Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 22:13
The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
13. slain ] or, more in accordance with the usual meaning of the Heb. word, murdered, R.V. The sluggard then offers two absurd excuses for not going forth to his business. ‘Without,’ he says, beyond the city walls, in the open country, ‘there is a lion,’ ready to tear me in pieces (comp. Jer 5:6); even into ‘the streets’ I dare not venture, lest there some ruffian should ‘murder’ me.”
When, however, the proverb recurs (Pro 26:13), it is the lion that is the professed object of dread within the city:
The sluggard saith, There is a lion in the way,
A lion is in the streets.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The point of the satire is the ingenuity with which the slothful man devises the most improbable alarms. He hears that there is a lion without, i. e., in the broad open country; he is afraid of being slain in the very streets of the city.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 22:13
The slothful man saith, There is a lion without.
One lion; two lions; no lion at all
This slothful man seems to cherish that one dread of his about the lions as if it were his favourite aversion and he felt it to be too much trouble to invent another excuse. Perhaps he hugs it to his soul all the more because it is home-born fear, conjured up by his own imagination. At any rate, it serves him as a passable excuse for laziness, and that is what he wants. When a man is slothful as a servant he is unjust to his employers; and when he is in business on his own account, idleness is usually a wrong to his wife and family. When a man is thoroughly eaten up with the dry-rot of laziness he generally finds some kind of excuse, though his crime is really inexcusable. We have many spiritual sluggards, and it is to them that I speak. They are not sceptics, or confirmed infidels, or opposers of the gospel: perhaps their sluggish nature saves them from anything like energetic opposition to goodness.
1. The sluggards tongue is not slothful. The man who is lazy all over is generally busy with his tongue. There are no people that have so much to say as those that have little to do.
2. His imagination also is not idle. There were no lions in the streets. Laziness is a great lion-maker. He who does little dreams much. His imagination could create a whole menagerie of wild beasts.
3. He takes great pains to escape from pains. This slothful man had to use his inventive ability to get himself excused from doing his duty. It is an old proverb that lazy people generally take the most trouble, and so they do and when men are unwilling to come to Christ, it is very wonderful what trouble they will take to keep away from Him.
I. A lion. The man means that there is a great difficulty–a terrible difficulty, quite too much of a difficulty for him to overcome. He has not the strength to attack this dreadful enemy; the terrible difficulty which he foresees is more than he can face. The real lion after all is sluggishness itself, aversion to the things of God.
II. Two lions. In the second text there are two lions instead of one (chap. 26:13). He has waited because of that one lion, and now he fancies that there are two. He has made a bad bargain of his delay. It was inconvenient then because there was a lion. Is it more convenient now? Procrastination never profits; difficulties are doubled, dangers thicken.
III. No lion at all. If there be a man who would have Christ, there is no lion in the way to prevent his having Christ. There are a thousand difficulties, says one. If thou desirest Christ truly, there is no effectual difficulty that can really block thee from coming to Him. There are no lions except in your own imagination. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The characteristics of laziness
To Solomon laziness was one of the greatest evils in the character of man. How frequently does he depict it with graphic force! How often does he denounce it with firm energy! Idleness, says Colton, is the grand pacific ocean of life, and in that stagnant abyss, the most salutary things produce no good, the most obnoxious no evil. Vice, indeed, abstractedly considered, may be, and often is, engendered in idleness; but the moment it becomes sufficiently vice, it must quit its cradle, and cease to be idle. Two of the evils connected with indolence are suggested in the text.
I. It creates false excuses. There is a lion without. The lion in the streets is a fiction of his own lazy brain. The slothful man is ever acting thus–
1. In the secular sphere. Is he a farmer? He neglects the cultivation of his fields, because the weather is too cold or too hot, too cloudy, too dry or too wet. Is he a tradesman? He finds imaginary excuses in the condition of the market. Commodities are too high or too low. Is he an artizan? He finds difficulties in the place, the tools, or the materials. The industrious farmer finds no difficulties in the weather.
