15 Laziness brings on deep sleep,
    and the shiftless go hungry.(A)

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

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24 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
    he will not even bring it back to his mouth!(A)

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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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Sluggards(A) do not plow in season;
    so at harvest time they look but find nothing.(B)

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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 will grow poor;(A)
    stay awake and you will have food to spare.

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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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The plans of the diligent lead to profit(A)
    as surely as haste leads to poverty.

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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 The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him,(A)
    because his hands refuse to work.

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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 past the field of a sluggard,(A)
    past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
31 thorns had come up everywhere,
    the ground was covered with weeds,
    and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed
    and learned a lesson from what I saw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest(B)
34 and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.(C)

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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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13 A sluggard says,(A) “There’s a lion in the road,
    a fierce lion roaming the streets!”(B)
14 As a door turns on its hinges,
    so a sluggard turns on his bed.(C)
15 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
    he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.(D)
16 A sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
    than seven people who answer discreetly.

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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 Those who work their land will have abundant food,
    but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.(A)

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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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