There is an element of humor in the absurd excuse that the lazy person gives for not going out to work. 26.13 is another form of this saying.

“The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!””: For “sluggard” see 6.6. The words of this whole verse are not difficult to translate literally. But the point of the saying, which is not stated directly, is that the person is too lazy to go to work and wants to stay at home doing nothing. If readers will not get this point, it may be necessary to include it in the translation. Contemporary English Version tries to do this with “Don’t be so lazy that you say, ‘If I go to work, a lion will eat me!'” Good News Translation is even clearer, and is a good model to follow.

In most translations readers will understand “I shall be slain in the streets!” as meaning that the person is afraid of being killed by the lion referred to in the first line. The Septuagint, however, understands this line differently: “there are murderers in the street!” In this case the second line is a second excuse and not a continuation of the excuse in the first line. New International Version follows this understanding and renders the second line as “or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!'” For cultures that do not have “streets”, the sense of this line may be expressed as “I will be killed if I leave my house.”

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 .