by Matthew Dearden

Created on: May 18, 2009

Merriam Webster defines sluggard as "a habitually lazy person." There are a couple things that stand out in this short definition. First, the word "habitually" is exceedingly important. If something is habitual it is a habit, as in it happens often. In other words, a sluggard is one who is by habit lazy. It is not something that happens once in a blue moon, but rather, something that happens predictably and consistently. In the dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains, sluggard is defined as "a person who is habitually lazy and inactive, suggesting he has no discipline or initiative, as a moral failure." In other words, being a sluggard is not just something that is inconvenient or physically not stimulating. Being a sluggard is a moral failure. It has a much deeper meaning than just "being lazy." It is entirely and utterly a sin to be a sluggard.

Being a sluggard is something that is not often talked about in today's culture. In fact, being a sluggard is something that is celebrated in many contexts. It is sometimes portrayed as something that is earned because of an accomplishment or achievement. People who are lazy are sometimes celebrated as those who have no worries. For example, in many TV shows today we often admire characters who do very little but eat, sleep and watch television-things that are surprisingly similar to things the sluggard does in Proverbs. We admire them because it's what we wish we were doing. All too often we excuse a sluggard's behavior by saying, "That's just the way they are...they'll be fine." We fail to realize that the Bible counts being a sluggard as something completely undesirable and detrimental to everything good in life. It denounces laziness as a sin with serious moral and physical consequences for yourself and those around you.

How does the book of Proverbs portray the sluggard? The word "sluggard" is used fourteen times in the book of Proverbs and is not used anywhere else in the rest of the Bible. It comes from the Hebrew word atsel which suggests laziness and sluggishness. The book of Proverbs concentrates on five characteristics of the sluggard, all of which are related. First, the sluggard is a procrastinator (Prov. 6:6-11; 20:4; 24:30). He does not want to do things in the present so he waits and ends up never doing them at all. Second, the sluggard is shown to be constantly unsatisfied (Prov. 13:4; 21:25). This is a great paradox because the sluggard always

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