Amsal 18:9

18:9 The one who ¹  is slack ²  in his work

is a brother ³  to one who destroys. ⁴ 

Amsal 31:27

31:27 She watches over ⁵  the ways of her household,

and does not eat the bread of idleness. ⁶ 

Amsal 12:27

12:27 The lazy person does not roast ⁷  his prey,

but personal possessions ⁸  are precious to the diligent.

[18:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Also, the one who.” Many commentators and a number of English versions omit the word “also.”

[18:9]  ² tn The form מִתְרַפֶּה (mitrappeh) is the Hitpael participle, “showing oneself slack.” The verb means “to sink; to relax,” and in the causative stem “to let drop” the hands. This is the lazy person who does not even try to work.

[18:9]  ³ sn These two troubling types, the slacker and the destroyer, are closely related.

[18:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “possessor of destruction.” This idiom means “destroyer” (so ASV); KJV “a great waster”; NRSV “a vandal.”

[31:27]  ⁵ tn The first word of the eighteenth line begins with צ (tsade), the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:27]  ⁶ sn The expression bread of idleness refers to food that is gained through idleness, perhaps given or provided for her. In the description of the passage one could conclude that this woman did not have to do everything she did; and this line affirms that even though she is well off, she will eat the bread of her industrious activity.

[12:27]  ⁷ tc The MT reads יַחֲרֹךְ (yakharokh) from II חָרַךְ (kharakh, “to roast”?). On the other hand, several versions (LXX, Syriac, Vulgate) reflect a Hebrew Vorlage of יַדְרִיךְ (yadrikh) from דָרַךְ (darakh, “to gain”), meaning: “a lazy person cannot catch his prey” (suggested by Gemser; cf. NAB). The MT is the more difficult reading, being a hapax legomenon, and therefore should be retained; the versions are trying to make sense out of a rare expression.

[12:27]  tn The verb II חָרַךְ (kharakh) is a hapax legomenon, appearing in the OT only here. BDB suggests that it means “to start; to set in motion” (BDB 355 s.v.). The related Aramaic and Syriac verb means “to scorch; to parch,” and the related Arabic verb means “to roast; to scorch by burning”; so it may mean “to roast; to fry” (HALOT 353 s.v. I חרך). The lazy person can’t be bothered cooking what he has hunted. The Midrash sees an allusion to Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25. M. Dahood translates it: “the languid man will roast no game for himself, but the diligent will come on the wealth of the steppe” (“The Hapax harak in Proverbs 12:27,” Bib 63 [1982]: 60-62). This hyperbole means that the lazy person does not complete a project.

[12:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “the wealth of a man.”