The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.
Sloth
Solomon attaches to it several evils.
I. Suicide. “The desire of the slothful killeth him.” The man who is too lazy to move his limbs or open his eyes is too lazy to have a “desire.” These desires kill him. There are several things that tend to kill such a man.
1. Ennui. This is what Byron calls “that awful yawn which sleep cannot abate.” In all life there is not a more crushing power than lassitude. It breeds those morbid moods that explain half the diseases of the rich.
2. Disappointment. Disappointment kills.
3. Envy. The slothful sees others succeed.
4. Poverty. Sloth fills our workhouses with paupers, our prisons with criminals, our army with recruits.
5. Remorse.
II. Greed. “He covereth greedily all the day long.” In the Paris French translation the words stand thus--“All the day long he does nothing but wish.” How very expressive at once of the unconquerable indolence and the fretful, envious, pining unhappiness of the sluggard!
III. Unrighteousness. “But the righteous giveth and spareth not.” This implies that the slothful are neither righteous nor generous. (D. Thomas, D. D.)