Three and Four

The number three and four are often paired together in the Old Testament as an idiom for expressing excess.

The best examples of these are found in the book of Proverbs. Prov 30:18 expresses this most clearly: "There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden." The idea, in this saying, is that the first three things are by themselves incredible, the fourth is beyond comprehension. Similar exipressions of excess, of having gone beyond the limits of reasonable acceptance is evident in 30:15b-16 ("There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say,'Enough!' : the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says,Enough!'"), 30:21-23 ("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"), and 30:29-31 ("There are three things that are stately in their stride, four that move with stately bearing: a lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing; a strutting cock, a he-goat, and a king with his army around him").

Formulated differently but expressing the same idea of excess is the eight occurrencs of the expression in Amos's oracles, "For three transgression of [city's name], and for four, I will not turn back [its punishment]" (1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2:1, 4,& 6; NKJ). These intonations speaks of a God who waited for the city to repent of their repeated transgressions; instead they venture to new heights of rebellion that cannot turn back the divine hand of grace so that divine punishment becomes inevitable; they had exceeded the limit of divine tolerance.