Do not love sleep, or you will grow poor; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of food.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.
- KJV Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
- NKJV Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with bread.
- NASB Do not love sleep, or you will become poor; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.
- NLT If you love sleep, you will end in poverty. Keep your eyes open, and there will be plenty to eat!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Loving sleep leads to poverty, but diligence brings provision. It matters as a call to industriousness rather than laziness.
Overview
This is a classic wisdom contrast between the sluggard and the diligent worker (Proverbs 6:9-11). Excessive sleep symbolizes a slothful life that ends in want, while alert labor is rewarded with bread. The principle commends faithful stewardship of time and energy as part of a godly, ordered life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Rom 12:11Do not let your zeal subside; keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
- Prov 19:15Laziness brings on deep sleep, and an idle soul will suffer hunger.
- Prov 10:4Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
- Prov 12:11The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies lacks judgment.
- Rom 13:11And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
- Jonah 1:6The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
- 2 Th 3:10For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat.”
- Prov 13:4The slacker craves yet has nothing, but the soul of the diligent is fully satisfied.
- Eph 5:14So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Prov 6:9–11How long will you lie there, O slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?
- Prov 24:30–34I went past the field of a slacker and by the vineyard of a man lacking judgment.
- 1 Cor 15:34Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 20:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.