Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Brother to him that is a great waster" (Proverbs 18:9) sounds like it's describing someone who is simply careless with their own time.
A "great waster" meant a destroyer or squanderer of goods: closer to "vandal" than to someone who merely wastes their own time.
Proverbs 18:9, in every translation this tool compares.
The proverb pairs the lazy worker with a "great waster": someone who actively squanders resources, like a prodigal spending his substance in riotous living. Modern translations often render it "destroyer" to capture the force of the Hebrew.
Today "waster" (when used at all) tends to describe someone who's merely unproductive or idle with their own time, a much weaker sense than the KJV's picture of someone actively ruining or squandering goods and wealth.
