I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest--and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
4 comments:
Very good, I didn't know this one. Thanks!
You are most welcome. I hope you took something good from it.
Actually yes, I did. I have always thought of the spirit of this proverb as the "protestant work ethic", and was very surprised to find it expressed so clearly in the pre-christian Old Testament. On the other hand, Solomon was famously neither a fool nor a slacker, so it shouldn't be too surprising.
The all-purpose injunction, reproach and rebuke "there's work to be done" was part of my childhood, passed on via my mother from her Norwegian farmgirl mother (and You know how much hard work and how little frivolous luxury there is in farming in Norway).
Mom never talked about the Bible, we were a non-religious family though we lived (and I still live) within the ethics of Christianity, because 99.3% of it is just common sense, things that anyone with five braincells and a gramme of compassion would wish to do; however the number of passages that I recognize makes it seems that Proverbs was her favourite Book.
I shall have to read further.
Yes Proverbs are my favorite as well. So much truth and so little that is truth based on faith-based truth. Just simple truth. I know God is the author within the Books of Proverbs. Truth is God.
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