Do not love sleep, or you will grow poor; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of food.
Note, 1. Those that indulge themselves in their ease may expect to want necessaries, which should have been gotten by honest labour. "Therefore, though thou must sleep (nature requires it), yet love not sleep, as those do that hate business. Love not sleep for its own sake, but only as it fits for further work.
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty,.... Sleep is a very great natural blessing; it is a gift of God, what nature requires, and is desirable; it is to be loved, though not immoderately; it is sweet to a man, and what he should be thankful for; yet should not indulge himself in to the neglect of the proper business of life; nor to...
Activity and diligence contrasted with sloth (Pro 6:9; Pro 10:11). lest . . . poverty--literally, "be deprived of inheritance."