Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 6:6
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
6. Go to the ant ] Comp. Pro 30:25; where however the foresight of the little insect is chiefly in view. Here its ceaseless activity, and that of its own free-will, without being set on work or kept up to it by external authority ( Pro 6:7), furnishes the lesson to the sluggard.
sluggard ] The Heb. word occurs frequently in this Book, but not elsewhere. Forms of the same root occur in Jdg 18:9, “be not slothful to go,” and Ecc 10:18, “by slothfulness the roof sinketh in.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Twelfth Address. Chap. 6. Pro 6:6-11. The Sluggard
6 11. Comp. on this Section Pro 24:30-34.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The warning against the wastefulness of the prodigal is followed by a warning as emphatic against the wastefulness of sloth. The point of comparison with the ant is not so much the foresight of the insect as its unwearied activity during the appointed season, rebuking mans inaction at a special crisis Pro 6:4. In Pro 30:25, the storing, provident habit of the ant is noticed.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Pro 6:6
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
Little preachers and great sermons
There is a twofold revelation of God–in the Bible and in nature. In relation to this revelation, men divide into three classes–
1. Those who study neither. Their intellects are submerged in animalism and worldliness.
2. Those who study one and disparage the other. Some devout Christians regard nature as not sufficiently sacred and religious for their investigation. Some scientific men try to turn the results of their researches against the Bible.
3. Those who reverentially study the teachings of both. They treat them as volumes from the same Author.
The allusion in the text shows that the Bible encourages the study of nature.
1. It sends us to nature in order to attest its first principles.
2. It refers us to nature for illustrations of its great truths.
3. It refers us to nature in order to reprove the sins it denounces. To reprove us for our spiritual indolence it directs us to the ants. The sluggard we now deal with is the spiritual sluggard, not the secularly indolent man, but the man who is neglecting the culture of his own spiritual nature and the salvation of his own soul. The ants teach these important lessons.
I. That the feebleness of your power is no just reason for your indolence. The ants are feeble, but see how they work. Naturalists have shown their ingenuity as architects, their industry as miners and builders. Remember three things–
1. All power, however feeble, is given for work.
2. You are not required to do more than you have power to accomplish.
3. All power increases by use.
II. That the activity of others is no just excuse for your indolence. In the ant-world you will see millions of inhabitants, but not one idler; all are in action. One does not depend upon another, or expect another to do his work. The Christian world is a scene of action, but not one of the million actors can do your work.
III. That the want of a helper is no just excuse for your indolence. Each ant is thrown upon his own resources and powers. Self-reliantly each labours on, not waiting for the instruction or guidance of another. Trust your own instincts; act out your own powers; use the light you have; look to God for help.
IV. That the providence of God is no just reason for your indolence. God provides for His creatures through the use of their own powers. He does not do for any creature what He has given that creature power to do for himself.
1. Like these little ants, you have a future.
2. Like these little creatures, you have to prepare for the future.
3. Like these little creatures, you have a specific time in which to make preparation.
Then do not talk of Providence as an excuse for your indolence. He has provided for you richly, but He only grants the provision on condition of the right employment of your powers. There is an inheritance for the good, but only on condition of their working. There is a heaven of knowledge, but only for the student. There is a harvest of blessedness, but only to the diligent husbandman. And your harvest-time will soon be over. (Homilist.)
The foresight and diligence of the ant
The wisdom of providence is eminently conspicuous in the limits it has set to the faculties of the human mind. As experience of the past is of far more importance in the conduct of life than the most accurate and intimate acquaintance with the future, the power of memory is more extensive and efficient than the faculty of foresight. It was wise and merciful to afford us but an indistinct perception of the future. But here man acts in opposition to the will of his Maker. He has withheld from us distinct knowledge of the future, yet how often do we act as if we were familiarly acquainted with it. Our confident expectation of the continuance of life encourages that indolence about their immortal interests in which so many of the children of men waste the season allotted for their preparation for eternity. The admitted history of the ant does more than corroborate and confirm the statement of Solomon in this text. But it is not as a curious fact in natural history, or even as furnishing a theme of praise to the wise and munificent Author of Nature, that the wise man introduces the history and habits of the ant. It is as a rebuke to the sloth and indolence of rational and accountable beings.
I. We are admonished and reproved by the sagacity and care with which the ants make preparation for the winter. Nature has given them an instinctive anticipation of the necessities and severity of winter. Grain after grain is borne along, and having been carefully prepared against revegetation, is added to their little store. The winter of our year is fast approaching; are we making all needful preparations?
II. We are admonished by the sagacity with which the ant selects and seizes the proper season of preparation for winter. The food proper for storage can only be obtained at particular seasons; and if these are neglected, want and wretchedness reign throughout the cells. The present life is the season in which you are called to make provision for the days that are to come.
