The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
Parallel translations
- WEB “The eye that mocks at his father, and scorns obedience to his mother: the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, the young eagles shall eat it.
- BSB As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.
- NKJV The eye that mocks his father, And scorns obedience to his mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it.
- NASB The eye that mocks a father And scorns a mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it.
- NLT The eye that mocks a father and despises a mother’s instructions will be plucked out by ravens of the valley and eaten by vultures.
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
Those who mock and scorn their parents face shameful judgment, vividly pictured as carrion for birds.
Overview
The grim image of ravens and eagles devouring the eye warns that contempt for parents brings disgrace and divine judgment. The eye that scorns is fittingly the eye that is plucked out, a poetic justice. This severe saying upholds the honor due to parents and, behind them, to God, whose authority all such honor reflects.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Deut 21:18–21If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
- Prov 30:11There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
- Prov 23:22Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.
- 2 Sam 18:14–17Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.
- Lev 20:9For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
- Gen 9:21–27And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
- Prov 20:20Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
- 2 Sam 21:10And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
- 1 Sam 17:44And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
- Deut 28:26And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.
- 2 Sam 18:9–10And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
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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 30:17 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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