“Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king, a fool who is full of food, an unloved woman who is married, and a maidservant who displaces her mistress.”
Certain people who are suddenly lifted to a higher status in life can be intolerable. The wise man Agur says that under these things the earth trembles and cannot bear it (v 21). Upheavals in the proper order of things make life unbearable.
For each of these four unbearable things, there is a very obvious and significant Bible example, the detailed study of which will surely repay the student. (It is not too difficult to think of other examples also.) The four unbearable things are:
- ‘A servant when he becomes king’: Among others, but perhaps most significant, is Jeroboam the son of Nebat (1Kgs 11; 12), whose promotion led to the division of the Kingdom of God, which lasted for hundreds of years.
- ‘A fool when he is full of food’: Nabal, the husband of Abigail, and the troubler of David (1Sam 25).
- ‘An unloved woman when she is married’: Leah the older sister of Rachel, married to Jacob by subterfuge (Gen 29). This trouble, once begun, continued for many generations, through the sisters’ sons and then the tribes they fathered.
- ‘A maidservant when she displaces her mistress’: Hagar, given by Sarai to Abram her husband because Sarai could not conceive a child (Gen 16). The descendants of Ishmael, the son born of Abram’s union with Hagar, have troubled Israel over the centuries.
The Book of Proverbs contains other unsettling associations besides the four things listed here. They include:
- Proverbs 11:22: “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.”
- Proverbs 22:13; 26:13: The sluggard cannot bear to get out of bed in the morning, and worries that a lion waits just outside his door to kill him.
- Proverbs 26:1: “Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.”
- Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”
Things that seem, at first look, to be out of place are a staple of the Proverbs — but are also found throughout the Bible. “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:10). “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Through these incongruous associations, God arrests us in our tracks, and forces us to contemplate the great chasm between the circumstances of the natural world, in which we must live, and those of the spiritual world, in which we are commanded to live.
Under three things the earth trembles: “Trembles” is the Hebrew “ragaz”: to rage, quake or quiver, or to be in tumult; the KJV has “is disquieted”. It may be reasonable to say the earth (“eretz”: land) trembles or quakes when there is a change in dynasty in a country (i.e., a servant becomes king), since often the Bible symbolizes political revolution as an earthquake. However, to characterize any of the other three upheavals as earthquakes, we must downsize our thinking. Then we realize that a gluttonous fool may make life unbearable for family and servants. For them, at least, it may feel as though their whole world is shaken, even if life for the next-door neighbors seems to go on quietly and placidly. The same holds true for domestic circles when a certain sort of woman becomes mistress of a household, and the disturber of its peace, as in both the third and fourth items of the tetrad.
Under four it cannot bear up: “Nasa” means to lift up; hence: the earth or land “cannot stand”, or “cannot carry on”.
- A servant who becomes king: “It is not fitting for a slave to rule over princes” (Prov 19:10). “I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves,” said the Preacher (Eccl 10:7). Later, in the aftermath of Jerusalem’s fall at the hands of the Babylonians, Jeremiah lamented that “slaves rule over us, and there is none to free us from their hands” (Lam 5:8).
When a servant — any lesser minister or official — is elevated to ruling status, then truly the earth (the land or habitable world) may seem upside down; in other words, there will be a social upheaval at the highest level. If this upstart is not accustomed to such power, he might become intoxicated in his new position. He might become a power-hungry dictator who delights in punishing his previous superiors or enemies, and in oppressing everyone else: an Adolph Hitler, a Joseph Stalin, or a Saddam Hussein. Bible examples include Haman (Esth 3:1), Jeroboam son of Nebat (1Kgs 11:26-28; 12:30), Zimri (1Kgs 16:9-20), and Hazael (2Kgs 8:12).
Of course, not every servant becomes intolerable when lifted up in status; some may prove wiser and more capable than those whom they replace. A prime example of this sort was Joseph (Gen 41:41); all his subsequent actions in ruling Egypt demonstrate how suitable he was for his elevated status.
- A fool who is full of food: “It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury” (Prov 19:10). A fool who becomes “full of food” describes someone who suddenly becomes rich. Perhaps a parent or some other relative dies, and he inherits a fortune. Perhaps some unexpected windfall confers wealth upon him. In his new situation, he may continue to be coarse and brutish, or profane and abusive, just as he had been before. But now he has more time on his hands, and perhaps more ability to make life miserable for those around him, or near him. This situation may cause a small earthquake, surely, compared to what a Hitler can produce on a national and international scale, but nevertheless intolerable for those close to the fool.
The word for “fool” here is “nabal”, which represents the worst kind of overbearing blasphemer (the same word is used in Psa 14:1; Prov 17:7, 21; 1Sam 25:25). The man Nabal seems to be the one who most exemplifies the qualities of a fool, and we note that it was at the very moment he was holding a feast, celebrating his good fortune, and eating and drinking to excess (1Sam 25:36), that his fate was sealed (vv 37,38). Thus it is easy to see the brutish Nabal as the pattern for Christ’s parable of the rich fool, who exulted in his wealth and laid plans for a long and prosperous future, not realizing that his life was about to be required of him (Luke 12:15-21).
- An unloved woman who is married: The Hebrew word “saneh” signifies hated (the KJV has “odious”; the JPS has “loathsome”), but may be given a lesser nuance, as in the NIV here. The Hebrew may bear the meanings of reject, disregard, treat with less respect, or simply to love less.
It could be that the husband, for some reason, finds his wife physically unattractive; possibly he is simply incapable of showing love to her. Feeling herself to be unloved, for whatever reason, the wife may imagine herself to be hated, as Leah did (see Gen 29:31, 33, where the same Hebrew word “saneh” occurs). This can make life intolerable for the unloved woman, who in turn can make life intolerable for her husband and others in the household. This situation might also describe the household of Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Penninah (1Sam 1).
The Law specifically instructs a man with two wives to treat the unloved (or “hated”: KJV) wife with the same respect as the other (Deut 21:15-17). Such a law, however, could only address the external aspects of the relationship. No law could compel one to feel love in the same way toward both, or to express the same love toward both in all their most personal interactions. No matter what is done, a woman would most likely know the difference between the pretense and the real thing.
- A maidservant who displaces her mistress: The fourth unbearable thing is the maid who dispossesses her mistress, or who is elevated above her. “Mistress” here is “gibboreth”, the feminine of “gibbor”, which means mighty one or lord; hence the “gibboreth” is the lady of the house, with authority over the servants.
After Hagar had conceived and knew she was pregnant, “she began to despise her mistress” (Gen 16:4). The resulting tension from the concubine Hagar’s threat to Sarah’s preeminence in the household of Abraham (Gen 16:5; 21:10) suggests how unbearable such a situation might become, for all concerned.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One