Proverbs 27:20

Proverbs 27:20, in plain English

Just like the grave and destruction are never satisfied—they always want more—human eyes and desires are never satisfied. We're always wanting one more thing.

Why it's here

You watch people get what they thought they wanted, and immediately they're chasing something else. The craving never stops. Just like death takes everyone who comes to it and wants more, human greed and ambition never reach a stopping point where someone says, 'That's enough. I'm satisfied.'

Who's speaking

A wisdom teacher observing the insatiable nature of human wanting.

Where it sits in the story

This connects to the book of Ecclesiastes, which explores the emptiness of endless striving and wanting more. It points to a core biblical truth: satisfaction comes not from having more, but from being content with what you have and finding your security in God, not in accumulation. This is why Jesus teaches about generosity and warns against loving money.

The scholarly reading

Both the grave and destruction are never satisfied with what they receive, and human desire similarly knows no ultimate contentment—appetite itself is insatiable.

Language and setting

The parallelism of שְׁאוֹל (sheol—the grave, underworld) and אֲבַדּוֹן (abaddon—destruction, ruin) presents two forces that consume endlessly without satisfaction. The human eye (עֵין, ayin)—metonymically representing human desire and ambition—operates according to the same principle: it always wants more. This verse introduces a philosophical anthropology: human nature itself tends toward endless grasping. The economic context of ancient Israel, with its cycles of feast and famine, scarcity and surplus, would have made this observation painfully relevant. The verse connects appetite (physical, material, social) to fundamental human condition, not individual moral failure, yet implies that recognizing this tendency is the first step toward wisdom.

Voice

The wisdom teacher, articulating a fundamental observation about human nature and its relationship to desire.

Significance

This principle appears throughout Scripture—Ecclesiastes' repeated meditation on vanity and the hunger that accumulation cannot satisfy, Jesus' warnings about greed and false security in possessions, Paul's observation that those who desire to be rich fall into temptation. It suggests that wisdom involves recognizing this structural feature of human desire and living accordingly, with deliberate limits and gratitude rather than endless reaching.

18Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored.

19As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the true man.

20Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

21A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but a man is tested by the praise accorded him.

22Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.

Read all of Proverbs 27 — As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. Faithful wounds from a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy.