Proverbs 30:11

A SERIES OF TETRADS

(A tetrad is a wise saying with four lines or four elements.)

1

"There is a generation that curse their father, and bless not their mother.

There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes,

And yet are not washed from their filthiness.

There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.

There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw-teeth as knives,

To devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men."

"In all of these sequences of three things, yea, four, it is the climactic fourth that is emphasized."[14] This was a commonly accepted teaching device among the Jews. The first two chapters of Amos are an example of this method. Harris noted that Jesus also utilized the same device, as for example, in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount,[15] where one finds two tetrads (Matthew 5:3-6; and Matthew 5:7-10). The evil character of the generation described here strongly resembles that which is described in the prophecy of Amos.