Amsal 20:13

20:13 Do not love sleep, ¹  lest you become impoverished;

open your eyes so that ²  you might be satisfied with food. ³ 

Amsal 15:20

15:20 A wise child ⁴  brings joy to his father,

but a foolish person ⁵  despises ⁶  his mother.

[20:13]  ¹ sn The proverb uses antithetical parallelism to teach that diligence leads to prosperity. It contrasts loving sleep with opening the eyes, and poverty with satisfaction. Just as “sleep” can be used for slothfulness or laziness, so opening the eyes can represent vigorous, active conduct. The idioms have caught on in modern usage as well – things like “open your eyes” or “asleep on the job.”

[20:13]  ² tn The second line uses two imperatives in a sequence (without the vav [ו]): “open your eyes” and then (or, in order that) you will “be satisfied.”

[20:13]  ³ tn Heb “bread” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV), although the term often serves in a generic sense for food in general.

[15:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “son.”

[15:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “a fool of a man,” a genitive of specification.

[15:20]  ⁶ sn The proverb is almost the same as 10:1, except that “despises” replaces “grief.” This adds the idea of the callousness of the one who inflicts grief on his mother (D. Kidner, Proverbs [TOTC], 116).