This verse expresses thoughts similar to those in 21.17.

“For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty”: “The drunkard and the glutton” are the people referred to in the previous line. “Come to poverty”, as in 20.13, translates a passive verb meaning “to be dispossessed,” that is, “to lose all they have” or “to become poor.” Revised English Bible expresses this as “end in poverty” and Good News Translation “be reduced to poverty.”

“And drowsiness will clothe a man in rags”: In this context “drowsiness” or “sleep” (Scott) refers to the result of eating too much or drinking too much wine. So some translations say, for example, “If a person just eats and then sleeps. . ..” “Clothe a man in rags” means that the person will be so poor that he has nothing to wear but rags. “Rags” is expressed in some languages as “dirty old clothes.” In one translation the last part of this line is “and it won’t be long before you have only rubbish clothes to wear.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .