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Want to know what the Bible says about Idleness? Here are 214 Bible verses about Idleness from the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), sorted from the most relevant to the least relevant.

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Note: Always check the context of a verse; Click the "Read Full Chapter" button next to each verse to read more. The context of a verse might put a very different slant on what the verse seems to say.

Proverbs 12:27 NIV
The lazy do not roast any game,
    but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.
404
Ephesians 4:28 NIV
Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
387
Proverbs 23:21 NIV
for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
    and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
386
Proverbs 26:13-16 NIV
13 A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
    a fierce lion roaming the streets!”
14 As a door turns on its hinges,
    so a sluggard turns on his bed.
15 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
    he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.
16 A sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
    than seven people who answer discreetly.
385
Ecclesiastes 4:5 NIV
Fools fold their hands
    and ruin themselves.
380
Exodus 5:8 NIV
But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’
353
Proverbs 15:19 NIV
The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns,
    but the path of the upright is a highway.
349
Proverbs 26:16 NIV
A sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
    than seven people who answer discreetly.
345
Proverbs 22:13 NIV
The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside!
    I’ll be killed in the public square!”
344
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NIV
11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
343
Acts 17:10-11 NIV
10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
339
Proverbs 19:24 NIV
A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
    he will not even bring it back to his mouth!
328
Luke 24:11 NIV
But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
328
1 Timothy 5:8 NIV
Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
326
Proverbs 21:25-26 NIV
25 The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him,
    because his hands refuse to work.
26 All day long he craves for more,
    but the righteous give without sparing.
323
Exodus 5:17 NIV
Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’
319
Matthew 20:3 NIV
“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
319
Proverbs 24:34 NIV
and poverty will come on you like a thief
    and scarcity like an armed man.
293
1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
293
Proverbs 10:26 NIV
As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
    so are sluggards to those who send them.
287

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