Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

PROVERBS 20:13KJV
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Proverbs 20:13 (KJV)

What does Proverbs 20:13 mean?

Proverbs 20:13 links a love of sleep with the risk of poverty and contrasts it with having enough food. The saying presents staying awake and attending to work as a practical way to avoid going hungry.

“Open thine eyes” pictures a person waking up and becoming alert. “Bread” stands for food and the basic needs of daily life. The verse speaks as advice to an individual, using a familiar contrast between sleep and waking.

The Hebrew behind Proverbs 20:13

  • “poverty” — יָרַשׁ (yarash): The word here carries the sense of becoming poor. It describes an outcome that may follow, rather than a condition the person already has.
  • “satisfied” — שָׂבַע (savaʿ): This word can mean having enough to eat or being filled. With “bread,” it points to a full meal rather than a promise of luxury.

Why Proverbs 20:13 matters

  • The warning concerns a love of sleep, not sleep itself. The phrase “love not sleep” places the emphasis on the person’s attachment to it.
  • The saying’s picture of enough is modest. “Satisfied with bread” describes having food to eat, in contrast to the poverty named in the first half.

Where else these words appear

“open” Hebrew H6491 · used in 18 verses

  • Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
  • 2 Kings 6:20 And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
  • Isaiah 37:17 Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.

“sleep” Hebrew H8142 · used in 23 verses

  • Genesis 28:16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
  • Psalms 90:5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
  • Proverbs 24:33 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

“satisfied” Hebrew H7646 · used in 92 verses

  • Exodus 16:8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.
  • Psalms 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
  • Ecclesiastes 5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.