The topic of this saying is people who are lazy and the loss that they suffer as a consequence of their laziness. The picture in this instance is of a farmer who neglects to prepare his ground for sowing at the appropriate time.

“The sluggard does not plow”: For “sluggard” see 6.6. The verb “plow” may not be understood in some parts of the world where people are not familiar with this agricultural practice. If this is the case we may speak of breaking up the ground or digging the ground to prepare it for the planting of crops. One translation says, for example, “The lazy person doesn’t go to break the ground in his garden.”

The sense of “in the autumn” depends on an understanding of the climate and the agricultural cycle in the land of ancient Israel. There are two seasons in the eastern Mediterranean area, a hot dry summer from May to September and a cool moderately rainy season from October to April, which is the season referred to as “autumn” here. In the time of the Old Testament, harvesting of the various crops took place over the months from April to September and then plowing for the following growing season was done as soon as the hardened soil was softened by “the early rains” falling in October or November. While “autumn” or “at the onset of winter” (Scott) makes sense in some European countries, it will probably not convey the essential meaning to readers who are unfamiliar with the eastern Mediterranean area. Hence New Revised Standard Version and New International Version say “in season,” meaning “at the appropriate time of the year.” Good News Translation has simply “at the right time,” which may be a good model for some translators to follow. Contemporary English Version says only “too lazy to plow,” which gets the overall meaning of the saying (“no pain, no gain”) but does not translate the sense of plowing at the time when it should be done; this is not recommended to translators.

There may be a problem in this saying for some translators, because there is no mention of sowing or planting a crop. We have to assume that plowing in this context includes planting as well; but it may be necessary to make this clear in some languages. One translation, for example, says “The lazy person doesn’t break up his ground at the time for planting food”; another has “The person who is too tired to plant his garden at the right time. . ..”

“He will seek at harvest and have nothing”: This is the obvious consequence of the first line and makes the saying complete. English versions mostly render “seek” as “looks [for a crop]”; some, like Good News Translation, leave this element to be understood by their readers and just say, for example, “at harvest time there is nothing” or “he has nothing to harvest.”

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 .