He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.
The saying stands within the first collection of proverbs in chapters 1-24, whose sayings are attributed to Solomon and were probably gathered by him or in his time. It is a practical teaching for daily life showing the desirability of true understanding as opposed to folly and the instruction of fools. Its setting sets the work of the ungodly and froward man for evil against the work of the one who is slow to anger and speaks words sweet to the soul and health to the bones for good.
The marginal reading renders the laborer as his soul, showing that soul can refer to the whole person. The Hebrew word nephesh means the person himself, so the word translated as himself points to the laborer as a whole living person moved by his own hunger, not to a separate entity within him. Soul here means personality and self.
The saying stands within the first collection of proverbs in chapters 1-24, whose sayings are attributed to Solomon and were probably gathered by him or in his time. It is a practical teaching for daily life showing the desirability of true understanding as opposed to folly and the instruction of fools. Its setting sets the work of the ungodly and froward man for evil against the work of the one who is slow to anger and speaks words sweet to the soul and health to the bones for good.
The marginal reading renders the laborer as his soul, showing that soul can refer to the whole person. The Hebrew word nephesh means the person himself, so the word translated as himself points to the laborer as a whole living person moved by his own hunger, not to a separate entity within him. Soul here means personality and self.