Proverbs 24:34

So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) As one that travelleth.—See above on Proverbs 6:11.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:30-34. See what a blessing the husbandman's calling is, and what a wilderness this earth would be without it. See what great difference there is in the management even of worldly affairs. Sloth and self-indulgence are the bane of all good. When we see fields overgrown with thorns and thistles, and the fences broken down, we see an emblem of the far more deplorable state of many souls. Every vile affection grows in men's hearts; yet they compose themselves to sleep. Let us show wisdom by doubling our diligence in every good thing.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the Proverbs 6:11 note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32-34. From the folly of the sluggard learn wisdom (Pr 6:10, 11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth,.... Swiftly and suddenly, both in a temporal and spiritual sense; See Gill on Proverbs 6:11;

and thy want as an armed man; irresistibly. Here ends according to some the "second", according to others the "third" part of this book of Proverbs, another beginning with the following chapter.

Geneva Study Bible

So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. one that travelleth] Rather, a robber. See Proverbs 6:11, note.

Proverbs 24:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A Mashal ode of the slothful, in the form of a record of experiences, concludes this second supplement (vid., vol. i. p. 17):

30 The field of a slothful man I came past,

     And the vineyard of a man devoid of understanding.

31 And, lo! it was wholly filled up with thorns;

     Its face was covered with nettles;

     And its wall of stones was broken down.

32 But I looked and directed my attention to it;

     I saw it, and took instruction from it:

33 "A little sleep, a little slumber,

     A little folding of the hands to rest.

34 Then cometh thy poverty apace,

     And thy want as an armed man."

The line 29b with לאישׁ is followed by one with אישׁ. The form of the narrative in which this warning against drowsy slothfulness is clothed, is like Psalm 37:35. The distinguishing of different classes of men by אישׁ and אדם (cf. Proverbs 24:20) is common in proverbial poetry. עברתּי, at the close of the first parallel member, retains its Pathach unchanged. The description: and, lo! (הנּהו, with Pazer, after Thorath Emeth, p. 34, Anm. 2) it was... refers to the vineyard, for נדר אבניו (its stone wall, like Isaiah 2:20, "its idols of silver") is, like Numbers 22:24; Isaiah 5:5, the fencing in of the vineyard. עלה כלּו, totus excreverat (in carduos), refers to this as subject, cf. in Ausonius: apex vitibus assurgit; the Heb. construction is as Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 34:13; Gesen. 133, 1, Anm. 2. The sing. קמּשׁון of קמּשׁונים does not occur; perhaps it means properly the weed which one tears up to cast it aside, for (Arab.) kumâsh is matter dug out of the ground.

(Note: This is particularly the name of what lies round about on the ground in the Bedouin tents, and which one takes up from thence (from ḳamesh, cogn. קבץ קמץ, ramasser, cf. the journal המגיד, 1871, p. 287b); in modern Arab., linen and matter of all kinds; vid., Bocthor, under linge and toffe.)

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