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Thursday, July 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Bishop's Bible

Proverbs 22:13

The slouthfull body saith there is a Lion without: I might be slaine in the streate.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Idleness;   Lion;   Slothfulness;   Thompson Chain Reference - Business Life;   Excuses;   Self-Justification-Self-Condemnation;   Slothfulness;   Vices;   The Topic Concordance - Laziness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Idleness and Sloth;   Lion, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Murder;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Hedge;   Lion;   Thorn;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Slothful;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Lion;  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Lion;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for May 28;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The slacker says, “There’s a lion outside!I’ll be killed in the public square!”
Hebrew Names Version
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"
King James Version
The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
English Standard Version
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!"
New American Standard Bible
The lazy one says, "There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!"
New Century Version
The lazy person says, "There's a lion outside! I might get killed out in the street!"
Amplified Bible
The lazy one [manufactures excuses and] says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets [if I go out to work]!"
World English Bible
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"
Geneva Bible (1587)
The slouthfull man saith, A lyon is without, I shall be slaine in the streete.
Legacy Standard Bible
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside;I will be killed in the streets!"
Berean Standard Bible
The slacker says, "There is a lion outside! I will be slain in the streets!"
Contemporary English Version
Don't be so lazy that you say, "If I go to work, a lion will eat me!"
Complete Jewish Bible
A lazy man says, "There's a lion outside! I'll be killed if I go out in the street!"
Darby Translation
The sluggard saith, There is a lion without, I shall be killed in the streets!
Easy-to-Read Version
A person who is lazy and wants to stay home says, "There is a lion outside, and I might be killed in the streets!"
George Lamsa Translation
When he is sent on an errand, the sluggard says, There is a lion on the road! and, Behold, there is murder in the streets!
Good News Translation
Lazy people stay at home; they say a lion might get them if they go outside.
Lexham English Bible
A lazy person says "A lion in the street! In the middle of the highway, I shall be killed!"
Literal Translation
The lazy one says, A lion is outside! I will be killed in the streets!
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The slouthfull body sayeth: there is a lyo wt out, I might be slayne in ye strete.
American Standard Version
The sluggard saith, There is a lion without; I shall be slain in the streets.
Bible in Basic English
The hater of work says, There is a lion outside: I will be put to death in the streets.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The sluggard saith: 'There is a lion without; I shall be slain in the streets.'
King James Version (1611)
The slothfull man sayth, There is a lyon without, I shall be slaine in the streetes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
The sluggard makes excuses, and says, There is a lion in the ways, and murderers in the streets.
English Revised Version
The sluggard saith, There is a lion without: I shall be murdered in the streets.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
A slow man schal seie, A lioun is withoutforth; Y schal be slayn in the myddis of the stretis.
Update Bible Version
The sluggard says, There is a lion outside: I shall be slain in the streets.
Webster's Bible Translation
The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
New English Translation
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the middle of the streets!"
New King James Version
The lazy man says, "There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!"
New Living Translation
The lazy person claims, "There's a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!"
New Life Bible
The lazy man says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"
New Revised Standard
The lazy person says, "There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!"
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Saith the sluggard, A lion outside! Amidst the broadways, shall I be slain.
Douay-Rheims Bible
The slothful man saith: There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the midst of the streets.
Revised Standard Version
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!"
Young's Literal Translation
The slothful hath said, `A lion [is] without, In the midst of the broad places I am slain.'
THE MESSAGE
The loafer says, "There's a lion on the loose! If I go out I'll be eaten alive!"
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!"

Contextual Overview

13 The slouthfull body saith there is a Lion without: I might be slaine in the streate.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

The slothful: That is, the slothful man uses any pretext, however improbable, to indulge his love of ease and indolence. Proverbs 15:19, Proverbs 26:13-16, Numbers 13:32, Numbers 13:33

Reciprocal: Judges 5:15 - thoughts 1 Kings 13:24 - a lion Proverbs 6:6 - thou Proverbs 12:24 - but Proverbs 21:25 - General Proverbs 24:31 - and the Ecclesiastes 11:4 - General Song of Solomon 5:3 - have put Haggai 1:2 - This

Cross-References

Genesis 22:6
And Abraham toke the wood of the burnt offeryng, and layde it vpon Isahac his sonne: but he him selfe toke fire in his hande and a knyfe, and they went both of them together.
Genesis 22:7
Then spake Isahac vnto Abraham his father, and sayd, my father. And he aunswered, here am I, my sonne. He sayde, see here is fyre and wood, but where is the beast for burnt sacrifice?
Genesis 22:8
Abraham aunswered: My God wyll prouide a beast for burnt sacrifice: and so they went both together.
Genesis 22:9
And when they came to ye place which God had shewed him, Abraham buylt an aulter there, and dressed the wood, and bound Isahac his sonne, and layde him on the aulter aboue vpo the wood.
Genesis 22:10
And Abraham stretchyng foorth his hande, toke the knyfe to haue killed his sonne.
Genesis 22:19
So turned Abraham againe vnto his young men: and they rose vp, and went together to Beer seba, and Abraham dwelt at Beer seba.
Genesis 22:20
And after these thynges, one tolde Abraham, saying: beholde Milcha, she hath also borne chyldren vnto thy brother Nachor,
Isaiah 30:21
Yea and thyne eare shall heare the talking of him that doth speake behinde thee: This is the way, walke ye in it, turne not aside neither to the right hande, nor to the left.
1 Corinthians 10:13
There hath no temptation taken you, but such as foloweth the nature of man: But God is faythfull, which shall not suffer you to be tempted aboue your strength: but shall with the temptation make away that ye maye be able to beare it.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 the way, expressed by a "lion without"; and which shows the folly and weakness of his excuses, since lions do not usually walk in cities, towns, and villages, and in the streets of them, but in woods and mountains;

I shall be slain in the streets; by the lion there; or I shall never be able to get over the difficulties, and through the dangers, which attending to business will expose me to. Some apply this to the difficulties that slothful persons imagine in the learning of languages, arts, and sciences; as Jarchi applies it to the learning of the law.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The point of the satire is the ingenuity with which the slothful man devises the most improbable alarms. He hears that “there is a lion without,” i. e., in the broad open country; he is afraid of being slain in the very streets of the city.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 22:13. The slothful man saith, There is a lion without — But why does he say so? Because he is a slothful man. Remove his slothfulness, and these imaginary difficulties and dangers will be no more. He will not go abroad to work in the fields, because he thinks there is a lion in the way; he will not go out into the town for employment, as he fears to be assassinated in the streets! From both these circumstances he seeks total cessation from activity.


 
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