2. In the spiritual sphere. When the unregenerate man is urged to the renunciation of his own principles and habits, and the adoption of new spirit and methods, slothfulness urges him to make imaginary excuses. Sometimes he pleads the decrees of God, sometimes the greatness of his sins, sometimes the inconvenience of the season–too soon or too late.
II. It creates unmanly excuses, The very excuse he pleads, though imaginary, if true would be a strong reason for immediate action. A lion in the streets! Why, if he had a spark of manhood in him, a bit of the stuff that makes heroes, he should rouse every power. There is no heroism in the heart of indolence. To true souls difficulties are a challenge, not a check to action. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. The slothful man saith, There is a lion without] But why does he say so? Because he is a slothful man. Remove his slothfulness, and these imaginary difficulties and dangers will be no more. He will not go abroad to work in the fields, because he thinks there is a lion in the way; he will not go out into the town for employment, as he fears to be assassinated in the streets! From both these circumstances he seeks total cessation from activity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Saith, allegeth as his excuse to them who upbraid him with idleness, or persuade him to diligence,
There is a lion without; there are extreme dangers and invincible difficulties in my way.
I shall be slain, by that lion, or some other way.
In the streets; which is added to show the ridiculousness of his excuse; for lions abide in the woods or fields, not in the streets of towns or cities.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Frivolous excuses satisfythe indolent man’s conscience.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The slothful [man] saith, [there is] a lion without,…. Or, “in the street”. This he says within himself; or to those who call out to him, and put him on doing the business of his proper calling, whether in the field or elsewhere, which, through his slothfulness, he has a disinclination to; and therefore frames excuses, and suggests this and that difficulty or danger in the way, expressed by a “lion without”; and which shows the folly and weakness of his excuses, since lions do not usually walk in cities, towns, and villages, and in the streets of them, but in woods and mountains;
I shall be slain in the streets; by the lion there; or I shall never be able to get over the difficulties, and through the dangers, which attending to business will expose me to. Some apply this to the difficulties that slothful persons imagine in the learning of languages, arts, and sciences; as Jarchi applies it to the learning of the law.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13 The sluggard saith, “A lion is without,
I shall be slain in the midst of the streets.”
Otherwise rendered, Pro 26:13. There, as here, the perf. has the meaning of an abstract present, Gesen. 126. 3. The activity of the industrious has its nearest sphere at home; but here a work is supposed which requires him to go forth (Psa 104:3) into the field (Pro 24:27). Therefore stands first, a word of wide signification, which here denotes the open country outside the city, where the sluggard fears to meet a lion, as in the streets, i.e., the rows of houses forming them, to meet a ( ), i.e., a murder from motives of robbery of revenge. This strong word, properly to destroy, crush, Arab. radkh , is intentionally chosen: there is designed to be set forth the ridiculous hyperbolical pretence which the sluggard seeks for his slothfulness (Fleischer). Luther right well: “I might be murdered on the streets.” But there is intentionally the absence of [perhaps] and of [lest]. Meri here quotes a passage of the moralists: (prophesying) belongs to the evidences of the sluggard; and Euchel, the proverb (the sluggard’s prophecy), i.e., the sluggard acts like a prophet, that he may palliate his slothfulness.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
13 The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Note, 1. Those that have no love for their business will never want excuses to shake it off. Multitudes are ruined, both for soul and body, by their slothfulness, and yet still they have something or other to say for themselves, so ingenious are men in putting a cheat upon their own souls. And who, I pray, will be the gainer at last, when the pretences will be all rejected as vain and frivolous? 2. Many frighten themselves from real duties by imaginary difficulties: The slothful man has work to do without in the fields, but he fancies there is a lion there; nay, he pretends he dares not go along the streets for fear somebody or other should meet him and kill him. He does not himself think so; he only says so to those that call him up. He talks of a lion without, but considers not his real danger from the devil, that roaring lion, which is in bed with him, and from his own slothfulness, which kills him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Sluggard’s Excuse
Verse 13-See comment on Pro 26:13-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro. 22:13
AN ACTIVE IMAGINATION
I. Inactivity of will may cause a too great activity of the imagination. Man is made for action, and if he refuses to employ his powers in doing some useful and real work, it is probable that he will put forth some morbid effort in another direction. If his limbs are not at work, his mind will probably be active, and if he does not occupy it with objects which are worthy, it will be filled with thoughts that are sinful, and imaginations that are false. It will be especially apt to invent excuses for sloth, by magnifying the difficulties which stand in the way of effort. Every obstacle will be magnified into an insurmountable hindrance, and little risks will be looked at through a medium which will make them look like dangers to be avoided at any sacrifice of duty. The wish is often father to the thought, and the slothful man welcomes and nurses the deception which is born of his own indolence. And the sluggard is an easy prey also to the suggestions of the tempter, who will not be slow to do what he can to inflame the imagination and distort the judgment.