III. The incessant and unintermitted activity and diligence with which the ant plies her summer task present another important lesson of wisdom to the rational and accountable family of God. It is not an occasional exercise in which this curious creature is engaged. Day after day do these industrious tribes issue forth to the work of gathering. And here, again, they teach us wisdom. The great work to which religion calls us is not one that can be taken up and laid aside at pleasure.
IV. The harmony, union, and concord which prevail among the ants suggest a lesson for us. The instinct which prompts them to assist each other in their busy labours has been celebrated as one of the most interesting manifestations of Creating Wisdom. How beautifully does it accord with some of the most frequently repeated precepts of the gospel! And also with such counsel of the apostle as this, Bear ye one anothers burdens. (John Johnston.)
Sluggishness
I. Sluggishness or idleness is a great sin.
1. It is a sin against nature, for all living things put out that strength God hath given them.
2. It is against Gods commandment. It is stealing for a man to live on other mens labours, and do nothing himself.
3. Idleness produces many other sins: such as disobedience to parents, drunkenness, adultery (as in Davids ease), stealing, lying, and cheating.
4. Idleness brings many miseries upon man: such as diseases, poverty, unmercifulness in others, loss of heaven and pains of hell. If the idler object that he hurts none but himself, we reply, So much the worse. Remember, thou must give account of thy time; of thy talents; of thy thoughts; of thy idle words; of thy deeds; of neglecting thy family; of doing no good in the commonwealth.
II. Little creatures may teach great men much wit. From the ant they may learn–
1. Providence.
2. Labour.
3. Order. (Francis Taylor, B. D.)
A secular sermon an foresight
The busy ant is to be our minister. The great lesson it teaches is foresight, the duty of rightly improving the passing hour, the wisdom of making the best of our opportunities. The faculty of foresight, the power of doing something for the future, is a faculty most divine. Rightly educated and developed, it gives man peculiar elevation, and invests him with commanding influence. He who sees farthest will rule best. Foresight is not to be confounded with distrust. The wise exercise of foresight makes life pleasant–
1. By economising time. The man who has least to do takes most time to do it in. Our greatest men have been the most severe economists of time.
2. By systematising duties. Some persons have no power of systematising. Such men fret themselves to death, and do not perish alone. The men in the Church who do the least are generally the men of leisure.
3. By diminishing difficulties. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Foresight numbers and weighs contingencies. The person who is destitute of foresight multiplies the difficulties of other people. The ant makes the best of her opportunities. Every life has a summer, and every life a winter. In recommending preparation for lifes winter I am not advocating penuriousness. Covetousness is an affront to God. The liberal soul shall be made fat. (J. Parker, D.D.)
A lazy man
Our text points to the sluggard–the lazy man. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? There are many lazy people in the world. They are generally not worth much, not much wanted, nor of much use, except as beacons. They are not often prosperous. An idle man, says Mr. Spurgeon, makes himself a target for the devil; and the devil is an uncommonly good shot. An idle mans heart is the devils nest; his hands the devils tools; while the devil lays in wait for active, busy men, the idle man is actually waiting for the devil to set him a job. A race of idle men would create a famine. There are men who are absolutely too indolent to seek for salvation, tis too much trouble! And there are lazy Christians too; idlers in the Masters vineyard. A little sleep, etc.
1. Here is a self-indulgent man. This little speech means, I am comfortable; dont disturb me; let me alone to enjoy myself. This is the wish of many a sinful man. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, living purely selfish lives; for self-indulgence may, and generally does, mean selfishness. Self-indulgence is easy. Tis easier to give the reins to our appetites than to curb them; to slide than to climb; to please ourselves than to deny ourselves. If we would be men of mark for holiness, usefulness, of eminence either in things temporal or spiritual, we must know something of self-denial. Men who take it easy rarely make much headway. Look round amongst Christian workers, business men, great philanthropists, successful inventors, men illustrious or famous in any walk of life; read the biographies of men who have been renowned for any good thing–you will find that they were men of self-denial, not self-indulgent. Moses was a self-denying man; he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; and Moses prospered; he became very great; he was appointed leader and commander of the people of Israel. The apostles were self-denying men; hear them: We have left all, and have followed Thee. A little sleep, etc.
2. Here is a procrastinating man. He does not mean to sleep always, not even for long–only for a little while. He only wants a little sleep, and then he will be stirring. Think of hours, days, lives, wasted in little delays; of souls lost by little delays! No man deliberately intends to be always a slave to sin, the devil, his own lusts. Not always–no; but just now it is pleasant, convenient. Courage to take now the decisive step–now! To-morrow may never come. (G. B. Foster.)
The ant and its nest
The truth of Solomons reference to the ant, which has been questioned before now, is fully vindicated. Dr. Macmillan has found the food stored up in the nests of the ants, and he adds this interesting information: Examining the seeds collected in the nests of the ants on the top of the hill at Nice more particularly with my magnifying glass, I found to my astonishment that each seed had its end carefully bitten off. And the reason of this was perfectly plain. You know each seed contains two parts–the young plant or germ lying in its cradle, as it were, and the supply of food for its nourishment, when it begins to grow, wrapped round it. Now the ants had bitten off the young plant germ, and they left only the part which was full of nourishment. And they did this to prevent the seeds from growing and exhausting all the nourishment contained in them. If they did not do this the seed stored under the ground, when the rains came, would shoot, and so they would lose all their trouble and be left to starve. I could not find in the heap a single seed that had not been treated in this way. Of course, none of the seeds that had their ends bitten off would grow; and you might as well sow grains of sand as the seed found in ants nests.
The necessity of providing for the spiritual experiences of the future
I. The important and interesting truth which these words suggest. That provision ought to be made for the future.
1. We should make provision for the soul.
2. What is the kind of provision needed for the soul?
3. The period against which we are to make this provision. The winter of death and eternity.
II. The season in which this provision is to be made. The ants secure their winter requirements during the summer. Our life may be compared to summer for two reasons–
1. Because during the summer we have every needful opportunity of getting ready for the winter.
2. Because summer is the only time in which this provision for the winter can be made.
III. The reproof which is here given to those who neglect to make the provision.
1. The force of this rebuke arises from the insignificance of the being by whose conduct we are reproved.
2. The disadvantageous circumstances in which they are said to be placed.
3. From that which they make their provision.
4. From the season against which they provide.
5. From the epithet applied to those who are negligent.
IV. The advice which the wise man gives.
1. A lesson of wisdom.
2. A lesson of industry.
3. A lesson of perseverance. If not making this preparation, what will by and by be our moral destitution! (J. Coe.)
Industry
The indolent and improvident are here addressed. They are sent to the inferior creation for a lesson; and not to the greatest and noblest of the animals, but to one of the least and most insignificant of the insects. The providence of the ant has, by some naturalists, been questioned. It has been alleged that during winter they are, like some other insects, in a state of torpidity, and therefore need not the precaution ascribed to them in Pro 6:8. On this we observe–
1. If the fact of their laying up provisions be ascertained, all analogy more than warrants the conclusion that it is for some end.
2. It is said the stock laid up is not for winter, but for the sustenance of the young, when they need the almost undivided attention of the whole. But as a proof of providence, this comes to the same thing.
3. The assertion that the laying up of provisions by the ant is a mistake may not apply to the ants of every country. In tropical climates they do lay up provisions. The main lesson the sluggard has to learn from the ant is industry.
Three grounds of this duty are indicated in Scripture–
1. That persons may not be a burden on society or on the Church.
2. That they may be out of the way of temptation; for there are many temptations in idle habits.
3. That they may have wherewith to assist others, whose needs, from unavoidable causes, may be greater than their own. One perilous characteristic of sloth is, that it is ever growing. (R. Wardlaw.)
The teaching of the ant
Man was created with more understanding than the beasts of the earth. But our minds are so debased by our apostasy from God that the meanest creatures may become our teachers.
I. The character of the person whom the wise man here addresses. The sluggard! Sloth casteth into a deep sleep, and in the verses following the text the sluggard is represented as in this state. He spends his time in fruitless wishes. He is discouraged by the least opposition. He creates imaginary dangers for himself. We know well who they are whose hands refuse to labour, who are clothed with rags, and make poverty not only their complaint, but their argument. But sloth is not confined to the common affairs of life, nor the character of a sluggard to men in any particular station. There is sloth in religion; neglecting the one thing needful, the care of our immortal souls.
II. The counsel or advice which the wise man hath given us. The ant instructeth us not by speech, but by actions. Therefore we are called to consider her ways; how she is employed, and for what ends she is active. The wisdom we learn from the ant is the wisdom of acting suitably to our superior nature and our glorious hopes. We learn from the ant three things–
1. A foresight and sagacity in making provision for the time to come. How dreary must the winter of life be, when the previous seasons have been passed in sloth, in idleness, or in folly!
2. Activity and diligence. The ant never intermits her labours as long as the season lasts. Happy were it for man that he as faithfully employed his precious time to render himself useful in this world, or to prepare for eternity.
3. Sagacity in making use of the proper season for activity. Opportunity is the flower of time; or it is the most precious part of it, which, if once lost, may never return. Foresight, diligence, and sagacity the ant employs by an instinct of nature. She has no guide, but we have many guides. She hath no overseer, but man acts under the immediate inspection of Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. And the voice of conscience in us is the voice of God. The ant hath no ruler, or judge to call her to account for her conduct; but every one of us must give account of himself to God.
III. Improvement of the subject.
1. The sluggard sins against the very nature which God hath given him.
2. The sluggard sins against the manifest design of providence.
3. The sluggard sins against the great design of the gospel. Let us then be no longer slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. (R. Walker.)
Lessons for children from the ant
An ant could tell us strange things. She could tell about the houses they live in, some of which are forty stories high, twenty stories being dug out, one beneath another, under the earth, and twenty stories being built up over them, above ground; she could tell about the different kinds of trades they follow, how some are miners, and dig down into the ground; some are masons, and build very curious houses, with long walls, supported by pillars, and covered over with arched ceilings. She could tell how some are carpenters, who build houses out of wood, having many chambers which communicate with each other by entries and galleries; how some are nurses, and spend their whole time taking care of the young ones; some are labourers, and are made, like the negro slaves, to work for their masters; while some are soldiers, whose only business it is to mount guard, and stand ready to defend their friends and fellow-citizens. The ants teach:
I. A lesson of industry. The ant is a better example of industry than even the bee.
II. A lesson of perseverence. They never get discouraged by any difficulties they may meet with. Perseverance conquers all things.
III. A lesson of union. The benefits of being united, and working together. The union of the ants both preserves them safely and enables them to do great good.
IV. A lesson of kindness. Ants are a very happy set of creatures. There seems to be nothing like selfishness among them.
V. A lesson of prudence, or looking ahead. The power to think about the future, and to prepare for it. (R. Newton, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. Go to the ant, thou sluggard] nemalah, the ant, is a remarkable creature for foresight, industry, and economy. At the proper seasons they collect their food-not in the summer to lay up for the winter; for they sleep during the winter, and eat not; and therefore such hoards would be to them useless; but when the food necessary for them is most plentiful, then they collect it for their consumption in the proper seasons. No insect is more laborious, not even the bee itself; and none is more fondly attached to or more careful of its young, than the ant. When the young are in their aurelia state, in which they appear like a small grain of rice, they will bring them out of their nests, and lay them near their holes, for the benefit of the sun; and on the approach of rain, carefully remove them, and deposit them in the nest, the hole or entrance to which they will cover with a piece of thin stone or tile, to prevent the wet from getting in. It is a fact that they do not lay up any meat for winter; nor does Solomon, either here or in Pr 30:25, assert it. He simply says that they provide their food in summer, and gather it in harvest; these are the most proper times for a stock to be laid in for their consumption; not in winter; for no such thing appears in any of their nests, nor do they need it, as they sleep during that season; but for autumn, during which they wake and work. Spring, summer, and autumn, they are incessant in their labour; and their conduct affords a bright example to men.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is another distinct precept; and it is for the most part as needless to seek, as hard to find, coherence in the proverbs and counsels of this book.
Her ways; her actions and manner of living, especially her diligence and providence, which are the things commended in her, Pro 6:7,8; of which naturalists give many instances, as that the ants watch the fittest seasons for all things, that they provide most plentifully against the time of famine, that they never hinder, but always assist, one another in their work, and unite their force together to carry away such things as are too large or heavy for one of them; that they prepare fit cells or repositories for their corn in the ground, and such as the rain cannot easily reach; and if through excessive rain their corn be wet, they bring it forth to be dried; that they bite off the ends of the grains of corn that they may not grow, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6-8. The improvident sluggardsusually want sureties. Hence, such are advised to industry by theant’s example.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Go to the ant, thou sluggard,…. That art become surety for another, and got into a snare and net, and yet takest no pains to get out. Or this may be directed, not to the surety, but the debtor; who, through his slothfulness, has contracted debts, and uses no industry to be in a capacity to pay them. Or, it may be, this has no connection with the former; but the wise man proceeds to a new subject, and to dissuade from idleness, which brings ruin on families, and leads to all sin; and, for the instruction of idle and slothful men, proposes the example of the ant, and sends them to it to learn industry of it h;
consider her ways; what diligence and industry it uses in providing its food; which, though a small, weak, feeble creature, yet will travel over flints and stones, climb trees, enter into towers, barns, cellars, places high and low, in search of food; never hinder, but help one another in carrying their burdens; prepare little cells to put their provisions in, and are so built as to secure them from rain; and if at any time their corn is wet, they bring out and dry it, and bite off the ends of it, that it may not grow. These, with others, are taken notice of by Frantzius i; and some of them by Gersom on the place;
and be wise; learn wisdom of it, and be wiser than that, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions: this is a mortification of proud men, that would be reckoned wise, to be sent to so despicable a creature to get wisdom from.
h So Horace gives it as an example of labour—-“Parvula (nam exemplo est) magni formica laboris”, &c. Sermon. l. 1. Sat. 1. v. 33, 34, 35. & Phocylides, v. 152-159. i Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 5. c. 8. Vid. Aelian. Hist. Animal. l. 2. c. 25. & l. 6. c. 43.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As Elihu (Job 35:11) says that God has set the beasts as our teachers, so he sends the sluggard to the school of the ant ( Ameise), so named (in Germ.) from its industry ( Emsigkeit ):
6 Go to the ant, sluggard;
Consider her ways, and be wise!
7 She that hath no judge,
Director, and ruler:
8 She prepareth in summer her food,
Has gathered in harvest her store.
