“A slack hand causes poverty”: “Slack” renders an adjective meaning “idle,” “lazy,” or “negligent” in this context. “Hand” is literally “palm,” in which a part of the hand poetically represents the entire hand, and, in fact, the person the hand belongs to. “Causes” is the Revised Standard Version rendering of the Hebrew participle ʿoseh, (“making”, “working”, or “doing”). The Hebrew for this line is literally “poverty making an idle palm.” In the life of a small farmer, “poverty” is looked upon as the result of failing to do the work required to obtain a minimum of life’s provisions. Good News Translation replaces “A slack hand” with the more general “Being lazy . . . poor.” Some translations say more directly “If you are lazy. . ..” We may follow this, but if we do, we should remember that it does away with the image of the hand which occurs in both lines.

“But the hand of the diligent makes rich”: “Hand” in this line is the literal word for hand. “Diligent” renders a word meaning “industrious” or “hard working”; the sense of the first part of the line is “if you work hard. . ..” “Makes rich” contrasts with “poverty” or being poor in the first line. Whybray takes “makes rich” to mean not the acquisition of wealth but “sufficient prosperity to confer an economic security. . ..” However, “rich” is a relative concept, and hard work results in riches compared with the poverty brought on by laziness.

The thought of this saying is: “Laziness results in poverty, but hard work enriches.”

In some languages the first line is expressed, for example, “To sit on the hands. . .,” “The person who folds his hands. . .,” or “Idle hands do not feed. . ..” The second line is sometimes expressed, for example, “But hands that work make large gardens,” “But busy hands bring profit,” or “But working hands feed many mouths.” Translators may find that this kind of saying is best expressed directly; for example, “If you have lazy hands. . ..”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .