The Sluggard Of Proverbs

Several parts of Proverbs mention a sluggard of almost sarcastically extreme laziness.  Proverbs 6:6-11 contrasts the ant, which stores food and enjoys the rewards of its labor accordingly, with the sluggard, who has such an affinity for sleep that they allow poverty to "ambush" them.  For another reference, Proverbs 20:4 speaks of a sluggard who does not plow and thus receives no harvest later on, leaving them with nothing of this kind as others might be celebrating their bounty.  On the level of superficial assumptions, passages like that of 6:6-11 might seem to glorify constant productivity on the level of physical labor, even to the point of blaming the poor for their status or condemning moments of inactivity.  Beyond how the Bible separately prescribes specific ways to not mistreat the poor (like in Deuteronomy 24:10-15), Proverbs is only denouncing laziness rather than either poverty or rest.

Poverty and scarcity can spring upon someone suddenly if they are truly unwilling to pursue anything but physical relaxation and look past excuses to not put forth effort in their lives.  An industrious, sincere person might still fall into poverty due to factors beyond their control.  The inverse is also true.  A very wealthy person born into luxury they do not have to work for could be actively lazy and not automatically forfeit their comfort, their money, and their general belongings or connections.  Passages like Proverbs 6:6-11 are distinctively not a denial of these things or an encouragement to make one's life revolve around ceaseless toil.

The person being addressed is the sluggard, first of all.  The author is not saying that an exhausted or self-aware, rational working person taking a break is the same as being a sluggard and if they did, the claims would be false.  It is the fool who thoughtlessly avoids all labor--not even of a strictly professional kind, but even the labor needed to live outside of civilizational structures, like expending effort to find or prepare food--with little to no concern for the future that is in view.  Neither morality nor self-beneficial pragmatism rouses their attention.  Proverbs 6 describes a person who is already entrenched in sheer laziness.

This kind of person who sleeps away their time and folds their hands to rest might very well find themselves destitute.  The sluggard is not the overworked employee looking for reprieve or someone who simply does not orient their life around something as meaningless left to itself as labor.  In fact, the Bible makes it clear that rest is so vital that there is to be a day of rest for every six days of work, the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2).  This is to extend to even the animals a person has (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15).  No, Proverbs is neither saying poverty is deserved by everyone who falls into it (or was involuntarily born into it) nor saying that there is no place for rest amidst work.

The sluggard of Proverbs becomes poor because he or she refuses to do anything out of practical necessity.  They would truly be irresponsible or even parasitic.  In contrast, a poor worker is already poor.  Industry is very unlikely to actually help someone escape poverty anyway (not without luck, at least).  Doing nothing certainly does not help, but labor alone does not mean someone will become what we might today call middle or upper class.  If working hard guaranteed wealth, there would not be so many people in financially difficult situations.  The person who coasts along in philosophical apathy and does nothing at all to stop themselves from becoming poor, either by wasting their resources or by refusing to work towards their own wellbeing, is a fool indeed.