The Dech written mostly under the separates the inseparable. The thought, Go to the ant, sluggard! permits no other distinction than in the vocative; but the Dech of is changed into Munach
(Note: Cod. 1294 accentuates ; and that, according to Ben-Asher’s rule, is correct.)
on account of the nature of the Athnach -word, which consists of only two syllables without the counter-tone. The ant has for its Hebrew-Arabic name , from the R. (Isaiah, p. 687), which is first used of the sound, which expresses the idea of the low, dull, secret – thus of its active and yet unperceived motion; its Aramaic name in the Peshto, umenaa’ , and in the Targ. (also Arab. sumsum , simsim , of little red ants), designates it after its quick activity, its busy running hither and thither ( vid., Fleischer in Levy’s Chald. Wrterb. ii. 578). She is a model of unwearied and well-planned labour. From the plur. it is to be concluded that the author observed their art in gathering in and laying up in store, carrying burdens, building their houses, and the like ( vid., the passages in the Talmud and Midrash in the Hamburg Real-Encyclopdie fr Bibel und Talmud, 1868, p. 83f.). To the ant the sluggard ( , Aram. and Arab. , with the fundamental idea of weight and dulness) is sent, to learn from her to be ashamed, and to be taught wisdom.
Pro 6:7 This relative clause describes the subject of Pro 6:8 more fully: it is like a clause with , quamquam .
(Note: Pro 6:7 is commonly halved by Rebia; but for the correct accentuation, vid., Torath Emeth, p. 48, 3.)
The community of ants exhibits a peculiar class of workers; but it is not, like that of bees, composed of grades germinating in the queen-bee as the head. The three offices here named represent the highest judiciary, police, and executive powers; for (from , to distinguish, with the ending in, vid., Jesurun, p. 215 s.) is the judge; (from , Arab. satr , to draw lines, to write) is the overseer (in war the director, controller), or, as Saalschtz indicates the province of the schotrim both in cities and in the camp, the office of police; ( vid., Isaiah, p. 691), the governors of the whole state organism subordinated to the schoftim and the schotrim . The Syr., and the Targ. slavishly following it, translate by (harvest), for they interchange this word with .
Pro 6:8 In this verse the change of the time cannot be occasioned by this, that and are distinguished as the earlier and the later period of the year; for (= Arab. kayt , from kat , to be glowing hot, cf. Arab. kghyyt of the glow of the mid-day heat) is the late summer, when the heat rises to the highest degree; but the son of the Shunammite succumbed to the sun-stroke in the time of harvest (2Ki 4:18.). Lwenstein judiciously remarks that refers to immediate want, to that which is future; or, better, the former shows them engaged in persevering industry during the summer glow, the latter as at the end of the harvest, and engaged in the bringing home of the winter stores. The words of the procuring of food in summer are again used by Agur, Pro 30:25; and the Aramaic fable of the ant and the grasshopper,
(Note: Vid., Goldberg’s Chofes Matmonim, Berlin 1845; and Landsberger’s Berlin Graduation Thesis, Fabulae aliquot Aramaeae, 1846, p. 28.)
which is also found among those of Aesop and of Syntipas, serves as an illustration of this whole verse. The lxx has, after the “Go to the ant,” a proverb of five lines, . Hitzig regards it as of Greek origin; and certainly, as Lagarde has shown, it contains idiomatic Greek expressions which would not occur to a translator from the Hebrew. In any case, however, it is an interpolation which disfigures the Hebrew text by overlading it.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Slothfulness Reproved. | |
6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. 9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
Solomon, in these verses, addresses himself to the sluggard who loves his ease, lives in idleness, minds no business, sticks to nothing, brings nothing to pass, and in a particular manner is careless in the business of religion. Slothfulness is as sure a way to poverty, though not so short a way, as rash suretiship. He speaks here to the sluggard,
I. By way of instruction, v. 6-8. He sends him to school, for sluggards must be schooled. He is to take him to school himself, for, if the scholar will take no pains, the master must take the more; the sluggard is not willing to come to school to him (dreaming scholars will never love wakeful teachers) and therefore he has found him out another school, as low as he can desire. Observe,
1. The master he is sent to school to: Go to the ant, to the bee, so the LXX. Man is taught more than the beasts of the earth, and made wiser that the fowls of heaven, and yet is so degenerated that he may learn wisdom from the meanest in sects and be shamed by them. When we observe the wonderful sagacities of the inferior creatures we must not only give glory to the God of nature, who has made them thus strangely, but receive instruction to ourselves; by spiritualizing common things, we may make the things of God both easy and ready to us, and converse with them daily.
2. The application of mind that is required in order to learn of this master: Consider her ways. The sluggard is so because he does not consider; nor shall we ever learn to any purpose, either by the word or the works of God, unless we set ourselves to consider. Particularly, if we would imitate others in that which is good, we must consider their ways, diligently observe what they do, that we may do likewise, Phil. iii. 17.
