Proverbs 12:11
He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that pursueth idleness is very foolish. He that is delighted in passing his time over wine, leaveth a reproach in his strong holds.
Open Proverbs 12:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Qui operatur terram suam satiabitur panibus ; qui autem sectatur otium stultissimus est. Qui suavis est in vini demorationibus, in suis munitionibus relinquit contumeliam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὁ ἐργαζόμενος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γῆν ἐμπλησθήσεται ἄρτων, οἱ δὲ διώκοντες μάταια ἐνδεεῖς φρενῶν. (11a) ὅς ἐστιν ἡδὺς ἐν οἴνων διατριβαῖς, ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ ὀχυρώμασιν καταλείψει ἀτιμίαν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- עֹבֵ֣ד אַ֭דְמָתוֹ יִֽשְׂבַּֽע לָ֑חֶם וּמְרַדֵּ֖ף רֵיקִ֣ים חֲסַר לֵֽב
Haydock's commentary
Idleness. Hebrew, "the idle." Their company is seducing.
He that, &c. This occurs in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew or the new edition of St. Jerome. (Calmet)
Wine. Or "in taverns."
Holds. Soldiers have thus been often surprised. (Menochius)
"Drunkenness is an incitement to lust and madness, the poison of wisdom." (St. Ambrose)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
The Apostolic Constitutions Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, Sec. VIII. On the Duty of Working for a Livelihood
LXIII . Let the young persons of the Church endeavour to minister diligently in all necessaries: mind your business with all becoming seriousness, that so you may always have sufficient to support yourselves and those that are needy, and not burden the Church of God. For we ourselves, besides our attention to the word of the Gospel, do not neglect our inferior employments. For some of us are fishermen, some tentmakers, some husbandmen, that so we may never be idle. So says Solomon somewhere: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways diligently, and become wiser than she. For she, having neither field, overseer, nor ruler, prepareth her food in the summer, and layeth up a great store in the harvest. Or else go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is, and her work how valuable it is, whose labours both kings and mean men make use of for their health. …