²⁷ Prepare your work in the street and get it ready for yourself in the field;
    afterward, then^[a] you shall build your house.

³⁰ I passed by the field of a lazy person,
    and over the vineyard of a person lacking sense;^[a]
31 and behold, it was overgrown—all of it was covered with thorns, its surface with nettles,
    and its stone wall^[b] was broken down.
³² Then I myself saw and my heart^[c] considered;
    I looked, and I took hold of instruction:
³³ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands for rest,
³⁴ and your poverty will come running,
    and your lack like an armed warrior.

² The glory of God^[a] conceals things,
    but the glory of kings searches out things.

¹³ Like the cold of snow on a day^[a] of harvest
    is a faithful messenger to those who send him,
    and the soul^[b] of his master is refreshed.^[c]

¹³ A lazy person says “A lion is in the road!
    A lion among the streets!”
¹⁴ The door turns on its hinge,
    and a lazy person on his bed.
¹⁵ A lazy person buries his hands in the dish;
    he is too tired to return it to his mouth.
¹⁶ A lazy person is wiser in his eyes
    than seven who answer discreetly.

²³ You will surely know the condition^[a] of your flock;
    your heart^[b] attends to the herds.

¹⁹ He who tills his ground will have plenty bread,
    but he who follows fantasies will have plenty of poverty.

²⁴ There are four small things on the earth,
    and they are exceedingly wise:^[a]
25 The ants are a people who are not strong,
    yet they prepare their food in the summer;
²⁶ the badgers are a people who are not mighty,
    yet they set their house on the rock;
²⁷ there is no king for the locust,
    yet it marches in rank;
²⁸ a lizard you can seize with hands,
    yet it is in palaces of kings.