3. The lesson that is to be learned. In general, learn wisdom, consider, and be wise; that is the thing we are to aim at in all our learning, not only to be knowing, but to be wise. In particular, learn to provide meat in summer; that is, (1.) We must prepare for hereafter, and not mind the present time only, not eat up all, and lay up nothing, but in gathering time treasure up for a spending time. Thus provident we must be in our worldly affairs, not with an anxious care, but with a prudent foresight; lay in for winter, for straits and wants that may happen, and for old age; much more in the affairs of our souls. We must provide meat and food, that which is substantial and will stand us in stead, and which we shall most need. In the enjoyment of the means of grace provide for the want of them, in life for death, in time for eternity; in the state of probation and preparation we must provide for the state of retribution. (2.) We must take pains, and labour in our business, yea, though we labour under inconveniences. Even in summer, when the weather is hot, the ant is busy in gathering food and laying it up, and does not indulge her ease, nor take her pleasure, as the grasshopper, that sings and sports in the summer and then perishes in the winter. The ants help one another; if one have a grain of corn too big for her to carry home, her neighbours will come in to her assistance. (3.) We must improve opportunities, we must gather when it is to be had, as the ant does in summer and harvest, in the proper time. It is our wisdom to improve the season while that favours us, because that may be done then which cannot be done at all, or not so well done, at another time. Walk while you have the light.
4. The advantages which we have of learning this lesson above what the ant has, which will aggravate our slothfulness and neglect if we idle away our time. She has no guides, overseers, and rulers, but does it of herself, following the instinct of nature; the more shame for us who do not in like manner follow the dictates of our own reason and conscience, though besides them we have parents, masters, ministers, magistrates, to put us in mind of our duty, to check us for the neglect of it, to quicken us to it, to direct us in it, and to call us to an account about it. The greater helps we have for working out our salvation the more inexcusable shall we be if we neglect it.
II. By way of reproof, v. 9-11. In these verses,
1. He expostulates with the sluggard, rebuking him and reasoning with him, calling him to his work, as a master does his servant that has over-slept himself: “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? How long wouldst thou sleep if one would let thee alone? When wilt thou think it time to arise?” Sluggards should be roused with a How long? This is applicable, (1.) To those that are slothful in the way of work and duty, in the duties of their particular calling as men or their general calling as Christians. “How long wilt thou waste thy time, and when wilt thou be a better husband of it? How long wilt thou love thy ease, and when wilt thou learn to deny thyself, and to take pains? How long wilt thou bury thy talents, and when wilt thou begin to trade with them? How long wilt thou delay, and put off, and trifle away thy opportunities, as one regardless of hereafter; and when wilt thou stir up thyself to do what thou hast to do, which, if it be not done, will leave thee for ever undone?” (2.) To those that are secure in the way of sin and danger: “Hast thou not slept enough? Is it not far in the day? Does not thy Master call? Are not the Philistines upon thee? When then wilt thou arise?”
2. He exposes the frivolous excuses he makes for himself, and shows how ridiculous he makes himself. When he is roused he stretched himself, and begs, as for alms, for more sleep, more slumber; he is well in his warm bed, and cannot endure to think of rising, especially of rising to work. But, observe, he promises himself and his master that he will desire but a little more sleep, a little more slumber, and then he will get up and go to his business. But herein he deceives himself; the more a slothful temper is indulged the more it prevails; let him sleep awhile, and slumber awhile, and still he is in the same tune; still he asks for a little more sleep, yet a little more; he never thinks he has enough, and yet, when he is called, pretends he will come presently. Thus men’s great work is left undone by being put off yet a little longer, de die in diem–from day to day; and they are cheated of all their time by being cheated of the present moments. A little more sleep proves an everlasting sleep. Sleep on now, and take your rest.
3. He gives him fair warning of the fatal consequences of his slothfulness, v. 11. (1.) Poverty and want will certainly come upon those that are slothful in their business. If men neglect their affairs, they not only will not go forward, but they will go backward. He that leaves his concerns at sixes and sevens will soon see them go to wreck and ruin, and bring his noble to nine-pence. Spiritual poverty comes upon those that are slothful in the service of God; those will want oil, when they should use it, that provide it not in their vessels. (2.) “It will come silently and insensibly, will grow upon thee, and come step by step, as one that travels, but will without fail come at last.” It will leave thee as naked as if thou wert stripped by a highwayman; so bishop Patrick. (3.) “It will come irresistibly, like an armed man, whom thou canst not oppose nor make thy part good against.”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Pail of Laziness – Pro 6:6-11
Verses 6-8 counsel the lazy to learn from the harvester ant common in Palestine not to waste time, but work diligently in the season of opportunity, Pro 30:25.
Verses 9-11 warn that laziness squanders precious time, talents and opportunities, and robs the sluggard of worthwhile accomplishments as surely as the plundering thief in the night or armed robber would deprive of material property or life itself, Pro 10:4; Pro 13:4; Pro 19:15; Pro 20:4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES,
Pro. 6:11. One that travelleth, a highwayman, a footpad. Armed man, literally, a man of the shield.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Pro. 6:6-11
INDUSTRY AND INDOLENCE
A contrast.
I. The industrious insect.
1. Nature is intended to be a moral teacher to man. The most saintly natures of ancient and modern times have regarded Gods works in this light, and God Himself has led the van in so often pointing man to animate and inanimate Nature for instruction and comfort. He first announced this truth when He said to Noah, I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth (Gen. 9:13). This is the first record of the enlistment of Nature as a helper to the human soul, the first recorded instance of Gods pointing out to man what He intended all natural objects to become to His spiritual nature. Here the son of Solomon is exhorted to gain instructionto be stirred up to a sense of dutyfrom a study of one of Gods inferior creatures.
2. Nature becomes the instructor of those only who consider her ways. The existence, within a mans reach, of the most beautiful painting in the world will be of no advantage to him unless he studies it. It is only as he considers it that it will convey to him the thought of the painter. The works of God are within the reach of men, but they must be looked at and considered if they are to be to Him what God intended them to be. God placed the bow in the cloud and the tiny ant upon the ground to be subjects of meditation. The Psalmist considered the heavens before he was moved with a sense of his own littleness and Gods majesty (Psalms 8). Solomons precept is, Consider the ant.
3. The lessons which are to be learned from, the study of the ant. Industry, improvement of opportunities, and individual action. The amount of work done by this insignificant insect ought to be enough to shame an indolent man into activity. Her care in embracing present opportunities is a loud rebuke to those who would put off until to-morrow what, perhaps, can only be done to-day. She says, by her diligent use of present hours, I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work (Joh. 9:4). Especially her individual effort is held up as worthy of imitation (Pro. 6:7). While some men wait for another to take the initiative, to clear the path for them, she puts forth her own individual effort without guide, overseer, or ruler. Each man must do his own work in the world, each one has responsibilities of his own which will not admit of being discharged by proxy. He must find out his individual duty, and not try to shift the burden upon the shoulders of another, or wait for another to go before him in the way.
II. The indolent man.
1. He does the right thing at the wrong time, or indulges to excess in a gift of God which is intended to be used in moderation. Sleep is one of Gods most precious gifts to man in his present condition. It is a necessity of human nature. The prophet Elijah had an angel of God to watch over him while he slept. God saw that it was the medicine he most needed in that hour of bodily fatigue and mental depression. But if he had been sleeping at the hour of evening sacrifice, when the nation had to choose between God and Baal on Mount Carmel, he would have been guilty of a great sin against himself, his nation, and his God. Israel was promised the land of rest after they had fought their way through the desert. Rest is the reward of labour and not to be substituted for it. And although intervals of rest are necessary and right, life is meant for work, and the motto of every man ought to be that of the famous coadjutor of the great William of Orange, St. Aldegonde, Repos ailleurs (rest elsewhere). The sin of the sluggard is the abuse of a great blessing, the doing a right thing at the wrong time.
2. The consequence of such conduct. This can be abundantly illustrated from human experience. If the farmer rests when, regardless of cold and storm, he ought to be ploughing or sowing, poverty will be coming upon him when his barns ought to be filled with plenty. The man who lets slip his spiritual opportunities through soulindolence, will find himself in a state of soul-poverty at the end of life. When he ought to be reaping an abundant harvest of soul-satisfaction from a life whose energies have been used to bless himself and others, he will find himself in a state of soul-destitution. The rich man said to his soul, Take thine ease, when he ought to have aroused it to prepare for the future which was coming up to meet him. But for the neglect of this God branded him as a fool (Luk. 12:20).
ILLUSTRATIONS OF Pro. 6:6-8
When I began to employ workmen in this country, nothing annoyed me more than the necessity to hire also an overseer, or to fulfil this office myself. But I soon found this was universal, and strictly necessary. Without an overseer very little work would be done, and nothing as it should be. The workmen will not work at all unless kept to it and directed in it by an overseer who is himself a perfect specimen of laziness. He does absolutely nothing but smoke his pipe, order this, scold that one, discuss the how and the why with the men themselves, or with idle passers-by. This overseeing often costs more than the work overseen. Now the ants manage far better. Every one attends to his own business and does it well. In another respect these provident creatures read a very necessary lesson to Orientals. In all warm climates there is a ruinous want of calculation and forecast. Having enough fur the current day, men are reckless as to the future. Now the ant provideth her meat in summer. All summer long, and especially in harvest, every denizen of their populous habitation is busy. As we ride or walk over the grassy plains, we notice paths leading to their subterranean granaries; at first broad, clean and smooth, like roads near a city, but constantly branching off into smaller and less distinct, until they disappear in the herbage of the plain. Along these converging paths hurry thousands of ants, thickening inward until it becomes an unbroken column of busy beings going in search of or returning with their food. I read lately, in a work of some pretension, that ants do not carry away wheat or barley. This was by way of comment on Pro. 6:8. Tell it to these farmers, and they will laugh at you. Ants are the greatest robbers in the land. Leave a bushel of wheat in the vicinity of one of their subterranean cities, and in a surprisingly short time the whole commonwealth will be summoned to plunder. A broad, black column stretches from the wheat to the hole, and, as if by magic, every grain seems to be accommodated with legs, and walks off in a hurry along the moving column.Thompsons Land and the Book.
