Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 6:11

"So shall thy poverty come as a robber, And thy want as an armed man." — Proverbs 6:11 (ASV)

The comparison is drawn from the two sources of Eastern terror: the “traveler,” that is, “the thief in the night,” coming suddenly to plunder; the “armed man,” literally “the man of the shield,” the armed robber. The habit of indolence is more fatally destructive than these marauders.