The sluggard saith, There is a lion without; I shall be slain in the streets.
The slothful [man] saith, [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.
Pro 22:13 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. אמר 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).
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...