---
title: Proverbs 30:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/proverbs-30-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/proverbs-30-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Proverbs 30:4
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Proverbs 30:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son— surely you know!

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Who has ascended to heaven and then descended? Who has gathered the wind in the palms of both hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and the name of his son—if you know?"

## JW Usage

The Watchtower acknowledges Proverbs 30:4's parallel question ("What is his name and the name of his son?") but treats the Son reference as poetic anticipation of the Messianic figure rather than as an Old Testament glimpse of the eternal Son. The verse is rarely emphasised because its plain sense — that Jehovah and his Son are both named in a context of unique divine prerogative — is uncomfortable for the Arian reading of Christ's identity.

## Protestant Usage

Proverbs 30:4 is one of the Old Testament's most striking Trinitarian hints. The series of rhetorical questions ("Who has ascended to heaven and then descended? Who has gathered the wind in the palms of both hands?") is structured to identify Jehovah as the only possible answer. Then the closer twist: "What is his name and the name of his son — if you know?" The Son is named alongside the Father in a context of divine prerogative. Pair Proverbs 30:4 with John 3:13 ("no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man") — Jesus answers Proverbs 30:4 by claiming the unique ascent-and-descent the verse asks about. The "Son" Proverbs 30 names is the eternal Son who shares the Father's prerogatives, not a future Messianic agent merely instrumental in creation.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Visible, Bodily, Every Eye — The Return Acts 1:11 Promised](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/visible-bodily-return-acts1.md) — Acts 1:11 / Revelation 1:7 / 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 [Eschatology]