Commenting on the above verse, John MacArthur said, “In an unusually graphic illustration, the writer of Proverbs described the true nature of self. The leech mentioned here, probably as a large and especially repulsive creature, has two forks in its tongue, with which it sucks blood from its victims. It is said that it would often gorge itself until it exploded. Spiritually, this leech is self-love and its two daughters are self-pity. It is never satisfied, and its insatiable appetite is the enemy of everything around it. It is even its own worst enemy, because self-love can never truly be satisfied.”

When we die to “self” and allow God’s love to dominate our lives, we find satisfaction in loving others instead of ourselves.