The slothful man said, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
The slothful man said, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
The sluggard saith, There is a lion without: I shall be slain in the streets.
The hater of work says, There is a lion outside: I will be put to death in the streets.
The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"
The sluggard saith, There is a lion without: I shall be murdered in the streets.
The slothful man saith, There is a lion without - But why does he say so? Because he is a slothful man. Remove his slothfulness, and these imaginary difficulties and dangers will be no more. He will not go abroad to work in the fields, because he thinks there is a lion in the way, he will not go out into the town for employment, as he fears to be assassinated in the streets! From both these circumstances he seeks total cessation from activity.
The point of the satire is the ingenuity with which the slothful man devises the most improbable alarms. He hears that "there is a lion without," i. e., in the broad open country; he is afraid of being slain in the very streets of the city.