II. The sluggard rightly apprehends danger, but mistakes the source whence it will come. There is a devouring enemy which will slay him if he do not take care, but it is not without him, but within him. He has a foe who endangers his life, but that foe is his own sloth; or, as we saw on chap. Pro. 21:25, his own unsatisfied desire. While his eyes are turned on the highway, and he is seeking to avoid the lion which he fancies is there, he is nursing in his bosom the indolence which will be his ruin. He has more to fear from himself than from the most terrible manslayer that ever crossed the path of any human being. But it is with him as with slaves to other forms of sinhe is ready to lay the blame of his disobedience to Gods commands anywhere, rather than upon his own unwillingness to comply with them.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Saith, really a preterite. These proverbs have usually the future. The future is a present continuing forward. Here we have a present tracing itself backward. The impenitent have always been saying the same thing. Age has not changed. Men have stuck to it for near a century. There is a lion at the mercy-seat. So that the minister quits answering the sluggards cavils, and tells each man plainlyThese cries are symptomatic. There is no lion in the case. And a heart that will shape these phantoms would shape others, if these were laid. The difficulty is sloth. In truth, there is a lion, but it is a bad heart, crouching against itself, and lurking to destroy the poor unwary sinner.Miller.
This is a very odd excuse for his laziness. Lions are seldom found in the fields in the day time, and it is a very extraordinary thing if they be found in the streets. Does the sluggard himself believe there is any truth in it? If he does, why does he sleep in his house, since it is possible that it may be set on fire by some accident in the night? Why does he ever take a meal, for some have been choked by the bread which they put into their mouths? When we are employed in the duties of our calling, we need not vex ourselves with the apprehension of lions. I will give mine angels charge over thee, says God, and they shall keep thee in all thy ways. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet. But let the sluggard remember that there is a lion in that bed where he dozes away his time, and in that chamber where he sits folding his arms together. The devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and he rejoices greatly when he lights upon a sluggard, for he looks upon him to be a sure prey. We are safe from the lions in the way of duty, and never safe when we avoid it. Lions, when they met David feeding his sheep, were torn in pieces by him like kids. A lion unexpectedly came upon that young man of the sons of prophets, who declined his duty when he was commanded to smite his neighbour, and rent him in pieces.Lawson.
Here is no talk of Satan, that roaring lion that lies couchant in the sluggards bed with him, and prompts him to these senseless excuses. Nor yet of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who will one day send out summonses for sleepers, and tearing the very caul of their hearts asunder send them packing to their place in hell. But to hell never came any as yet that had not some pretence for their coming hither. The flesh never wants excuses, and needs not to be taught to tell her own tale. Sin and shifting came into the world together; and as there is no wool so coarse but will take some colour, so no sin so gross but admits of a defence. Sin and Satan are alike in this, they cannot abide to appear in their own likeness.Trapp.
