⁹ But you—all you do is sleep. When will you wake up?

²⁶ A lazy fellow is a pain to his employers—like smoke in their eyes or vinegar that sets the teeth on edge.

¹⁹ A lazy fellow has trouble all through life; the good man’s path is easy!

²⁴ Some men are so lazy they won’t even feed themselves!

⁴ If you won’t plow in the cold, you won’t eat at the harvest.

^25-26 The lazy man longs for many things, but his hands refuse to work. He is greedy to get, while the godly love to give!

¹³ The lazy man is full of excuses. “I can’t go to work!” he says. “If I go outside, I might meet a lion in the street and be killed!”

^30-31 I walked by the field of a certain lazy fellow and saw that it was overgrown with thorns; it was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. ^32-33 Then, as I looked, I learned this lesson:

¹³ The lazy man won’t go out and work. “There might be a lion outside!” he says. ¹⁴ He sticks to his bed like a door to its hinges! ¹⁵ He is too tired even to lift his food from his dish to his mouth! ¹⁶ Yet in his own opinion he is smarter than seven wise men.