Verses 13-16 deal with the sluggard or lazy person.

“The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!””: For a variant of this line see 22.13a. For “sluggard” see 6.6. The word rendered “lion” in line 1 is a poetic form, while that in line 2 is a more common word. If the “lion” is not known, another fierce animal of prey may be used. The lazy person uses the imaginary threat of the lion outside to avoid going out of his house; he remains inside and does nothing.

““There is a lion in the streets!””: In languages that do not distinguish between “road” and “street”, it may be necessary to say in this line, for example, “There is a lion outside.” Bible en français courant translates the whole saying “The person who is too lazy to go out says, ‘There is a lion in the road, a beast in the middle of the street.'” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “In order not to work, the lazy person pretends there is a lion lying in wait.”

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 .