The tongue is seldom slothful, even in the slothful man himself. That will bestir itself to find excuses, and to plead pretences for the defence of sloth. That will be diligent to allege reasons that the sluggard may be negligent. If the lion had been within, if the courage and nobleness of the lion had been in the sluggards heart, he would never have talked of a lion without. No, it was the cold snail that was within; and unless the slothful mans house may be removed with him, he will not stir to go out of it. Thus he that feareth to be slain, without cause, delighteth to be slain by his own laziness.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(13) The slothful man saith, There is a lion without . . .No excuses are too absurd for him, he fears to meet a lion in the open country, or, he might be murdered in the streets.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. There is a lion without The plain meaning of this is, that an indolent man will make all manner of excuses for not doing his duty; will raise difficulties out of his own fancy when there are none, and render himself ridiculous by his absurd apprehensions.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 13. The slothful man saith,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 22:13 The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Ver. 13. The slothful man saith, There is a lion, &c. ] ‘The lion is not so fierce as is painted,’ saith the Spanish proverb; much less this sluggard’s lion, a mere fiction of his own brain to cover and colour over his idleness. He pretends two lions for failing; first, Leo est foris, There is a lion abroad, or in the field, where his work lies, Psa 104:23 and another in the streets; – a likely matter; lions haunt not in streets, but in woods and wildernesses. Here is no talk of Satan, “that roaring lion,” that lies couchant in the sluggard’s bed with him, and prompts him to these senseless excuses. Nor yet of the “lion of the tribe of Judah,” who will one day send out summons for sleepers, and tearing the very caul of their hearts in sunder, send them packing to their place in hell. Mat 10:28 But to hell never came any yet that had not some pretence for their coming thither. The flesh never wants excuses. Corrupt nature needs not be taught to tell her own tale. Sin and shifting came into the world together; and as there is no wool so coarse but will take some colour: so no sin so gross but admits of a defence. Sin and Satan are alike in this, they cannot abide to appear in their own likeness. Some deal with their souls as others deal with their bodies; when their beauty is decayed, they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses, and from others by painting; so their sins from themselves by false glosses, and from others by idle excuses.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
streets = open places.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 22:13
Pro 22:13
“The sluggard saith, There is a lion in the way; I shall be slain in the streets.”
“The lazy will claim that there is a lion in the way to keep from going to work. They will use any excuse, no matter how unlikely or unbelievable, to keep from carrying their share of the load.
Illustration: This writer and his wife once aided an able-bodied bum by getting him a job; much to our surprise he turned it down, saying, “Reverend, you just don’t understand what a kind-hearted man I am. If I took that job, I would meet somebody tomorrow who needs it worse than I do, and I would give it to him!”
Pro 22:13. The same sluggard excuse for not going to work is in Pro 26:13. Since wisdom would include ones physical safety, it is doubtful if there was a lion in the streets. All lazy people are full of excuses for not working, for they do not want to work. Just as where theres a will to do something, there is usually a way to do it, so where there is no will to work, there is usually a handy excuse for not doing it.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The slothful: That is, the slothful man uses any pretext, however improbable, to indulge his love of ease and indolence. Pro 15:19, Pro 26:13-16, Num 13:32, Num 13:33
Reciprocal: Jdg 5:15 – thoughts 1Ki 13:24 – a lion Pro 6:6 – thou Pro 12:24 – but Pro 21:25 – General Pro 24:31 – and the Ecc 11:4 – General Son 5:3 – have put Hag 1:2 – This
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 22:13. The slothful man saith Alleges as his excuse to them who upbraid him with idleness, or persuade him to diligence; There is a lion without There are extreme dangers and invincible difficulties in my way; I shall be slain By that lion, or some other way; in the streets This is added to show the ridiculousness of his excuse; for lions abide in the woods, or fields, not in the streets of towns or cities.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:13 The slothful [man] saith, {i} [There is] a lion outside, I shall be slain in the streets.
(i) He derides them that invent vain excuses, because they would not do their duty.