This is another saying about what will happen to a person who is lazy and refuses to work. The verse is a single sentence.

“The desire of the sluggard kills him”: The “desire” of the “sluggard” or lazy person may be a craving for food; “craving” is the rendering of New International Version and New Jewish Publication Society Version. This desire “kills him” in the sense that he is not able to earn the money to pay for what he eats. Another way of taking this is that “the lazy person dies of hunger.” In a broader sense the “desire” may be for all sorts of things, as reflected in Contemporary English Version “want too much.” A different interpretation of “desire” is that what the lazy person desires is sleep or just doing nothing, and this kills him because then he can’t afford to eat, as explained in the next line.

“Because his hands refuse to work”: “Because” introduces this line as the explanation for what is stated in the previous line. There is a figure of speech in this line, since it is people who refuse to work, not their hands. Good News Translation adjusts this line to say “. . . who refuse to work.”

The verse is restructured in Contemporary English Version to say “If you want too much and are too lazy to work, it could be fatal.” This may be a useful model for translators in some other languages.

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 .