Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.
- BSB Do not love sleep, or you will grow poor; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of food.
- 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 12:11Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
- Prov 19:15Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.
- Prov 10:4He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
- Prov 12:11He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
- Rom 13:11And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
- Jonah 1:6So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
- 2 Th 3:10For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
- Prov 13:4The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
- Eph 5:14Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
- Prov 6:9–11How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
- Prov 24:30–34I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
- 1 Cor 15:34Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak 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.