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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 6:9 - 6:9
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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. עָצֵל 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 מְעַט 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. חִבּוּק, complicatio (cf. in Livy, compressis quod aiunt manibus sidere; and Lucan, 2:292, compressas tenuisse manus), for formed like שִׁקּוּי, Pro 3:8, and the inf. שְׁכַב like חֲסַר, Pro 10:21, and שְׁפַל, 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 מְהַלֵּךְ 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; הֵלֶךְ signifies, 2Sa 12:4, the traveller, and מְהַלֵּךְ is one who rides quickly forward, not directly a κακὸς ὁδοιπόρος (lxx).
Pro 6:11
The point of comparison, 11a, is the unforeseen, as in quick march or assault (Böttcher), and 11b the hostile and irretrievable surprise; for a man in armour, as Hitzig remarks, brings no good in his armour: he assails the opponent, and he who is without defence yields to him without the possibility of withstanding him. The lxx translate כאישׁ מגן by ὥσπερ ἀγαθὸς δρομεύς (cf. δρομεύς = מני־ארג, Job 7:6, lxx, Aq.), for what reason we know not. After Pro 6:11 they interpose two other lines: “but if thou art assiduous, thy harvest will come to thee as a fountain, but want will go away ὥσπερ κακὸς δρομεύς.” Also this “bad runner” we must let go; for Lagarde's retranslation, ומחסרך כְחָשׁ בְּאִישׁ נָמֹג, no one can understand. The four lines, Pro 6:10, Pro 6:11 are repeated in the appendix of Words of the Wise, Pro 24:33.; and if this appendix originated in the time of Hezekiah, they may have been taken therefrom by the poet, the editor of the older Book of Proverbs. Instead of כִמְהַלֵּךְ, מִתְהַלֵךְ is there used (so comes forward thy poverty, i.e., again and again, but certainly moving forward); and instead of מחסרך, מחסריך is written, as also here, Pro 6:6, for משׁנתֶך is found the variant משׁנתֶיך with Jod as mater lectionis of the pausal Segol.