In verse 9 the teacher again addresses the lazy person directly and somewhat satirically, as if mocking him.

“How long will you lie there, O sluggard?”: “How long” is a question that can be taken as expecting an answer about the length of time, or as a rhetorical question meaning something like “You must want to sleep forever!” or “Will you never get up?” When gathering crops at harvest time, workers must work long hours so as not to leave the grain too long in the fields. The “sluggard”, however, is seen here as sleeping. For “O sluggard” see verse 6.

“When will your arise from your sleep?”: This line may also be rhetorical. We may translate the two lines of this verse, for example, “Are you going to lie there and sleep all day? When are you ever going to get up?” or “You lazy people want to keep sleeping, don’t you? When will you ever get off your beds?” Some translators may find it more natural to switch the order of the two lines.

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 .