The thought expressed in this saying is that laziness causes a person to give in to sleep even when he should be busy.

“Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep”: “Slothfulness” is “laziness.” “Casts into a deep sleep” is literally “causes a deep sleep to fall.” The verb related to the noun “sleep” here is used in 10.5 of the worthless son. In some languages “Slothfulness” is better expressed as “a lazy person”; one translation says, for example, “Lazy people are sound asleep all the time.”

“And an idle person will suffer hunger”: “An idle person” is literally “idle soul.” “Idle” translates the same word rendered “slack” in 10.4 and means lazy or lacking in ambition. “Will suffer hunger” means “will be hungry,” which comes about because he does not work. Revised English Bible translates the whole saying “Sloth leads to sleep and negligence to starvation.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “Laziness causes deep sleep and the lazy person will have to go hungry.”

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 .