²⁷ Get your outside work done;
    make preparations in the field;
    then you can build your house.

³⁰ I happened upon the field of a lazy person,
    by the vineyard of one with no sense.
³¹ Thorns grew all over it;
    weeds covered the ground,
    and the stone wall was falling down.
³² I observed this and took it to heart;
    I saw it and learned a lesson.
³³ “A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little lying down with folded arms”—
³⁴     and poverty will come on you like a prowler,
    deprivation like a man with a shield.

¹³ Like the coolness of snow on a harvest day
    are reliable messengers to those who send them;
    they restore the life of their master.

¹³ A lazy person says, “There’s a lion in the path!
    A lion in the plazas!”
¹⁴ As a door turns on its hinge,
    so do lazy people in their beds.
¹⁵ Lazy people bury their hand into the bowl,
    too tired to return it to their mouth.
¹⁶ Lazy people think they are wiser
    than seven people who answer sensibly.

²³ Know your flock well;
    pay attention to your herds,

¹⁹ Those who work the land will have plenty to eat,
    but those with worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.

²⁴ Four things are among the smallest on earth,
    but they are extremely wise:
²⁵     Ants as creatures aren’t strong,
            but they store away their food in the summer.
²⁶     Badgers as creatures aren’t powerful,
            but they make their homes in the rocks.
²⁷     Locusts don’t have a king,
            but they march together in ranks.
²⁸     You can catch lizards in your hand,
            but they are in kings’ palaces.