Proverbs 12:11

Vain - Empty; foolish; useless.

He that tilleth his land - God's blessing will be in the labor of the honest agriculturist.

But he that followeth vain persons - He who, while he should be cultivating his ground, preparing for a future crop, or reaping his harvest, associates with fowlers, coursers of hares, hunters of foxes, or those engaged in any champaign amusements, is void of understanding; and I have known several such come to beggary.

To this verse the Septuagint add the following clause: 'ov estin en oinwn diatribaiv, en toiv eautou ocurwmasi kataleiqei atimian. "He who is a boon companion in banquets, shall leave dishonor in his own fortresses." This has been copied by the Vulgate and the Arabic. That is The man who frequents the ale-house enriches that, while he impoverishes his own habitation.

The contrast is carried on between the life of industry and that of the idle, "vain person" of the "baser sort" (the "Raca" of Matthew 5:22). We might have expected that the second clause would have ended with such words as "shall lack bread," but the contrast goes deeper. Idleness leads to a worse evil than that of hunger.

12:11 Tilleth - That employs his time in an honest calling.Vain persons - In an idle course of living.