He also that is slothful (slack) in his work. A man that does his work in some sort, but not heartily and diligently, as one who knows that labour is not only a duty and necessity, but a means of sanctification, a training for a higher life.
Is brother to him that is a great waster; a destroyer. "Brother" is used as "companion" in Proverbs 28:24 (comp. Job 30:29), for one of like attributes and tendencies; as we say, "next door to;" and the destroyer is, as Nowack says, not merely one who wastes his property by reckless expenditure, but one who delights in such destruction, finds a morbid pleasure in haves and ruin.
So the maxim asserts that remissness in duty is as mischievous as actual destructiveness. "An idle brain," say the Italians, "is the devil's workshop." The word rendered "great" is baal (Proverbs 1:19), "owner," patrono (Montanus), domino (Vatablus); and, taking this sense, according to Wordsworth and others, the sentence implies that the servant who is slothful is brother to a master who is a prodigal.
But the interpretation given above is best founded. The LXX; reading ?瘻淚壘? instead of, ?瘻淚壘?, renders, "He who healeth not ( 恝? 關管? 菅???關琯館恝?) himself in his works is brother to him who destroyeth himself."
Maxims concerning laziness are found in other places; e.g. Proverbs 10:4; Proverbs 12:11, Proverbs 12:24; Proverbs 23:21.