Matthew Henry on Proverbs 6:6-11
Solomon, in these verses, addresses himself to the sluggard who loves his ease, lives in idleness, minds no business, sticks to nothing, brings nothing to pass, and in a particular manner is careless in the business of religion. Slothfulness is as sure a way to poverty, though not so short a way, as rash suretiship. He speaks here to the sluggard,
I. By way of instruction, Pro 6:6-8. He sends him to school, for sluggards must be schooled. He is to take him to school himself, for, if the scholar will take no pains, the master must take the more; the sluggard is not willing to come to school to him (dreaming scholars will never love wakeful teachers) and therefore he has found him out another…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 6:9
Their conduct graphically described;
John Gill on Proverbs 6:10
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,.... Or, "little sleeps, little slumbers" (s). These are the words of the sluggard, in answer to the call of him to awake and arise, desiring he might not be disturbed, but be suffered to sleep on longer: there is a very beautiful climax or gradation in the words, aptly expressing the disposition and actions of a sluggard; he first desires a "few sleeps" more, some sound sleeps one after another; which is quite agreeable to his character: and if he cannot be allowed them, then he requests a "few slumbers" at least, some dozings, till he can get himself thoroughly awake; and if these cannot be granted, yet he prays however that this might be admitted,
a l…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 6:9-11
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 trut…
