Proverbs 27:20

As ¹  Death and Destruction are never satisfied, ²  so the eyes of a person ³  are never satisfied. ⁴ 

Pr 23:5; Pr 30:15,16; Ec 1:8; Ec 2:10,11; Ec 5:10,11; Ec 6:7; Jer 22:17; Hab 2:5; 1Jo 2:16

¹ tn The term “as” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation in light of the analogy.

² sn Countless generations of people have gone into the world below; yet “death” is never satisfied – it always takes more. The line personifies Death and Destruction. It forms the emblem in the parallelism.

³ tn Heb “eyes of a man.” This expression refers to the desires – what the individual looks longingly on. Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:34 (one of the rabbinic Midrashim) says, “No man dies and has one-half of what he wanted.”

⁴ tc The LXX contains a scribal addition: “He who fixes his eye is an abomination to the Lord, and the uninstructed do not restrain their tongues.” This is unlikely to be original.