Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 18:9
He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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?
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They are alike; though they take several paths, yet both come to one end, even to extreme want and poverty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. One by failing to get, theother by wasting wealth, grows poor.
wasterliterally,”master of washing,” a prodigal.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 Mt 12:30.
p “domino devaststionis”, Gejerus; “domino dissipanti”, Mercerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
9 He also who showeth himself slothful in his business,
Is a brother to him who proceedeth to destroy.
The Hithpa. signifies here, as at Pro 24:10, to show oneself slack, lazy, negligent. 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 , 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 , the connection of the words being adject.; on the contrary, the connection of is genit. (cf. Pro 22:24; Pro 23:2, etc.), for as frequently means that which destroys = destruction. Von Hofmann ( Schriftbew. ii. 2, 403) understands ‘ of the street robber, ‘ of the captain of robbers; but the designation for the latter must be ‘ , though at 1Ki 11:24 he is called by the name . The form of the word in the proverb here is more original than at 38:24. There [companion] is used, here [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: alshbht akht alkhtyat , scepticism is the sister of sin.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
9 He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.
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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Slipshod Work
Verse 9 affirms that the slipshod worker is as deserving of blame as the deliberate destroyer. A bolt not tightened or electrical connection not made secure, etc., may be as wasteful or dangerous as planned destruction, Pro 28:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
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 manbecause 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 Gods 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 sinnerthe man who does nothingis a waster of his time and of his talents, and is therefore guilty of a positive crime. The man who hid the Lords 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 deficiencya woful amount minusat the years end? The poor inconsiderate fools never think what they are about. They keep no daily reckoningno accounts; and so their money is gone, they cant tell howthey 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 cant 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 goodof 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 ordinancesand 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.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 9. He also that is slothful in his work,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a great waster = a master of destruction: i.e. an absolute destroyer.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 18:9
Pro 18:9
“He also that is slack in his work Is brother to him that is a destroyer.”
“One by failing to get and the other by wasting what he has are brothers in that both their actions lead to poverty.
Pro 18:9. The slacker (one who doesnt work) doesnt produce, and the destroyer destroys what has been produced. The results are the same: there is nothing to show for ones time and efforts, Therefore, they are said to be brothers. Some who dont take care of what they have, or who are spendthrifts, sometimes look down upon and criticize the person who has no ambition and produces nothing. But this saying relates the two groups.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
that is slothful: Pro 10:4, Pro 23:20, Pro 23:21, Pro 24:30-34, Mat 25:26, Rom 12:11, Heb 6:12
is brother: Pro 28:24, Job 30:29, Luk 15:13, Luk 15:14, Luk 16:1, Luk 16:2
Reciprocal: Gen 49:5 – Simeon Psa 112:5 – he will Pro 6:6 – thou Mat 25:18 – and hid Luk 16:3 – I cannot Joh 6:12 – that nothing