Proverbs 30:21 Made Simple

KJV ORIGINAL

For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear:

Close to the original. Clear modern English.

✦ MADE SIMPLE

There are three things that disturb the world, and four things it cannot tolerate:

⚡ THE BOTTOM LINE

The writer is introducing a list of situations that create chaos and upset the natural order of things.

📚 Historical Context

This verse begins one of Agur's numerical sayings, a common Hebrew literary device where the writer lists examples in ascending order (three... four). Agur was a wisdom teacher whose sayings are preserved in Proverbs 30, and he used this poetic structure to emphasize important truths about social order and human behavior.

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