise:

Literal Translation
Four things are little on the earth, but they are the wise ones of those made wise:

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
There be foure thinges in the earth, the which are very litle: but in wy?dome they exceade the wyse.

American Standard Version
There are four things which are little upon the earth, But they are exceeding wise:

Bible in Basic English
There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are very wise:

JPS Old Testament (1917)
There are four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:

King James Version (1611)
There be foure things which are little vpon the earth; but they are exceeding wise:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
These be foure thynges in the earth the which are very litle, but in wisdome they exceede the wyse:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He that casts off father or mother, and thinks he sins not; the same is partaker with an ungodly man.

English Revised Version
There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Foure ben the leeste thingis of erthe, and tho ben wisere than wise men;

Update Bible Version
There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceeding wise:

Webster's Bible Translation
There are four [things which are] little upon the earth, but they [are] very wise:

New English Translation
There are four things on earth that are small, but they are exceedingly wise:

New King James Version
There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise:

New Living Translation
There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise:

New Life Bible
There are four things that are small on the earth, but they are very wise:

New Revised Standard
Four things on earth are small, yet they are exceedingly wise:

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Four, things there are, the small of the earth, - yet, they, are wiser than the wise:

Douay-Rheims Bible
There are four very little things of the earth, and they are wiser than the wise.

Revised Standard Version
Four things on earth are small, but they are exceedingly wise:

Young's Literal Translation
Four [are] little ones of earth, And they are made wiser than the wise:

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Four things are small on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise:

Contextual Overview

²⁴There are four small creatures, wisest of the wise they are— ants—frail as they are, get plenty of food in for the winter; marmots—vulnerable as they are, manage to arrange for rock-solid homes; locusts—leaderless insects, yet they strip the field like an army regiment; lizards—easy enough to catch, but they sneak past vigilant palace guards.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

little: Job 12:7

exceeding wise: Heb. wise, made wise

Reciprocal: Proverbs 6:16 - six Proverbs 30:15 - There

Cross-References

Genesis 30:1
When Rachel realized that she wasn't having any children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister. She told Jacob, "Give me sons or I'll die!"

Genesis 30:9
When Leah saw that she wasn't having any more children, she gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob for a wife. Zilpah had a son for Jacob. Leah said, "How fortunate!" and she named him Gad (Lucky). When Leah's maid Zilpah had a second son for Jacob, Leah said, "A happy day! The women will congratulate me in my happiness." So she named him Asher (Happy).

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 30:22
And then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. She became pregnant and had a son. She said, "God has taken away my humiliation." She named him Joseph (Add), praying, "May God add yet another son to me."

Genesis 35:24
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 37:2
This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.

Genesis 42:6
Joseph was running the country; he was the one who gave out rations to all the people. When Joseph's brothers arrived, they treated him with honor, bowing to him. Joseph recognized them immediately, but treated them as strangers and spoke roughly to them. He said, "Where do you come from?" "From Canaan," they said. "We've come to buy food."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

There be four [things which are] little upon the earth,.... Small in bulk, that have little bodies, are the lesser sort of animals;

but they [are] exceeding wise; show a great deal of art and wisdom in what they do; or "but they are wise, made wise" e by the instinct of nature, by the direction of Providence, by which they do things that are surprising. Some versions, that have no regard to the points, read the words, "but their are wiser than the wise" f; than even wise men; wise men may learn much from the least of creatures; see Job 12:7.

e חכמים מחכמים "sapientia, sapientia imbuta"; Heb. "sapientificata", Piscator, Gejerus. f "Sapientiora sapientibus", so Sept. V. L. Arabic and Syriac versions; "sapientia superant, vel prudentissimos", Tigurine version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Exceeding wise - Some prefer the reading of the Septuagint and Vulgate: “wiser than the wise.” The thought, in either case, turns upon the marvels of instinct, which, in their own province, transcend the more elaborate results of human wisdom.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 30:24. There be four things] Of which it is said, they are very little but very wise. 1. The ants. 2. The rabbits. 3. The locusts. 4. The spider.

1. The ants show their wisdom by preparing their meat in the summer; seeking for it and storing it when it may be had; not for winter consumption, for they sleep all that time; but for autumn and spring. Proverbs 6:6. The ants are a people; they have their houses, towns, cities, public roads, c. I have seen several of these, both of the brown and large black ant.

2. The rabbits act curiously enough in the construction of their burrows but the word שפן shaphan probably does not here mean the animal we call coney or rabbit. It is most likely that this is what Dr. Shaw calls the Daman-Israel; a creature very like a rabbit, but never burrowing in the ground, but dwelling in clefts and holes of rocks.

3. The locusts. These surprising animals we have already met with and described. Though they have no leader, yet they go forth by troops, some miles in circumference, when they take wing.

4. The spider. This is a singularly curious animal, both in the manner of constructing her house, her nets, and taking her prey. But the habits, &c., of these and such like must be sought in works on natural history.