Bible Verses about “idle hands”
The Bible contains 32 verses about idle hands across both Old and New Testaments. These scriptures offer guidance and inspiration for your spiritual journey.
“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: "If anyone will not work, neither let him eat."”
“Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.”
“She looks well to the ways of her household, and doesn't eat the bread of idleness.”
“For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don't work at all, but are busybodies.”
“I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.”
“Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;”
“which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,”
“provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.”
“Now those who are that way, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.”
“Besides, they also learn to be idle, going about from house to house. Not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not.”
“He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, but the hand of the diligent brings wealth.”
“One who is slack in his work is brother to him who is a master of destruction.”
“We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all.”
“How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?”
“In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.”
“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks in rebellion, and not after the tradition which they received from us.”
“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:”
“a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep;”
“so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.”
“Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.”
“so your poverty will come as a robber, and your want as an armed man.”
“The hands of the diligent ones shall rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.”
“I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;”
“Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.”
“Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction:”
“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.”
“A worthless man devises mischief. His speech is like a scorching fire.”
“not because we don't have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us.”
“For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn't behave ourselves rebelliously among you,”
“neither did we eat bread from anyone's hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you;”
“He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during the harvest is a son who causes shame.”
“By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks.”