Proverbs 19:24

The sluggard plunges ¹  his hand in the dish, and he will not even bring it back to his mouth! ² 

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, But will not even bring it back to his mouth.

Some people are so lazy that they won’t even lift a finger to feed themselves.

Some people dig a fork into the pie but are too lazy to raise it to their mouth.

The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin, and will not even take it to his mouth again.

The lazy person buries a hand in the dish, and will not even bring it back to the mouth.

A lazy man buries his hand in the bowl, And will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.

The sluggard plunges ¹  his hand in the dish, and he will not even bring it back to his mouth! ² 

¹ tn Heb “buries” (so many English versions); KJV “hideth”; NAB “loses.”

² sn This humorous portrayal is an exaggeration; but the point is that laziness can overcome hunger. It would have a wider application for anyone who would start a project and then lack the interest or energy to finish it (R. N. Whybray, Proverbs [CBC], 111). Ibn Ezra proposes that the dish was empty, because the sluggard was too lazy to provide for himself.