Amsal 24:30

24:30 I passed by the field of a sluggard,

by the vineyard of one who lacks wisdom. ¹ 

Amsal 10:4

10:4 The one who is lazy ²  becomes poor, ³ 

but the one who works diligently ⁴  becomes wealthy. ⁵ 

Amsal 10:26

10:26 Like vinegar to the teeth and like smoke to the eyes, ⁶ 

so is the sluggard to those ⁷  who send him.

Amsal 13:4

13:4 The appetite ⁸  of the sluggard ⁹  craves ¹⁰  but gets nothing,

but the desire of the diligent will be abundantly satisfied. ¹¹ 

Amsal 15:19

15:19 The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, ¹² 

but the path of the upright is like ¹³  a highway. ¹⁴ 

Amsal 19:24

19:24 The sluggard plunges ¹⁵  his hand in the dish,

and he will not even bring it back to his mouth! ¹⁶ 

Amsal 6:9

6:9 How long, you sluggard, will you lie there?

When will you rise from your sleep? ¹⁷ 

Amsal 26:15-16

26:15 The sluggard plunges ¹⁸  his hand in the dish;

he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. ¹⁹ 

26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own estimation ²⁰ 

than seven people who respond with good sense. ²¹ 

Amsal 22:13

22:13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion ²²  outside!

I will be killed in the middle of the streets!” ²³ 

Amsal 20:4

20:4 The sluggard will not plow ²⁴  during the planting season, ²⁵ 

so at harvest time he looks ²⁶  for the crop ²⁷  but has nothing.

[24:30]  ¹ tn Heb “lacks heart”; KJV “understanding”; NAB, NASB, NLT “sense.”

[10:4]  ² tn Heb “a palm of slackness.” The genitive noun רְמִיָּה (remiyyah, “slackness”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a slack palm” (BDB 941 s.v.). The term כַף (khaf, “palm”) is a synecdoche of part (= palm) for the whole person (= one who works with his hands). The hand is emphasized because it is the instrument of physical labor. The “slack hand” is contrasted with the “diligent hand.” A slack hand refers to a lazy worker or careless work that such hands produce. See N. C. Habel, “Wisdom, Wealth, and Poverty Paradigms in the Book of Proverbs,” BiBh 14 (1988): 28-49.

[10:4]  ³ tc The MT reads רָאשׁ (ra’sh, “poor”) which is the plene spelling of רָשׁ (rash, “poor [person]”; HALOT 1229-30 s.v. רֵישׁ). Both Tg. Prov 10:4 and LXX reflect an alternate vocalization רִישׁ (rish, “poverty”) which is from the same root, and essentially means the same thing.

[10:4]  tn Heb “causes poverty.” The expression is literally, “the palm of slackness causes poverty.”

[10:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “but the hand of the diligent” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV). The genitive noun חָרוּצִים (kharutsim, “diligence”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a diligent hand.” The noun חָרוּצִים (kharutsim) uses the plural form because the plural is often used for abstract moral qualities. The term יָד (yad, “hand”) is a synecdoche of part (= “hand”) for the whole person (= “the one who works with his hands”). The hand is emphasized because it is the instrument of physical labor.

[10:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “makes rich” (so NASB, NRSV). The Hiphil verb is used in a causative sense; literally, “the hand of the diligent makes rich.”

[10:26]  ⁶ sn Two similes are used to portray the aggravation in sending a lazy person to accomplish a task. Vinegar to the teeth is an unpleasant, irritating experience; and smoke to the eyes is an unpleasant experience that hinders progress.

[10:26]  ⁷ tn The participle is plural, and so probably should be taken in a distributive sense: “to each one who sends him.”

[13:4]  ⁸ tn The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) has a broad range of meanings, and here denotes “appetite” (e.g., Ps 17:9; Prov 23:3; Eccl 2:24; Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5; BDB 660 s.v. 5.c) or (2) “desire” (e.g., Deut 12:20; Prov 19:8; 21:10; BDB 660 s.v. 6.a).

