Riddle

How Nave’s arranged it

• Used as a test of wit: at Samson' s feastJudges 14:12–18
• By AgurProverbs 30:15Proverbs 30:16Proverbs 30:18–31
• See Parable
• See Proverbs

The passages, in Bible order (4)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 4 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Judges 14:12–18

   “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can solve it for me within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.

   ›Commentary on Judges 14:12–182 voices

   “I will now put forth a riddle--Riddles are a favorite Oriental amusement at festive entertainments of this nature, and rewards are offered to those who give the solution. Samson's riddle related to honey in the lion's carcass. The prize he offered was thirty sindinim, or shirts, and thirty changes of garments, probably woolen.

   “I will now put forth a riddle - Probably this was one part of the amusements at a marriage-feast; each in his turn proposing a riddle, to be solved by any of the rest on a particular forfeit; the proposer forfeiting, if solved, the same which the company must forfeit if they could not solve it. Thirty sheets - I have no doubt that the Arab hayk, or hake, is here meant; a dress in which the natives of the East wrap themselves, as a Scottish Highlander does in his plaid.

   Everything gathered on Judges 14:12–18→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Proverbs 30:15

   The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 30:152 voices

   Who can hide from himself what is thus enigmatically expressed? "The horseleech had three daughters, dearly loved, but they satisfied her not, and a fourth is not satisfied when you say Enough: the grave, and woman's love, and the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire that does not say Enough." The horseleech is the devil, the daughters of the devil are dearly loved, and they cannot be satisfied with the blood of the slain: "the grave, and woman's love, and the earth dry and scorched with heat."

   “Note the numeration mounting to a climax, the two, the three, the four (Amo 1:3 etc.). The word rendered “horseleach” is found nowhere else, and its etymology is doubtful; but there are good grounds for taking the word in its literal sense, as giving an example, in the natural world, of the insatiable greed of which the next verse gives other instances. Its voracious appetite is here represented, to express its intensity, as two daughters, uttering the same ceaseless cry for more. Pro 30:16 The grave - Hebrew שׁאול she'ôl.

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 30:15→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Proverbs 30:16

   Sheol, the barren womb, land never satisfied with water, and fire that never says, ‘Enough!’

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 30:161 voice

   Who can hide from himself what is thus enigmatically expressed? "The horseleech had three daughters, dearly loved, but they satisfied her not, and a fourth is not satisfied when you say Enough: the grave, and woman's love, and the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire that does not say Enough." The horseleech is the devil, the daughters of the devil are dearly loved, and they cannot be satisfied with the blood of the slain: "the grave, and woman's love, and the earth dry and scorched with heat."

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 30:16→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Proverbs 30:18–31

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

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 30:18–312 voices

   “Hypocrisy is illustrated by four examples of the concealment of all methods or traces of action, and a pertinent example of double dealing in actual vice is added, that is, the adulterous woman.

   “Another enigma. The four things of Pro 30:16 agreed in the common point of insatiableness; the four now mentioned agree in this, that they leave no trace behind them. Pro 30:19 The way of a man with a maid - The act of sin leaves no outward mark upon the sinners.

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 30:18–31→

   Verse page →Original language →