Pro 6:9-11 | NETfull | STEP | How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep?

Proverbs 6:9-11

9 How long, you sluggard, will you lie there?
When will you rise from your sleep? ^{▼▼ The use of the two rhetorical questions is designed to rebuke the lazy person in a forceful manner. The sluggard is spending too much time sleeping.}
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to relax, ^{▼▼ The writer might in this verse be imitating the words of the sluggard who just wants to take “a little nap.” The use is ironic, for by indulging in this little rest the lazy one comes to ruin.}
11 and your poverty will come like a robber, ^{▼▼ Heb “like a wayfarer” or “like a traveler” (cf. KJV). The LXX has “swiftness like a traveler.” It has also been interpreted as a “highwayman” (cf. NAB) or a “dangerous assailant.” W. McKane suggests “vagrant” (Proverbs [OTL], 324); cf. NASB “vagabond.” Someone traveling swiftly would likely be a robber.}
and your need like an armed man. ^{▼▼ The Hebrew word for “armed” is probably connected to the word for “shield” and “deliver” (s.v. גָּנַן). G. R. Driver connects it to the Arabic word for “bold; insolent,” interpreting its use here as referring to a beggar or an insolent man (“Studies in the Vocabulary of the Old Testament, IV,” JTS 33 [1933]: 38-47).}