The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
The righteous hates falsehood,
but the wicked brings shame and disgrace.
Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless,
but sin overthrows the wicked.
One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;
another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
The ransom of a man's life is his wealth,
but a poor man hears no threat.
The light of the righteous rejoices,
but the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
By insolence comes nothing but strife,
but with those who take advice is wisdom.
Wealth gained hastily will dwindle,
but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
Although the proverbs in these verses are disconnected and stand by themselves for the most part, it is possible to see an underlying connection in the progress of thought. It is interesting, for example, to see the association of ideas between the sluggard in 4 and the diligent man in 11. The general contrast between the righteous and the wicked has many related ideas, and we are invited to see the link between laziness, wickedness, poverty and shame on the one hand, and righteousness, diligence and prosperity on the other. Kidner has a valuable word-study on 'the sluggard', who appears frequently in Proverbs: 'The sluggard is a figure of tragi-comedy, with his sheer animal laziness (26:14), his preposterous excuses (26:13, 22:13) and his final helplessness. He will not begin things. When we ask him (6:9, 10). 'How long....?' 'When...?', we are being too definite for him. He doesn't know. All he knows is his delicious drowsiness; all he asks is a little respite: 'a little...a little...a little'. He does not commit himself to a refusal, but deceives himself by the smallness of his surrenders. So, by inches and minutes, his opportunity slips away. He will not finish things. The rare effort of beginning has been too much; the impulse dies. So his quarry goes bad on him (12:27) and his meal goes cold on him (19:24, 26:15). He will not face things. He comes to believe his own excuses (22:13), and to rationalise his laziness; for he is 'wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason' (26:16). Because he makes a habit of the soft choice (20:4), his character suffers as much as his business, so that he is implied in 15:19 to be fundamentally dishonest. Consequently he is restless (13:4, 21:25, 26) with unsatisfied desire, helpless in face of the tangle of his affairs, which are like a 'hedge of thorns' (15:19); and useless - expensively (18:9) and exasperatingly (10:26) - to any who must employ him.' Do we see a little - and perhaps more than a little - of ourselves in this devastating exposure?