Proverbs 19:15

Laziness brings on ¹  a deep sleep, ²  and the idle person ³  will go hungry. ⁴ 

Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry.

Laziness casts into a deep sleep, And an idle man will suffer hunger.

A lazy person sleeps soundly––and goes hungry.

Life collapses on loafers; lazybones go hungry.

Hate of work sends deep sleep on a man: and he who has no industry will go without food.

Laziness brings on deep sleep; an idle person will suffer hunger.

Laziness casts one into a deep sleep, And an idle person will suffer hunger.

Laziness brings on ¹  a deep sleep, ²  and the idle person ³  will go hungry. ⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “causes to fall” or “casts”; NAB “plunges…into.”

² tn Or “complete inactivity”; the word תַּרְדֵּמָה (tardemah) can refer to a physical “deep sleep” (e.g., Gen 2:21; Jonah 1:5, 6); but it can also be used figuratively for complete inactivity, as other words for “sleep” can. Here it refers to lethargy or debility and morbidness.

³ tn The expression וְנֶפֶשׁ רְמִיָּה (vÿnefesh rÿmiyyah) can be translated “the soul of deceit” or “the soul of slackness.” There are two identical feminine nouns, one from the verb “beguile,” and the other from a cognate Arabic root “grow loose.” The second is more likely here in view of the parallelism (cf. NIV “a shiftless man”; NAB “the sluggard”). One who is slack, that is, idle, will go hungry.

⁴ sn The two lines are related in a metonymical sense: “deep sleep” is the cause of going hungry, and “going hungry” is the effect of deep sleep.