Proverbs 20:4

“The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold, etc.] Or, “in the cold”; in the time of cold, as Aben Ezra; in the time of autumn, which is the time of ploughing, when it begins to be cold weather, and winter is drawing on: and this is discouraging to the sluggard, who does not care to take his hands out of his bosom to feed himself, and much less to plough; (see <201924>Proverbs 19:24); [therefore] shall he beg in harvest, and [have] nothing; he shall ask of those who have ploughed and sowed, and are now reaping and gathering in their increase at harvest time; but they shall give him nothing; for such as will not work should not eat; and if a man will not plough and sow, he cannot…”

“shall . . . beg--literally, "ask" (in this sense, Psa 109:10).”

“Plowing time in Palestine is in November and December, when the wind blows commonly from the North. return to 'Top of Page'”

“sluggard: Pro 10:4, Pro 19:15, Pro 19:24, Pro 26:13-16 cold: or, winter therefore: Pro 6:10, Pro 6:11, Pro 19:15, Pro 24:34; Mat 25:3-10, Mat 25:24-28; Pe2 1:5-11 Proverbs 20:5”

“4 At the beginning of the harvest the sluggard plougheth not; And so when he cometh to the reaping-time there is nothing. Many translators (Symmachus, Jerome, Luther) and interpreters (e.g., Rashi, Zckler) explain: propter frigus; but חרף is, according to its verbal import, not a synon. of קר and צנּה, but means gathering = the time of gathering (synon. אסיף), from חרף, carpere, (Note: Vid., Fleischer in Levy's Chald. Wrterbuch, i. 426.) as harvest, the time of the καρπίζειν, the plucking off of the fruit; but the harvest is the beginning of the old Eastern agricultural year, for in Palestine and Syria the time of ploughing and sowing with the harvest or early rains (חריף = יורה, Neh 7:24;…”