[13:4]  ⁹ sn The contrast is between the “soul (= appetite) of the sluggard” (נַפְשׁוֹ עָצֵל, nafsho ’atsel) and the “soul (= desire) of the diligent” (נֶפֶשׁ חָרֻצִים, nefesh kharutsim) – what they each long for.

[13:4]  ¹⁰ tn The Hitpael verb means “to lust after; to crave.” A related verb is used in the Decalogue’s prohibition against coveting (Exod 20:17; Deut 5:21).

[13:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will be made fat” (cf. KJV, NASB); NRSV “is richly supplied.”

[15:19]  ¹² tn Heb “like an overgrowth”; NRSV “overgrown with thorns”; cf. CEV “like walking in a thorn patch.” The point of the simile is that the path of life taken by the lazy person has many obstacles that are painful – it is like trying to break through a hedge of thorns. The LXX has “strewn with thorns.”

[15:19]  ¹³ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[15:19]  ¹⁴ sn The contrast to the “thorny way” is the highway, the Hebrew word signifying a well built-up road (סָלַל, salal, “to heap up”). The upright have no reason to swerve, duck, or detour, but may expect “clear sailing.” Other passages pair these two concepts, e.g., Prov 6:10; 10:26; 28:19.

[19:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “buries” (so many English versions); KJV “hideth”; NAB “loses.”

[19:24]  ¹⁶ sn This humorous portrayal is an exaggeration; but the point is that laziness can overcome hunger. It would have a wider application for anyone who would start a project and then lack the interest or energy to finish it (R. N. Whybray, Proverbs [CBC], 111). Ibn Ezra proposes that the dish was empty, because the sluggard was too lazy to provide for himself.

[6:9]  ¹⁷ sn The use of the two rhetorical questions is designed to rebuke the lazy person in a forceful manner. The sluggard is spending too much time sleeping.

[26:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “buries” (so many English versions); KJV “hideth”; NAB “loses.”

[26:15]  ¹⁹ sn The proverb is stating that the sluggard is too lazy to eat; this is essentially the same point made in 19:24 (see the note there).

[26:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in his eyes.” The lazy person thinks that he has life all figured out and has chosen the wise course of action – but he is simply lazy. J. H. Greenstone says, for example, “Much anti-intellectualism may be traced to such rationalization for laziness” (Proverbs, 269).

[26:16]  ²¹ tn The term means “taste; judgment.” The related verb means “to taste; to perceive,” that is, “to examine by tasting,” or examine by experiencing (e.g., Ps 34:9). Here the idea is expressed with the participle in construct, “those returners [of] good sense,” those who answer tastefully, with discretion. Cf. NIV “who (+ can NRSV) answer discreetly.”

[22:13]  ²² sn The proverb humorously describes the sluggard as making ridiculous excuses for not working – he might be eaten by a lion (e.g., 26:13). It is possible that “lion” is figurative, intended to represent someone who is like a lion, but this detracts from the humor of the exaggeration.

[22:13]  ²³ tc The LXX changes the phrase to read “murderers in the street” to form a better parallelism, possibly because the verb רָצַח (ratsakh) is used only of humans, not wild animals. The NIV attempts to solve the problem by making the second line a separate claim by the sluggard: “or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’”

[20:4]  ²⁴ sn The act of plowing is put for the whole process of planting a crop.

[20:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in the autumn”; ASV “by reason of the winter.” The noun means “autumn, harvest time.” The right time for planting was after the harvest and the rainy season of autumn and winter began.

[20:4]  ²⁶ tn The Piel of the verb שָׁאַל (sha’al, “to ask”) means “to beg” or “to inquire carefully.” At the harvest time he looks for produce but there is none. The Piel might suggest, however, that because he did not plant, or did not do it at the right time, he is reduced to begging and will have nothing (cf. KJV, ASV; NASB “he begs during the harvest”).

[20:4]  ²⁷ tn The phrase “for the crop” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.