Sprüche 6:9

After the poet has admonished the sluggard to take the ant as an example, he seeks also to rouse him out of his sleepiness and indolence: 9 How long, O sluggard, wilt thou lie? When wilt thou rise up from thy sleep? 10 "A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest!" 11 So comes like a strong robber thy poverty, And thy want as an armed man. Pro 6:9-10 The awakening cry, Pro 6:9, is not of the kind that Paul could have it in his mind, Eph 5:14. עצל has, as the vocative, Pasek after it, and is, on account of the Pasek, in correct editions accentuated not with Munach, but Mercha. The words, Pro 6:10, are not an ironical call (sleep only yet a little while, but in truth a long while), but per mimesin the reply of the sluggard with which he turns away the unwelcome disturber. The plurals with מעט sound like self-delusion: yet a little, but a sufficient! To fold the hands, i.e., to cross them over the breast, or put them into the bosom, denotes also, Ecc 4:5, the idler. חבּוּק, complicatio (cf. in Livy, compressis quod aiunt manibus sidere; and Lucan, 2:292, compressas tenuisse manus), for formed like שׁקּוּי, Pro 3:8, and the inf. שׁכב like חסר, Pro 10:21, and שׁפל, Pro 16:19. The perf. consec. connects itself with the words heard from the mouth of the sluggard, which are as a hypothetical antecedent thereto: if thou so sayest, and always again sayest, then this is the consequence, that suddenly and inevitably poverty and want come upon thee. That מהלּך denotes the grassator, i.e., vagabond (Arab. dawwar, one who wanders much about), or the robber or foe (like the Arab. 'aduww, properly transgressor finium), is not justified by the usage of the language; הלך signifies, Sa2 12:4, the traveller, and מהלּך is one who rides quickly forward, not directl…

In this chapter we have, I. A caution against rash suretiship (Pro 6:1-5). II. A rebuke to slothfulness (Pro 6:6-11). III. The character and fate of a malicious mischievous man (Pro 6:12-15). IV. An account of seven things which God hates (Pro 6:16-19). V. An exhortation to make the word of God familiar to us (Pro 6:20-23). VI. A repeated warning of the pernicious consequences of the sin of whoredom (Pro 6:24-35). We are here dissuaded from sin very much by arguments borrowed from our secular interests, for it is not only represented as damning in the other world, but as impoverishing in this.