Proverbs 26:13 - Meaning and Application

When people talk foolishly, we often say they are just talking idly. In truth, no one shows folly more clearly than someone who is lazy and keeps making excuses for that laziness. Sin and laziness often feed each other. A person’s folly makes him sluggish, and his sluggishness makes him more foolish.

Notice, first, what the lazy person really fears. He fears the road, the street, and every place where work must be done or a trip must be taken. He hates business and anything that calls for care and effort. Second, notice what he imagines and claims to fear, a lion in the way. When he is urged to be diligent, whether in his daily work or in the duties of religion, this is his excuse, and a poor one at that, as weak as no excuse at all: “There is a lion in the way.” He means there is some great danger or problem he cannot face.

Lions do live in woods and deserts, and by day they are in their dens (Psalm 104:22-23). But the lazy person pictures, or pretends to picture, a lion in the streets. In reality, the lion is only in his own mind, and it is not as fierce as he makes it seem. It is foolish to turn away from real duties because of imagined difficulties (Ecclesiastes 11:4).