Proverbs 6:10-11

6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to relax, ¹ 

6:11 and your poverty will come like a robber, ² 

and your need like an armed man. ³ 

Psalms 132:4

132:4 I will not allow my eyes to sleep,

or my eyelids to slumber,

Ecclesiastes 9:10

9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands, ⁴ 

do it with all your might,

because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, ⁵ 

the place where you will eventually go. ⁶ 

Matthew 24:17-18

24:17 The one on the roof ⁷  must not come down ⁸  to take anything out of his house, 24:18 and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.

Mark 13:35-36

13:35 Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return – whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn – 13:36 or else he might find you asleep when he returns suddenly.

¹ sn The writer might in this verse be imitating the words of the sluggard who just wants to take “a little nap.” The use is ironic, for by indulging in this little rest the lazy one comes to ruin.

² tn Heb “like a wayfarer” or “like a traveler” (cf. KJV). The LXX has “swiftness like a traveler.” It has also been interpreted as a “highwayman” (cf. NAB) or a “dangerous assailant.” W. McKane suggests “vagrant” (Proverbs [OTL], 324); cf. NASB “vagabond.” Someone traveling swiftly would likely be a robber.

³ tn The Hebrew word for “armed” is probably connected to the word for “shield” and “deliver” (s.v. גָּנַן). G. R. Driver connects it to the Arabic word for “bold; insolent,” interpreting its use here as referring to a beggar or an insolent man (“Studies in the Vocabulary of the Old Testament, IV,” JTS 33 [1933]: 38-47).

⁴ tn Heb “Whatever your hand finds to do.”

⁵ tn Heb “Sheol.”

⁶ tn Or “where you are about to go.”

⁷ sn On the roof. Most of the roofs in the NT were flat roofs made of pounded dirt, sometimes mixed with lime or stones, supported by heavy wooden beams. They generally had an easy means of access, either a sturdy wooden ladder or stone stairway, sometimes on the outside of the house.

⁸ sn The swiftness and devastation of the judgment will require a swift escape. There will be no time to come down from the roof and pick up anything from inside one’s home.