The grammatical structure of this verse in Greek is balanced, but the meaning is not. A fairly literal translation would be “for the sleepers sleep at night, and the drunkards get drunk at night.” Paul is not interested here in distinguishing those who sleep and get drunk from those who do not, but in mentioning two of the activities associated with night. Good News Translation effectively focuses attention upon the factor of time by introducing both the sleeping and the drunkenness with the phrase it is at night. Other languages may use “at night people sleep; at night they get drunk,” or “people sleep at night and get drunk at night.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .