Proverbs 18:9

Pro 18:9 He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.

Ver. 9. He also that is slothful in his work.] As he must needs be that goes peddling about with tales, and buzzing evil reports into the ears of those that will hear them. See 1Ti 5:3, with the note there. Lata negligentia dolus est, saith the civilian.

Is brother to him that is a great waster.] Est frater Domini disperditionis, will as certainly come to poverty as the greatest waster of good. A man dies no less surely, though not so suddenly, of a consumption than of an apoplexy.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro_18:9

He also that is slothful in his work.

Indolence

Indolence is a stream which flows slowly on, but yet undermines the foundation of every virtue. It were as little hazard to be tossed in a storm as to lie thus perpetually becalmed; nor is it to any purpose to have within one the seeds of a thousand good qualities, if we want the vigour and resolution necessary for the exerting them. That the necessity of labour ought to be regarded as a punishment is a mean and sordid notion, invented by the effeminate, the lazy, and the vicious. On the contrary, if God had prohibited labour, such prohibition might justly have been deemed a token of His displeasure, since inaction is a kind of lethargy, equally pernicious to the mind and body. An effeminate Sybarite, we are told, thanked the gods very heartily that he had never seen the sun rise in his life. Can there be a more striking emblem of a narrow and unenlightened mind?--of a wicked and unprofitable servant?

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Pro_18:9. Waster, or destroyer.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_18:9

TWIN-BROTHERS

I. Slothfulness and prodigality have the same origin. As brothers are the children of a common parent, so sloth and waste have their root in the common sin of ungodliness; men are spendthrifts or they are lazy, because they have no right sense of their obligations to God and to man—because they do not look upon their life as a stewardship for which they must give an account (Rom_14:12), but as a gift which they are at liberty to spend as they please. The acts of the prodigal and the slothful man differ in themselves, but they all spring from that spirit of self-pleasing which is the essence of ungodliness.

II. The slothful man is a waster of God’s most precious gifts. Twin-brothers are often so much alike that it is difficult for onlookers to distinguish one from the other. And there is an aspect in which we may view the slothful man in which we not only note the close resemblance he bears to his prodigal brother, but in which he is transformed into a prodigal himself. For the negative sinner—the man who does nothing—is a waster of his time and of his talents, and is therefore guilty of a positive crime. The man who “hid the Lord’s talent” was visited with a stern sentence as a positive transgressor (Mat_25:25). If we convict a man of prodigality for wasting gold, what shall we say of him who wastes what no gold can buy? “Time,” says J. A. James, “is the most precious thing in the world. When God gives us a moment, He does not promise us another, as if to teach us highly to value and improve it, by the consideration, for aught we know, it may be the last. Time, when gone, never returns. We talk about ‘fetching up’ a lost hour, but the thing is impossible. A moment once lost, is lost for ever. We could as rationally set out to find a sound that had expired in air, as to find a lost moment.” And when we reflect what infinite results depend upon what a man does with his time, we can see the force of the proverb, because the slothful man is a waster of the most precious commodity in this world.

III. The results of both extravagance and sloth are the same. It makes no difference in the end whether a man gets nothing, or spends all that he gets, he can come to poverty by either road. The one has been compared to a man who dies by a rapid and violent disease, and the other by a slow and subtle consumption. But the grave, sooner or later, receives them both.

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

The practical lesson is, that in personal and domestic interests, diligence and economy should go together, and that the one without the other never can avail for either obtaining or securing even the comforts of life. Of what use is industry if its proceeds are not prudently managed when they come in?—if husband, or wife, or both, be destitute of discretion, improvident and thriftless? if there is the absence of all sober and considerate calculation, and, as a consequence, no due proportioning of outlay to income, but a reckless and wasteful expenditure, leaving an unlooked-for deficiency—a woful amount minus—at the year’s end? The poor inconsiderate fools never think what they are about. They keep no daily reckoning—no accounts; and so their money is gone, they can’t tell how—they had no idea they were living at such a rate!—and even when they have made the discovery there is no improvement. They say, possibly, they must take care; but they only say it, and immediately forget it. Things go on as before; and still (to use rather a colloquial, but sufficiently expressive phrase), what is taken in by the door is thrown out by the window; and still the wonder continues how it goes! They are ever marvelling how other folks do. They can’t understand it. For their parts, all that comes in finds its way off from them as fast as it comes, and many a time faster! Thus, as might be expected, there are the same appearances of bareness, and cheerlessness, and want, in the dwelling of the thriftless as in that of the slothful. Extremes thus meet.… Diligence, let me remind you, is as necessary for the acquisition of spiritual as of temporal good—of the riches of Divine knowledge to the mind, as of the blessings of the Divine life to the heart. And not less is economy of means. How often may it be seen, that with means of a very limited and stinted amount, there is more of spiritual prosperity in one instance, than is discoverable in another, with means the most varied and abundant. Many believers, it is to be feared, are spiritual spendthrifts. They use their privileges on no principle of economy. They read, they hear, they frequent ordinances—and yet their progress in spiritual attainments bears no proportion to the extent of their advantages. Rich in privileges, they are poor in the graces and enjoyments of the life of God in the soul. Why? The answer is plain. They who thrive on slender means, make the most of what they have; whereas they who live in the midst of abundance get into habits of carelessness, and of the prodigal use of what they have.—Wardlaw.

The word also here used may seem to refer this verse to that which goeth before it; and then it is a further description of a talebearer. For he is commonly a fellow slothful in his work, being busy in his words, and he is indeed brother to him that is a great waster, spoiling his own estate by his slothfulness, and by the mischief which his talebearing falleth upon him; and spoiling him to whom he talketh by the ill mind which he putteth into him.—Jermin.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Note, 1. Prodigality is very bad husbandry. Those are not only justly branded as fools among men, but will give an uncomfortable account to God of the talents they are entrusted with, who are wasters of their estates, who live above what they have, spend and give more than they can afford, and so, in effect, throw away what they have, and suffer it to run to waste. 2. Idleness is no better. He that is remiss in his work, whose hands hang down (so the word signifies), that stands, as we may, with his thumbs in his mouth, that neglects his business, does it not at all, or as if he did it not, he is own brother to him that is a prodigal, that is, he is as much a fool and in as sure and ready a way to poverty; one scatters what he has, the other lets it run through his fingers. The observation is too true in the affairs of religion; he that is trifling and careless in praying and hearing is brother to him that does not pray or hear at all; and omissions of duty and in duty are as fatal to the soul as commissions of sin.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

One by failing to get, the other by wasting wealth, grows poor.

waster--literally, "master of washing," a prodigal.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. He also that is slothful] A slothful man neglects his work, and the materials go to ruin: the waster, he destroys the materials. They are both destroyers.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) He also that is slothful in his work.—Whatsoever it may be that is committed to his care, is “brother to him that is a great waster,” or “destroyer “; neglect of duty causes almost as much mischief in life as active wickedness.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. a great waster] Lit. a master of laying waste, or destroying; a destroyer, R.V. Comp. for a similar sentiment, “He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad,” Mat_12:30.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He also that is slothful in his work,.... Remiss in it; hangs down his hands, and does not care to make use of them, but neglects his business:

is brother to him that is a great waster: a prodigal man, who spends his substance in riotous living: the sluggard and the prodigal are brethren in iniquity; for, though they take different courses, they are both sinful, and issue in the same manner; both bring to poverty and want. Or, "brother to a master that wastes" (p); a slothful servant and a wasteful master are near akin, and come into the same class and circumstances. Jarchi interprets it,

"he that separateth from the law, though a disciple of a wise man, is a brother to Satan;''

whose name is Apollyon, the waster and destroyer. A man that is slothful in spiritual things, though a professor of religion, and has a place in the house of God, is brother to him that is a waster and persecutor of it; see Mat 12:30.

(p) "domino devaststionis", Gejerus; "domino dissipanti", Mercerus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Brother. Like him, as both end in poverty, chap. x. 4., and xii. 11.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

They are alike; though they take several paths, yet both come to one end, even to extreme want and poverty.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. He… is brother — Both courses lead to the same end, poverty; the one does not make what he ought, and the other destroys what is made.

Great waster — Literally, master of destruction; destroyer. Comp. Pro_28:24.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He also that is slothful (slack) in his work. A man that does his work in some sort, but not heartily and diligently, as one who knows that labour is not only a duty and necessity, but a means of sanctification, a training for a higher life. Is brother to him that is a great waster; a destroyer. "Brother" is used as "companion" in Pro_28:24, (comp. Job_30:29) for one of like attributes and tendencies; as we say, "next door to;" and the destroyer is, as Nowack says, not merely one who wastes his property by reckless expenditure, but one who delights in such destruction, finds a morbid pleasure in haves and ruin. So the maxim asserts that remissness in duty is as mischievous as actual destructiveness. "An idle brain," say the Italians, "is the devil"s workshop." The word rendered "great" is baal, (Pro_1:19) "owner," patrono (Montanus), domino (Vatablus); and, taking this sense, according to Wordsworth and others, the sentence implies that the servant who is slothful is brother to a master who is a prodigal. But the interpretation given above is best founded. The LXX, reading aprtm instead of, hprtm, renders, "He who healeth not (o mh iwmenov ) himself in his works is brother to him who destroyeth himself." Maxims concerning laziness are found in other places; e.g. Pro_10:4 Pro_12:11, 24 23:21.

Needless destitution.

This strong utterance suggests

I THE PREVALENCE OF DESTITUTION. How much of human life is needlessly low! how many men live low down in the scale who might just as well be living high up it! how sadly do men bereave themselves of good! This applies to:

1. Their circumstances: their daily surroundings; the homes in which they live, their food and raiment, the occupations in which they are engaged; their companionships, etc.

2. Their intelligence: their intellectual activity, their knowledge, their acquaintance with their own complex nature and with the world in which they live, their familiarity with (or their ignorance of) men and things.

3. Their moral and spiritual condition: their capacity or incapacity to control their temper, to govern their spirit, to regulate their life, to form honourable and elevating habits, to worship God, to set their lives in accordance with the will and after the example of Christ.

II THE TWO MAIN SOURCES OF IT. These are those which are indicated in the text.

1. The absence of energy in action; being "slothful or, "slack," Revised Version in work." Men who fail in their department, of whatever kind it may be, are usually those who do not throw any heart, any earnestness, any continuous vigour, into their work. They do what is before them perfunctorily, carelessly, or spasmodically. Hence they make no profits, they earn low wages, they have poor crops, they gain few customers or patients, they win no success; hence they read few instructive books, they make no elevating and informing friendships, they acquire no new ideas, they store up no new facts, they make no mental progress; hence they do not cultivate their moral and spiritual nature, they do not "build themselves up" on the foundation of truth; they are adding no stones to the living temple; they do not grow in wisdom, or in worth, or in grace. The other source is:

2. The presence of prodigality. He that is slothful in work is "brother to him that is a great waster." What sad wastefulness is on every hand! what dissipation of gathered treasure! what expenditure of means and of strength on that which does not profit! For these are the two forms of waste.

(1) Allowing to depart that which it would be wise to hold in hand money, goods, friends, supporters, resources.

(2) Expending power on that which does not profit; letting our time, our strength, our mental forces, our moral energies, be employed upon those things which yield no return, or no adequate and proportionate return. Were men to spend their money on profitable and fruit bearing labour, their brains on enlightening and enlarging study, their spiritual energies on intelligent worship or redeeming work, instead of wasting them as now they do, how would the desert become a fruitful field, in every sphere! But we must not overlook the fact that there is

III A SOLID REMAINDER, NOT THUS ACCOUNTED FOR. Although sloth and waste together explain a very large part indeed of the destitution on the earth, they leave much still to be accounted for. And of this remainder part is due to simple and pure misfortune or incapacity, and part to the guilt of others who are not the sufferers. All this destitution is the proper field for Christian effort. It is the proper object of our genuine compassion, and of our strenuous endeavour toward removal. But to those who are culpably destitute we have to go and say Your way upward is before you; you must exert yourselves if you would rise. No one can really enrich a human soul but himself.

1. Bring a sustained energy to bear on the work in which you are engaged.

2. Guard with a wise watchfulness what you have won.

3. Put out your powers upon that which is worthy of them and that which will repay them. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Is brother - Though they take several paths, yet both come to one end.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

9 He also who showeth himself slothful in his business,

Is a brother to him who proceedeth to destroy.

