This saying contrasts the person who likes to sleep all the time (see also 6.9-11) with the person who gets up to work and provides for his needs.

“Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty”: To “love sleep” means to sleep a lot, or “sleep all the time” (Contemporary English Version). “Lest you . . .” means “so that you will not. . .”; New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and others say “Do not love sleep or you will. . ..” Another way to express this line is “If you are a person who sleeps all the time, you will become poor” (see Good News Translation). The meaning of the Hebrew word translated “come to poverty” is “be dispossessed” or perhaps “lose your inheritance” (Scott); the intended sense seems to be that lazy people lose what they have or what they could have and hence “become poor.”

“Open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread”: The two parts of this line are the contrasts or opposites of the two parts of the previous line. “Open your eyes” contrasts with “Love . . . sleep”, so it probably means “stay awake” (New International Version) or “keep awake” (Revised English Bible). In the light of the rest of the line, however, and in contrast to the inactivity of sleep, we may also understand the expression to refer to being active; so Contemporary English Version has “get up and work” and Good News Translation “keep busy.” Since “bread” was the staple or common food for people in Israel in Bible times, this reference is to “plenty of food” or “plenty to eat” (Good News Translation, Scott). The form of this line in Hebrew is two imperatives, “Open your eyes, be fully satisfied with bread”; but clearly the second is the consequence of the first. Most English versions follow the “and” construction of Revised Standard Version; but another good option for translators is the conditional “If you get up and work, you will have enough food” (Contemporary English Version).

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 .