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15 Laziness puts one to sleep,
    and an idle person will go hungry.

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24 The lazy person buries his hand in his dish
    and doesn’t bother to bring it back to his mouth.

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A lazy person doesn’t plow in the proper[a] season;
    he looks for a harvest, but there is nothing.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 20:4 The Heb. lacks proper

13 Do not love sleep or you’ll become poor,
    keep your eyes open and you’ll have plenty of food.

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Plans of the persistent surely lead to productivity,
    but all who are hasty will surely become poor.

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25 What the lazy person craves will kill him,
    because his hands refuse to work.

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30 I went by the field belonging to a lazy man,
    by a vineyard belonging to a senseless person.
31 There it was, overgrown with thistles,
    the ground covered with thorns,
        its stone wall collapsed.
32 As I observed, I thought about it;
    I watched, and learned a lesson:
33 “A little sleep! A little slumber!
    A little folding of my hands to rest!”
34 Then your poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    your need like an armed bandit.

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On Laziness

13 The lazy person claims, “There is a lion in the road!
    There’s a lion in the streets!”
14 The door turns on its hinges—
    as does the lazy person on his bed.
15 The lazy person buries his hand in the dish,
    but he’s too tired to bring it to his mouth again.
16 The lazy person is wiser in his own opinion
    than seven men who can give an appropriate response.

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19 Whoever works his farmland will have abundant food,
    but whoever chases fantasies will become very poor.

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