What Does Proverbs 6:9 Mean?
How long do you lie down, you slack one? When do you rise from your sleep?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?THE KEY
English repeats “sleep,” but Hebrew first says “lie down” and then “your sleep,” separating the posture of delay from the state that must end.
THE MEANING
The question lands where lying down has stretched into a state that keeps postponing rising. It makes the duration visible, asking when the turn from sleep to standing begins.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that rising can always be postponed without the delay changing anything.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁכָּב
tishkav
GROWS FROM
שכב
sh-k-b
To lie down or recline.
The first word translated “sleep” is the verb “lie down.” The question begins with a posture, then turns to sleep as a distinct state, so the English repetition conceals the movement from lying down to remaining asleep.
ALSO GROWS
shakhav: To lie down; also, to lie with someone.
שָׁכַב
This verb names the down posture that begins the verse’s question.
mishkav: Bed or place of lying.
מִשְׁכָּב
The same root names the place associated with lying down, extending the posture into its setting.
מִשְּׁנָתֶךָ
mishenatekha
GROWS FROM
ישן
y-sh-n
To sleep or be asleep.
“thy sleep” in this verse is mishenatekha. Here the Hebrew uses a noun for sleep itself, not another form of “lie down.” The verse distinguishes the posture from the state whose duration it asks about.
ALSO GROWS
shenah: Sleep.
שֵׁנָה
This is the noun at the center of “thy sleep,” naming the state that has lasted.
yashen: Sleeping or asleep.
יָשֵׁן
This form describes someone in the state named by shenah.
תָּקוּם
taqum
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
To rise, stand, or be established.
“rise” in this verse is taqum. The root of “arise” also means “stand” and “be established.” The question reaches beyond the end of sleep to the transition from being down to taking a standing position.
ALSO GROWS
heqim: To raise or establish.
הֵקִים
This form shows the root’s extension from standing to bringing something into an established position.
maqom: Place; standing place.
מָקוֹם
This noun connects the root of rising with the place where one stands.
THE PATTERN
When the moment to act keeps being deferred, delay becomes a repeated pattern with consequences.
Yet a little sleep, a little nodding, a little embracing of the hands to lie down.Whoever watches the breath does not sow; whoever looks upon the clouds does not reap.And this, seeing the moment, that it is already the hour for us to rise out of sleep. For now our deliverance is nearer than when we trusted.THE THREAD
I lie down and sleep; I wake, for the LORD bears my weight.Psalm 3 uses the same two Hebrew roots separately: “laid me down” is shakhav, and “slept” is yashan. It then names waking, making visible the distinction English closes in Proverbs 6:9.
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