Proverbs 22:13 (BSB)

The slacker says, “There is a lion outside! I will be slain in the streets!”

From Proverbs 22. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 22:13

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 22:13: Note, 1. Those that have no love for their business will never want excuses to shake it off. Multitudes are ruined, both for soul and body, by their slothfulness, and yet still they have something or other to say for themselves, so ingenious are men in putting a cheat upon their own souls.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 22:13: The slothful man saith, there is a lion without,.... Or, "in the street". This he says within himself; or to those who call out to him, and put him on doing the business of his proper calling, whether in the field or elsewhere, which, through his slothfulness, he has a disinclination to; and therefore frames excuses, and suggests this and that difficulty or danger in...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 22:13: Frivolous excuses satisfy the indolent man's conscience.
• Geneva Bible Notes (Reformed), Geneva Bible Study Notes on Proverbs 22:13: The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion outside, I shall be slain in the streets. (i) He derides them that invent vain excuses, because they would not do their duty.