Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.
Parallel translations
- WEB Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; and a man’s eyes are never satisfied.
- KJV Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
- BSB Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
- ESV Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.
- NKJV Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.
- NASB Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, Nor are the eyes of a person ever satisfied.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Death is never full, and human desire is likewise never satisfied. It warns against the insatiable craving that nothing earthly can fill.
Overview
Sheol and Abaddon, names for the realm of the dead, never stop receiving, and the proverb likens human eyes and desires to that endless appetite. It exposes the futility of seeking contentment in more possessions or experiences. Only Christ, the bread and water of life, can finally satisfy the restless human heart (John 4:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Eccl 1:8All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
- 1 Jn 2:16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.
- Prov 30:15–16“The leach has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ “There are three things that are never satisfied; four that don’t say, ‘Enough:’
- Eccl 6:7All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
- Hab 2:5Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. A haughty man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples.
- Eccl 4:8There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. “For whom then, do I labor, and deprive my soul of enjoyment?” This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.
- Eccl 2:10–11Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.
- Eccl 5:10–11He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.
- Jer 22:17But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
- Prov 23:5Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
- Job 26:6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
- Prov 15:11Sheol and Abaddon are before Yahweh — how much more then the hearts of the children of men!
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 27:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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