13 The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!”
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Tim Maas had posted this wonderful comment:
"I would say that the point that the cited verse from Proverbs is trying to make is to emphasize through humorous exaggeration the lengths to which a sluggard (that is, a person who is lazy by disposition) will go in order to avoid having to work -- whether the sluggard allows himself to be deterred by impediments that normally industrious people would not hesitate to address and overcome, or even goes to the extent of making up excuses that are totally and obviously false, but that the sluggard claims are making work impossible.
A later verse in Proverbs (Proverbs 26:15) employs the same type of imagery by describing the sluggard as even lacking the energy to bring food that is in his hand up to his mouth so that he can eat it."