One of these (vv. 15, 16) has probably suffered a slight mutilation, which has been thus remedied by Bickell,—
The leech has two [three [[213]]] daughters,
they say continually, ‘Give, give:’
there are three things which are never satisfied,
four which never say, ‘Abundance.’
Sheól is never satisfied with dead,
and the closing of the womb is never satisfied with men,
the earth is never satisfied with water,
and fire never says, ‘Abundance.’[[214]]
‘Daughters of the leech’ is a quasi-mythical expression, which no one could misunderstand (comp. ‘upon a hill the son of oil,’ Isa. v. 1). We find a similar group of four insatiables in the Sanskrit Hitopadesa.[[215]]