18:9
In this proverb, the first line is the topic of a metaphor. The second line is the image.
9a Whoever is slothful in his work
9b is brother to him who destroys.
18:9a–b
Whoever is slothful in his work is brother to him who destroys: This metaphor compares a lazy person to a person who destroys things. It does this by calling them “brothers” in a figurative sense. Two brothers are related to each other. Similarly, a lazy person and a destructive person resemble each other in certain ways. Some ways that they are similar are:
(a) Both are harmful to society.
(b) Both ruin their own livelihood by their behavior.
In some languages, a literal translation of this metaphor may be difficult to understand. It may or may not be possible to use a kinship term such as brother. Some other ways to translate the metaphor are:
• Change the metaphor to a simile. For example:
A person who doesn’t work hard is just like someone who destroys things. (New Century Version)
• Change the metaphor to a simile and make one or more of the similarities explicit. For example:
A lazy person is as bad as someone who is destructive. (Good News Translation)
18:9a
Whoever is slothful in his work: This phrase refers to a person who is lazy or careless or neglectful of his work. The word work is a general term that can refer to manual labor or to running a business. Some other ways to translate this phrase are:
The lazy worker (Revised English Bible)
-or-
Whoever is idle at work (New Jerusalem Bible)
18:9b
him who destroys: This phrase refers to someone who is habitually destructive. Several English versions translate it with the word “vandal.” This word refers primarily to someone who destroys property. It is recommended that you use a general term that can refer to destruction of various kinds. For example:
someone who destroys things (New Century Version)
General Comment on 18:9a–b
In some languages, it may be more natural to reorder some of the phrases in this comparison. For example:
A person who fails to do his work and a person who destroys things are like siblings.
See also 18:9a–b (combined/reordered) in the Display.
© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.