The Hithpa. התרפּה signifies here, as at Pro 24:10, to show oneself slack, lazy, negligent. מלאכה is properly a commission for another, as a king has a messenger, ambassador, commissioner to execute it; here, any business, whether an undertaking in commission from another, or a matter one engages in for himself. He who shows himself slack therein, produces in his way, viz., by negligence, destruction, as truly as the בּעל משׁחית, who does it directly by his conduct. Thus one is named, who is called, or who has his own delight in it, to destroy or overthrow. Jerome, incorrectly limiting: sua opera dissipantis. Hitzig well compares Mat 12:30. In the variation, Pro 28:24, the destroyer is called אישׁ משׁחית, the connection of the words being adject.; on the contrary, the connection of בעל משׁחית is genit. (cf. Pro 22:24; Pro 23:2, etc.), for משׁחית as frequently means that which destroys = destruction. Von Hofmann (Schriftbew. ii. 2, 403) understands 'אישׁ מ of the street robber, 'בעל מ of the captain of robbers; but the designation for the latter must be 'שׂר מ, though at Kg1 11:24 he is called by the name שׂר גּדוּד. The form of the word in the proverb here is more original than at 38:24. There חבר [companion] is used, here אח [brother], a general Semitic name of him who, or of that which, is in any way related to another, cf. Job 30:29. Fleischer compares the Arab. proverb: âlshbht âkht alkhṭyât, scepticism is the sister of sin.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Observe the affinity of the different principles and workings of corruption. The sluggard and the prodigal belong to the same family. The man who "hid the Lord’s talent," was equally unfaithful with him who "wasted his goods." (Mat 25:25 . Luk 16:1 .) The slothful has no heart for his work. Important opportunities slip by. His stock, instead of increasing by trade, gradually dwindles into penury. ’God hath a bountiful "hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness." (Psa 145:16 . P.T.) But unless we have a diligent hand, wherewith to receive it, we may starve. He that by the sloth of his hand disfurnisheth himself of the means of getting, he is as near of kin to a waster as may be.’†1 He is the brother of a great waster — the lord of a large estate, who, instead of husbanding, improving, and enjoying it, wastes it away in extravagance and folly.

It is the same in religion. The one is content with heartless orthodoxy. His secret prayer brings no after remembrance. His family worship is a routine of formality, not the influential ordinance of the day. "Communing with his heart" is mere barren generality, bringing no accurate and humbling knowledge of himself. And wherein does he differ from the careless waster of his privileges? Where is the important distinction between him who prays, reads, and works formally, and him, who utterly casts these high privileges away? Both take the same course, though by a somewhat different track. The one folds his arms in sloth. The other opens his hands in wastefulness. The one gets nothing. The other spends what he gets. The one rushes into beggary. The other sits still, and waits its arrival. (Pro 6:11 .) The one dies by a rapid and violent disease. The other by a slow, subtle, but sure, consumption. Thus fearful is the guilt, solemn is the account, certain is the ruin, of both. God gives talents, not only to enrich, but to employ. And whether they be selfishly neglected, or carelessly thrown away — "Thou wicked servant" will be the condemnation; "outer darkness" will be the just and eternal doom. (Mat 25:26-30 .) Servant of Christ! let thy Master’s life be thy pattern and thy standard. Not a moment with him was slothfully neglected; not a moment unprofitably wasted. Equally fervent was he in daily work, as in nightly prayer. Follow him in his work, and thou wilt be honoured with His reward. (Joh 12:26 .)

Footnotes:

†1 Bishop Sanderson’s Sermon on 1Co 7:24 .

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

v. 9. He also that is slothful in his work, who does not apply himself to it with all diligence, is brother to him that is a great waster, a squanderer; the two are closely related, since in either case possessions are lost.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

one who is slack in his work is a brother to the one who destroys

This speaks of the one who is slack being similar to the one who destroys as if they were actually related. AT: "is closely related to" or "is very similar to" (See: Metaphor)

is slack

"is lazy" or "is not interested"

the one who destroys the most

"the one who destroys everything" or "the one who is always destructive"

The name of Yahweh is a strong tower

This speaks of Yahweh protecting his people as if he were a strong tower in which they could take refuge. AT: "Yahweh protects like a strong tower" or "Yahweh protects his people like a strong tower" (See: Metaphor)

The name of Yahweh

Here Yahweh is referred to by his name. AT: "Yahweh" (See: Metonymy)

the righteous

This refers to righteous people. AT: "those who are righteous" or "righteous people" (See: Nominal Adjectives)

runs into it and is safe

This speaks of people seeking safety from Yahweh and Yahweh protecting them as if he were a strong tower that they ran into for safety. AT: "run to him and they are safe" or "seek him and they are safe" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

name

Yahweh

watchtower

save

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Even one who is slack in his work If he is a Torah scholar who separated himself from the Torah.

to the destroyer To Satan.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.