Proverbs 10:5

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Proverbs 10:5. He that gathereth — The fruits of his field; in summer — In harvest, as it follows, which is a part of summer; is a wise son — Acts a prudent and proper part: he acts wisely for his parents, whom, if need be, he ought to maintain, and he gains reputation to himself, his family, and education. But he that sleepeth in harvest causeth shame — Both to himself for his folly, and for that poverty and misery caused by it, and to his parents, to whose neglect of his education such things are often and sometimes justly imputed. He that seeks and gains knowledge and wisdom in the days of his youth, or that watches for and improves the proper seasons of doing good to himself and others, gathers in summer, and will have the comfort and credit of it; but he that idles away the days of his youth, will bear the shame of it when he is old: and he that suffers fair occasions of getting and doing good to pass unheeded by, will afterward have cause bitterly to lament his negligence and folly.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1 The comfort of parents much depends on their children; and this suggests to both, motives to their duties. 2,3. Though the righteous may be poor, the Lord will not suffer him to want what is needful for spiritual life. 4. Those who are fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, are likely to be rich in faith, and rich in good works. 5. Here is just blame of those who trifle away opportunities, both for here and for hereafter. 6. Abundance of blessings shall abide on good men; real blessings.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The son is called upon to enter upon the labors of others, and reap where they have sown. To sleep when the plenteous harvest lies ready for the sickle is the most extreme laziness.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. son—as Pr 1:8, 10, and often.

sleepeth—in indolence, and not for rest.

causeth shame—literally, "is base" (compare Pr 14:35; 17:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He that gathereth the fruits of his field in summer; in harvest, as it follows, which is a part of summer. He that watcheth for and improveth the proper seasons and opportunities of doing good to himself, and to others.

That causeth shame; both to himself for his folly, and that poverty and misery caused by it; and to his parents, to whose negligent or evil education such things are oft, and sometimes justly, imputed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son,.... Which is the time of gathering the fruits of the earth, and laying them up against winter, as the ant is said to do, Proverbs 6:8;

but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame; to himself, and to his parents and relations. The sum of the proverb is, that, in the time of health and youth, persons should be active and industrious in their several callings and stations, and provide against a time of sickness and old age; and that they should lose no opportunities, neither in a natural nor spiritual way, of doing or receiving good.

Geneva Study Bible

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. sleepeth] Sleeps heavily, goes fast to sleep. Stertit, Vulg. Comp. Jonah 1:5-6, where the Heb. word is the same.

This is an example of an exactly balanced proverb in the wording of the two clauses, especially if with R.V. marg. we render literally, a son that doeth wisely … that doeth shamefully.

The LXX., having introduced another proverb at the beginning of this verse:

“A son who receives instruction shall be wise,

And shall serve himself of the fool as his minister,”

gives as the equivalent of our present proverb,

“A prudent son shall be saved from the heat,

But a son that is a transgressor shall be carried away by the wind in harvest.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - He that gathereth the harvest into the barn at the right season. The idea of husbandry is continued from the preceding verse. Son is here equivalent to "man," the maxim being addressed to the young. That sleepeth; literally, that snoreth; Vulgate, qui stertit (Judges 4:21). A son that causeth shame. The phrase is found in Proverbs 17:2; Proverbs 19:26; Proverbs 29:15. The Septuagint has, "The son of understanding is saved from the heat; but the sinful son is blasted by the wind in harvest." Proverbs 10:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

There is now added a proverb which, thus standing at the beginning of the collection, and connecting itself with Proverbs 10:1, stamps on it the character of a book for youth:

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son;

But he that is sunk in sleep in the time of harvest is a son that causeth shame.

Von Hofmann (Schriftb. ii. 2. 403) rightly interprets בּן משׂכּיל and בּן מבישׁ, with Cocceius and others, as the subject, and not with Hitzig as predicate, for in nominal clauses the rule is to place the predicate before the subject; and since an accurate expression of the inverted relation would both times require הוא referring to the subject, so we here abide by the usual syntax: he that gathers in summer time is... Also the relation of the members of the sentence, Proverbs 19:26, is a parallel from which it is evident that the misguided son is called מבישׁ as causing shame, although in הבישׁ the idea to put to shame ( equals to act so that others are ashamed) and to act shamefully (disgracefully), as in השׂכיל the ideas to have insight and to act intelligently, lie into one another (cf. Proverbs 14:35); the root-meaning of השׂכיל is determined after שׂכל, which from שׂכל, complicare, designates the intellect as the faculty of intellectual configuration. בּושׁ, properly disturbari, proceeds from a similar conception as the Lat. confundi (pudore). קיץ and קציר fall together, for קיץ (from קוץ equals qât, to be glowing hot) is just the time of the קציר; vid., under Genesis 8:22. To the activity of a thoughtful ingathering, אגר, for a future store (vid., Proverbs 6:7), stands opposed deep sleep, i.e., the state of one sunk in idleness. נרדּם means, as Schultens has already shown, somno penitus obrui, omni sensu obstructo et oppilato quasi, from רדם, to fill, to shut up, to conclude; the derivation (which has been adopted since Gesenius) from the Arab. word having the same sound, rdm, stridere, to shrill, to rattle (but not stertere, to snore), lies remote in the Niph., and also contradicts the usage of the word, according to which it designates a state in which all free activity is bound, and all reference to the external world is interrupted; cf. תּרדּמה, Proverbs 19:15, of dulness, apathy, somnolency in the train of slothfulness. The lxx has here one distich more than the Hebr. text.