cf. the original of this proverb, Pro 22:13. שׁוּעל, to say nothing of שׁחל, is not the jackal; שׁחל is the bibl. name for the lion. בּין is the more general expression for בּקרב, Isa 5:25; by the streets he thinks of the rows of houses that form them.
Verse 14
Pro 26:14 14 The door turneth on its hinges, And the sluggard on his bed.
The comparison is clear. The door turns itself on its hinges, on which it hangs, in and out, without passing beyond the narrow space of its motion; so is the fool on his bed, where he turns himself from the one side to the other. He is called עצל, because he is fast glued to the place where he is (Arab. 'azila), and cannot be free (contrast of the active, cf. Arab. ḥafyf, moving nimbly, agilis). But the door offers itself as a comparison, because the diligent goes out by it to begin his work without (Pro 24:27; Psa 104:23), while the sluggard rolls himself about on his bed. The hook, the hinge, on which the door is moved, called ציר, from צוּר, to turn,[1] has thus the name of הסּוב.
Verse 15
Pro 26:15 15 The slothful has thrust his hand into the dish, It is hard for him to bring it back to his mouth again.
A variation of Pro 19:24; the fut. ישׁיבנּה there, is here explained by נלאה להשׁיבהּ.
Verse 16
Pro 26:16 16 The sluggard is wise in his own eyes, More than seven men who give an excellent answer.
Between slothfulness and conceit there exists no inward necessary mutual relation. The proverb means that the sluggard as such regards himself as wiser than seven, who all together answer well at any examination: much labour - he thinks with himself - only injures the health, blunts men for life and its joys, leads only to over-exertion; for the most prudent is, as a general rule, crack-brained. Böttcher's “maulfaule” [slow to speak] belongs to the German style of thinking; עטל לשׁנא in Syr. is not he who is slow to speak, but he who has a
- ↑ The Arab. verb signifies radically: to turn, like the Persian verbs kashatn and kardydan, and like our “werden” to grow, turn, accords with vertere (Fleischer).
