Is "Idle Hands Are the Devil's Workshop" Actually in the Bible?

The short answer is it depends on which Bible you read. Proverbs 16:27 does warn about the dangers of laziness. The Living Bible translates this verse as “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.”

However, the Living Bible is not an exact translation.

Some Bibles (such as the New American Standard Bible) seek to translate the words in each passage as closely as possible, what is known as a word-for-word translation. Others (such as the New International Version) seek to capture the passage’s ideas as closely as possible, what is known as a thought-for-thought translation. The Living Bible and similar translations like The Message fit into a third category, paraphrasing each passage to capture the big idea.

Thought-for-thought translations and paraphrases often use expressions from English that do not appear in the languages in which the biblical manuscripts were written (usually Hebrew or Greek). So, the original Hebrew passage does not have the phrase “devil’s workshop.” The word-for-word NASB translates Proverbs 16:27 as “a worthless person digs up evil, while his words are like scorching fire.” The thought-for-thought NIV translates Proverbs 16:27 as “a scoundrel plots evil, and on their lips it is like a scorching fire.”

Since the Living Bible is a recent paraphrase, it does what many paraphrases do: it inserts common English expressions that seem to fit a verse’s overall idea.

So, if “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” does not originate from the Bible, where does it come from?

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According to the Oxford Reference Dictionary, “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” is a common expression developed from several earlier ones.

The earliest documented version of this phrase was written by Jerome of Stridon, a fourth-century theologian. In one of Jerome’s collected Letters (all written in Latin), he says fac et aliquid operis ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum. In English, this phrase translates as “do something, so that the devil may always find you busy.” Jerome’s quote became more famous when Geoffrey Chaucer had a character say the proverb in The Canterbury Tales.

By the eighteenth century, this expression had combined with references to the devil’s work. In 1715, Isaac Watts published the book Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children. It includes a poem, “Against Idleness and Mischief,” which says, “In works of labor or of skill I would be busy too: for Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Six years later, James Kelly published the collection Scottish Proverbs which included the advice, “If the devil finds a man idle, he’ll set him on work.”

Over the next few centuries, the components (warnings about idleness, the devil affecting people, the devil’s work) combined into the popular phrase we know.

We can understand how this proverb became common and became associated with biblical advice. It certainly sounds like the kind of thing we would find in the King James Bible. But does it match what Proverbs 16:27 is talking about?

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No matter how Proverbs 16:27 is translated, it is a warning about people who plot evil. Like most of the verses in the book of Proverbs, the warning does not provide much context. The book is a collection of short one to two-verse statements about how to live a wise life, each isolated from the other.

However, the wording implies what kind of evil to watch out for. The verse says that a “scoundrel” (NIV) or an “ungodly man” (KJV) plots evil. The Hebrew word used here is bᵊlîyaʿal, H1100 in Strong’s Concordance, and means wicked or worthless. It is sometimes translated as a name for Satan or Belial. For example, Judges 19:22 describes wicked people as “sons of Belial.”

The phrase “worthless” or “good for nothing” can sometimes mean someone who exhibits lazy behavior. Someone who accepts money for a job but never does it (or does it very poorly) may be called unreliable. People do not often call each other scoundrels anymore, but it describes someone lazy, poorly mannered, deceptive, or all three.

Given how bᵊlîyaʿal means someone worthless, a word that sometimes implies laziness, we can see why the Living Bible uses “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” Proverbs 16:27 warns about people who plot evil instead of being honest. The earlier verse, Proverbs 16:26, praises laborers whose need for income urges them to keep working. Honest workers focus on working well and hard, while scoundrels avoid work and create trouble.

However, the Old Testament does not consistently use bᵊlîyaʿal to mean laziness. It more often means someone fighting God’s commands or plans, like the “sons of Belial.” Furthermore, the second part of Proverbs 16:27 specifies the problems a scoundrel causes. His speech spreads evil, or “in his lips there is as a burning fire” (KJV). The verse warns not just about people making trouble, but especially people spreading evil with their words.

The Bible certainly does warn about laziness in many places, but not really in Proverbs 16:27. Yes, this warning about people planning evil could include people who would rather invent dishonest schemes than perform honest work. It could also include people who are not necessarily lazy, but spread evil for other reasons. Some people do sinful things to acquire power or to get revenge on others for perceived misdeeds.

Although Proverbs 16:27 does not discuss how idle hands are the devil’s workshop, the phrase prompts us to ask an important question. Is it true that the devil tempts us when we are idle?

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The meaning behind “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” is to encourage us to work. Jerome’s advice reminds us to do productive things with our time, or we may be tempted to do sinful things with our time instead.

On one level, this is good advice. It is easier to listen to temptation if we are idle than if we are occupied with something. The Bible does advise, particularly in the book of Proverbs, that people should seek honest work that provides income for themselves and their families. Choosing not to work for a living, or to do work that violates the Bible’s moral teachings, is sinful.

However, we miss the full biblical picture of work if we see idleness as doing nothing and work as getting things done. Taking a vacation after a crisis is not idleness but regaining health. Working so much at the office that family time gets neglected is not healthy.

The Bible offers a healthier vision of work. It describes rest as a good thing in the right context. It outlines a rhythm of work and rest (six days of work, one day of Sabbath rest). When we rest, we can regain energy to work better when we return to our routine. The Bible also highlights the value of slowing down to contemplate and seek guidance, like when Jesus prayed alone (Luke 5:15-16). Sabbaticals or vacations can offer time to reflect on how God is working in our lives.

The Bible also recommends we “count the cost” before undertaking projects (Luke 14:28-30). It warns us to consider what projects are for: someone who does charitable things but has no love for people has nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3). Work, like everything else in life, must be submitted to God.

Working that does not follow God’s direction is what true idleness looks like. Os Gunness suggests in his book The Call that sloth, one of the seven deadly sins, is not simply avoiding work. Sloth is “inner despair at the worthwhileness of the worthwhile.” It is not seeing any point in life, not believing God is directing our steps and has good work for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). An idle person may avoid doing things because they believe no work matters. An idle person may work relentlessly—another project, another chance to make money or gain recognition—to avoid thinking about how pointless everything seems. Workaholics and layabouts have the same problem: they both treat their concept of work as more important than what God says about work.

We must all make an honest living. We must also remember working for the sake of working does not honor God. We avoid idleness not by filling up our lives with work but by following his direction.

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If “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” reminds us to watch out for idleness, and idleness may be better understood as not pursuing God’s vision of good work, we must reconsider how we view work. We can begin with some basic steps.

First, we must recognize that work will never be enough. Again, workaholism is a kind of despair: we don’t feel God is present in our lives, so we work to ignore the sadness and create a false sense of control. Søren Kierkegaard argues in his book The Sickness Unto Death that we all experience despair because sin has left us broken, but realizing how much we need God helps us face the despair. As C. Stephen Evans explains in Søren Kierkegaard’s Christian Psychology, we face despair by leaning into grace. Once we realize our work will never satisfy, that grace covers what work cannot, we can become good workers. Knowing how much we rely on God (for direction, for salvation) frees us to be the workers he wants us to be.

Second, we consider what kind of work fits our design. We all have tasks we are naturally good at and others we are not skilled at. By trying different kinds of work, seeing how projects develop, and asking wise people (parents, mentors, etc.) what they notice about our work, we learn what God has designed us to do. From there, we can consider whether that work is something we can make a full-time living doing. Depending on where we live and our income situation (married, single, whether we have children), the work we feel most gifted to do may be something we do on the side. For example, most novelists write their books at home while a day job provides a steady paycheck and medical insurance.

Third, we listen to God as he guides us to work better. His direction may not be what we expect. For example, we may assume working well means finding one job and doing it relentlessly. Podcaster and author Marty Solomon often advises audiences that sometimes God says, “Stop.” Stop devoting everything to work and rest for a reason. Stop working in a position that no longer fits and find better work elsewhere. Stop working the same way and try a different method that may offer better results. Resting in God’s grace, we can listen to those promptings and trust him to show us the next steps.

Work is filled with temptations, and idleness is more complicated than we think. But as we learn to do good work that God calls us to do, we escape temptation and become the workers we were designed to be.

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