Proverbs 26:13–16, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Proverbs 26:13–16
Work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits — The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a…
uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
Why this sits here
Proverbs 26:13–16 forms a reviewed local cluster inside “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” Its lines concentrate on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, while each sentence proverb retains its own force and the neighboring database unit does not supply its meaning.
What helps us understand it
How this passage works
Proverbs 26:13–16Proverbs 26:13–16 is the reviewed unit “Work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits — The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a….” Its parallel lines, repeated address, comparison, or local cluster controls how each verse contributes without borrowing a neighboring unit's subject.
The unit opens “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets” and closes “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”
Place in the book
Proverbs as a wholeProverbs 26:13–16 belongs to “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism. This unit contributes work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence through its own received wording and form.
The received sequence places Proverbs 26:13–16 inside Proverbs 25:1–29:27; this unit opens “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets” and closes “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.” The unit's reviewed main point is: uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
Proverbs 26:13–16 opens with “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets” and closes with “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.” Those endpoints show the unit's movement from opening claim to reviewed close.
How the passage moves
Development (26:13–16): adjacent lines test work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
Close (26:16): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”, creating the next supported pause.
Why this reading fits
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 26:13–16 retains its own Verse Lens role and does not borrow a neighboring verse's claim.
Collection context
The superscription and placement identify this unit inside “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men”: The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
A needed correction
Reading Proverbs 26:13–16 as edited wisdom rather than a detached formula rules out these uses:
The saying does not blame unemployment, disability, caregiving, illness, exploitation, or poverty on laziness, and it does not command work without rest or safety.
The saying does not provide a scientific taxonomy, sanction cruelty to animals, or make one poetic comparison a law of nature or society.
The saying does not require silence about abuse, guarantee that gentle words stop danger, or make a harmed person responsible for another's aggression.
The unit does not turn a normal wisdom pattern into a universal promise, a complete causal explanation of suffering, or a mandate broader than Proverbs 26:13–16.
What remains true
Diligent, skillful work is normally fruitful, yet outcomes also depend on health, opportunity, justice, weather, and other conditions beyond one worker's control. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. Words can reveal character, transmit truth, inflame conflict, protect others, or cause durable harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
How this should shape us
How does the application follow proportionately?
Plan sustainable effort, practice the relevant skill, share burdens fairly, and address structural obstacles rather than judging only the outcome. Name the exact feature being compared, observe its limits, and test whether the analogy clarifies rather than stereotypes. Pause, verify, listen, and choose truthful speech fitted to the hearer, timing, risk, and public consequences. In 26:13–16, let the concrete wording “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way;…” keep that response tied to the people, action, comparison, or consequence actually named.
Teach it back
Explain Proverbs 26:13–16 in your own words. Identify its form and collection, trace one line from role through contextual meaning and enduring truth to application, name one uncertainty, and reject one misuse explicitly.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Exact verse-level work
Every line in Proverbs 26:13–16 retains its own Verse Lens role and does not borrow a neighboring verse's claim.
Collection context
The superscription and placement identify this unit inside “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men”: The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism.
Proverbial proportion
The unit's instruction and observations concern work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence; they describe moral direction without explaining every exceptional outcome.
What the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Edited wisdom and social setting
This unit belongs to solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men. Aitken's printed pages 405-422 and the book-specific sources identify family, community, agricultural, commercial, scribal, court, and royal settings as relevant possibilities without proving one setting for every saying.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV “sluggard”
a stock wisdom character marked by avoidant inaction, not a diagnosis of disability, illness, or unemployment
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israelite wisdom setting
The unit's first horizon is Israel's wisdom collection under fear of the LORD. Torah-shaped justice, creation, household teaching, royal responsibility, and community life may inform the language, but no cross-reference overrides this unit's own parallelism and collection role.
How certain? probableHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Responsible canonical location
Within the received book, The collection heading makes editorial transmission explicit. Court access, conflict, speech, fools, friendship, agriculture, poverty, law, and rulers are held under justice rather than political absolutism. This local unit is read through that movement before broader canonical comparison.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The unit places practical wisdom under a moral order answerable to the LORD: Diligent, skillful work is normally fruitful, yet outcomes also depend on health, opportunity, justice, weather, and other conditions beyond one worker's control. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. Words can reveal character, transmit truth, inflame conflict, protect others, or cause durable harm.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Within Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The saying does not blame unemployment, disability, caregiving, illness, exploitation, or poverty on laziness, and it does not command work without rest or safety.
A compact saying is easy to detach and universalize.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Diligent, skillful work is normally fruitful, yet outcomes also depend on health, opportunity, justice, weather, and other conditions beyond one worker's control. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. Words can reveal character, transmit truth, inflame conflict, protect others, or cause durable harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The saying does not provide a scientific taxonomy, sanction cruelty to animals, or make one poetic comparison a law of nature or society.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Diligent, skillful work is normally fruitful, yet outcomes also depend on health, opportunity, justice, weather, and other conditions beyond one worker's control. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. Words can reveal character, transmit truth, inflame conflict, protect others, or cause durable harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The saying does not require silence about abuse, guarantee that gentle words stop danger, or make a harmed person responsible for another's aggression.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Diligent, skillful work is normally fruitful, yet outcomes also depend on health, opportunity, justice, weather, and other conditions beyond one worker's control. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. Words can reveal character, transmit truth, inflame conflict, protect others, or cause durable harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
The unit does not turn a normal wisdom pattern into a universal promise, a complete causal explanation of suffering, or a mandate broader than Proverbs 26:13–16.
An ancient authority, household, wealth, gender, or consequence image can be imported into modern power without following the interpretation chain.
Within solomonic sayings copied by hezekiah's men, uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.” The sayings function as context-shaped instruction and observation: general patterns are not automatic guarantees, commands stay bounded by their ancient role, and an individual line must not erase the edited collection around it.
Diligent, skillful work is normally fruitful, yet outcomes also depend on health, opportunity, justice, weather, and other conditions beyond one worker's control. Creaturely and everyday observations train analogy and proportion; the comparison teaches a feature without making every detail identical. Words can reveal character, transmit truth, inflame conflict, protect others, or cause durable harm. These truths remain proportionate only when the proverb's literary form, affected people, exceptions, and wider fear-of-the-LORD frame remain visible.
The context-supported contribution remains: uses two-part parallelism to place “The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way” beside “a lion is in the streets”; by 26:16, it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason”. Together the unit concentrates on work, diligence, provision, and creaturely limits, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life, speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence within “Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men.”
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Proverbs 26:13–16, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 26:13-26:16
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1164-1168, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 26:13–16
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 26:13–16 and the Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men outline
Supports: Abstract-level control for the dispute over individual-saying, small-cluster, and collection context; no uninspected detailed claim.
Weeks, ‘Context in the Sayings Collections,’ Early Israelite Wisdom (2000), official abstract and chapter pp. 20-40; methodological question applied to Proverbs 26:13–16
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 26:13–16, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 26:13-26:16
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1164-1168, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 26:13–16
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Proverbs
K. T. Aitken
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Exact location: Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 26:13–16 and the Solomonic sayings copied by Hezekiah's men outline
Open source ↗scholarly monograph chapter abstract and metadata
Context in the Sayings Collections
Stuart Weeks
Oxford University Press, in Early Israelite Wisdom, 2000
Supports: Abstract-level control for the dispute over individual-saying, small-cluster, and collection context; no uninspected detailed claim.
Exact location: Weeks, ‘Context in the Sayings Collections,’ Early Israelite Wisdom (2000), official abstract and chapter pp. 20-40; methodological question applied to Proverbs 26:13–16
Open source ↗