a sluggish man
| Root | עצל (ʿ-ṣ-l) |
| Core Meanings | slackness, sluggishness, laziness, indolence |
| Semantic Range | lazy person, sluggard, habitually idle one, morally or practically negligent individual |
| Conceptual Significance | In Wisdom literature, especially Proverbs, the עָצֵל represents the opposite of diligence and wise industry. He serves as a moral exemplar of folly, illustrating how spiritual and practical negligence lead to poverty, shame, and ruin. |
| Morphological Notes | Adjective, masculine singular absolute (HAamsa), functioning substantively as a noun; no article or suffix attached. |
| Rendering Rationale | The root עצל conveys the idea of slackness or habitual sluggishness. The form is a masculine singular adjective in the absolute state, used substantively; therefore "a sluggish man" preserves both the core sense of slack indolence and the masculine singular grammatical form. |
AI-generated (openai/gpt-5.2-chat-latest)