Opens the four small and wise, Proverbs 30:24–28.
Quick answer
The header, and the whole claim is in it. Four creatures with nothing going for them in size, and the verse calls them wise in the strongest form the language has.
Read the whole unit
Four small creatures, each of which has what it needs without having what you would expect it to need.
Read the whole unit
This is the one numerical saying in the chapter that does not count three and then four. The others build tension by naming a smaller number first; this one simply says four, and gets on with it. Whatever the reason, the effect is that nothing is being saved for the end. All four items are equal.
The claim is in the header. These are קְטַנֵּי־אָרֶץ, the small of the earth, and they are חֲכָמִים מְחֻכָּמִים, a doubled form the NKJV renders exceedingly wise. The saying is not arguing that small things can be useful. It is arguing that wisdom and power have nothing to do with each other, and it proves it four times: not strong, yet provisioned; feeble, yet secure; no king, yet ordered; small enough to catch in a hand, yet living in a palace.
Three of the four are built the same way, with a lack stated and then overturned. The fourth breaks the pattern and states no lack at all, which leaves the list ending on an image rather than an argument.
And the placement is doing something. The man making this list opened the chapter by saying he was more stupid than any man. He is not writing from above these creatures. He put himself on the list before he made it.
What this verse contributes
The thesis, and its unusual construction. This is the only counted saying in the chapter with no three-then-four build-up. It also uses a doubled form, חֲכָמִים מְחֻכָּמִים, which piles the word for wise on itself; exceedingly wise is the NKJV's way of carrying that.
The pairing of "little on the earth" with the book's highest word is the argument. Everything else Proverbs says about wisdom could be read as belonging to the well-placed: the son with a teaching father, the man with standing at the gate. Four verses about insects and rodents make that reading impossible.
Related: Proverbs 30:18 · Proverbs 30:29 · Proverbs 30:2–3
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.