Proverbs 15:19

15:19 The way of the sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, ¹ 

but the path of the upright is like ²  a highway. ³ 

Proverbs 26:13-16

26:13 The sluggard ⁴  says, “There is a lion in the road!

A lion in the streets!” ⁵ 

26:14 Like ⁶  a door that turns on its hinges, ⁷ 

so a sluggard turns ⁸  on his bed.

26:15 The sluggard plunges ⁹  his hand in the dish;

he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. ¹⁰ 

26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own estimation ¹¹ 

than seven people who respond with good sense. ¹² 

Numbers 13:32-33

13:32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging ¹³  report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through ¹⁴  to investigate is a land that devours ¹⁵  its inhabitants. ¹⁶  All the people we saw there ¹⁷  are of great stature. 13:33 We even saw the Nephilim ¹⁸  there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves ¹⁹  and to them.” ²⁰ 

[15:19]  ¹ tn Heb “like an overgrowth”; NRSV “overgrown with thorns”; cf. CEV “like walking in a thorn patch.” The point of the simile is that the path of life taken by the lazy person has many obstacles that are painful – it is like trying to break through a hedge of thorns. The LXX has “strewn with thorns.”

[15:19]  ² tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[15:19]  ³ sn The contrast to the “thorny way” is the highway, the Hebrew word signifying a well built-up road (סָלַל, salal, “to heap up”). The upright have no reason to swerve, duck, or detour, but may expect “clear sailing.” Other passages pair these two concepts, e.g., Prov 6:10; 10:26; 28:19.

[26:13]  ⁴ sn The Book of Fools covered vv. 1-12. This marks the beginning of what may be called the Book of Sluggards (vv. 13-16).

[26:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the broad plazas”; NAB, NASB “in the square.” This proverb makes the same point as 22:13, namely, that the sluggard uses absurd excuses to get out of work. D. Kidner notes that in this situation the sluggard has probably convinced himself that he is a realist and not a lazy person (Proverbs [TOTC], 163).

[26:14]  ⁶ tn The comparative “like” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied from context in the translation.

[26:14]  ⁷ sn The sluggard is too lazy to get out of bed – although he would probably rationalize this by saying that he is not at his best in the morning. The humor of the verse is based on an analogy with a door – it moves back and forth on its hinges but goes nowhere. Like the door to the wall, the sluggard is “hinged” to his bed (e.g., Prov 6:9-10; 24:33).

[26:14]  ⁸ tn The term “turns” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation from the parallelism.

[26:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “buries” (so many English versions); KJV “hideth”; NAB “loses.”

[26:15]  ¹⁰ sn The proverb is stating that the sluggard is too lazy to eat; this is essentially the same point made in 19:24 (see the note there).

[26:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in his eyes.” The lazy person thinks that he has life all figured out and has chosen the wise course of action – but he is simply lazy. J. H. Greenstone says, for example, “Much anti-intellectualism may be traced to such rationalization for laziness” (Proverbs, 269).

[26:16]  ¹² tn The term means “taste; judgment.” The related verb means “to taste; to perceive,” that is, “to examine by tasting,” or examine by experiencing (e.g., Ps 34:9). Here the idea is expressed with the participle in construct, “those returners [of] good sense,” those who answer tastefully, with discretion. Cf. NIV “who (+ can NRSV) answer discreetly.”

[13:32]  ¹³ tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.

[13:32]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “which we passed over in it”; the pronoun on the preposition serves as a resumptive pronoun for the relative, and need not be translated literally.

[13:32]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is the feminine singular participle from אָכַל (’akhal); it modifies the land as a “devouring land,” a bold figure for the difficulty of living in the place.

[13:32]  ¹⁶ sn The expression has been interpreted in a number of ways by commentators, such as that the land was infertile, that the Canaanites were cannibals, that it was a land filled with warlike dissensions, or that it denotes a land geared for battle. It may be that they intended the land to seem infertile and insecure.

[13:32]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in its midst.”

[13:33]  ¹⁸ tc The Greek version uses gigantes (“giants”) to translate “the Nephilim,” but it does not retain the clause “the sons of Anak are from the Nephilim.”

[13:33]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in our eyes.”

[13:33]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in their eyes.”