Solomons lesson to the sluggard has been generally adduced as a strong confirmation of the ancient opinion, that ants have a magazine of provisions for winter; it can, however, only relate to the species of a warm climate, the habits of which are probably different from those of a cold one; so that his words, as commonly interpreted, may be perfectly correct and consistent with Nature, and yet be not at all applicable to the species that are indigenous to Europe. But Solomon does not affirm that the ant laid up in her cell stores of grain, but that she gathers her food when it is most plentiful, and thus shows her wisdom and prudence. The words thus interpreted will apply to the species among us, as well as to those that are not indigenous.Kirby and Spences Entomology.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro. 6:5. We may infer Rehoboams character from such exhortations as these. And these and following precepts derive much interest from what we have reason to believe was his character. His position bore some resemblance to that of our own Charles II., at the voluptuous court of Versaillies, before his accession to the throne, and the character of the one was in some respects similar to that of the other. The unhappy example of his own father Solomon, in his old age, was more potent for evil than the precepts of the Proverbs were for good. At the age of forty-one Rehoboam was a feeble libertine. The warnings of the Icn Basilik fell flat on the ears of the royal authors own son, and Rehoboam derived little benefit from the book of Proverbs.Wordsworth.
Pro. 6:6-8. Our whole present life is the time for action; the future for retribution, which shall be ushered in by the judgment: the latter is the harvest (Mat. 25:3-4).Fausset.
How is man degenerated from the nobility of his creation, that an insect must be a pattern unto him. He that goes well without a guide is fit to be a guide, he that does well without an overseer is fit to be an overseer, he that orders himself well without a ruler is fit to be a ruler. Let the ant, therefore, be a guide unto the sluggard, and teach him to guide himself, who guides herself so carefully. Let the ant be his overseer, which he sees to overgo himself so much in pains and labour. Let the ant be his ruler, and by her example command him to work which rules herself so well in working.Jermin.
First, as the ant in summer gathereth whereupon to live in winter, so every Christian in a time of quietness should gather out of Gods word, that in trouble and adversity he may have wherewith to live spiritually. Secondly, we ought to labour by the example of the ant, that we get the fruit of good works, in the harvest of this present life, so sedulously and diligently, that in the time of winter and judgment we perish not with hunger.St. Augustine.
These precepts have a spiritual meaning and are to be applied to the soil of the heart and mind. As Bede says here, The present life is compared to summer and harvest, because now, in the heat of trials, we must reap and lay up for the future, and the day of death and judgment is the winter for which we must prepare, and when there is no more any time for preparation.Wordsworth.
Man, that was once the captain of Gods school, is now, for his truantliness, turned down into the lowest form, as it were to learn his A B C again; yea, to be taught by these meanest creatures. Let no man here object that word of our Saviour, Take no thought for the morrow. There is a care of diligence, and a care of diffidence; a care of the head and a care of the heart; the former is needful, the latter sinful.Trapp.
Pro. 6:9. Much more loudly would we call to the spiritual sluggardthou that art sleeping away the opportunities of grace; not striving to enter in at the strait gate (Luk. 13:24); taking thy salvation for granted; hoping that thou shalt reap where thou has not sown, and gather where thou hast not strawed (Mat. 25:26); improve, after this pattern, the summer and harvest seasonthe time of youth, the present, perhaps the only moment. The ant hath no guide. How many guides have you?conscience, the Bible, ministers! She has no overseer. You are living before Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. She has no ruler calling her to account. Every one of us must give account of himself to God.Bridges.
Epaminondas, finding one of his sentinels asleep, thrust him through with his sword; and, being chidden for so great severity, replied, I left him but as I found him. It must be our care that death serve us not in like sort, that we be not taken napping. Our Saviour was up and at prayer a great while before day (Mar. 1:45). The holy angels are styled watchers (Dan. 4:10), and they are three times pronounced happy that watch (Luk. 12:37-38; Luk. 12:43).Trapp.
Pro. 6:11. Two things are denoted in this imagery.
1. That idleness will quickly bring poverty.
2. That it will come as a destroyer.Stuart.
I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide, for the man is effectually destroyed, though the appetite of the brute may survive.Lord Chesterfield.
God will not support thee without work, but by work, that is His holy ordinance (Gen. 3:19): Do thy part, and God will do His.Egard.
A most dreadful simile! One who has waited for a fight knows how slowly the armed men seem to come up. They may be hours passing the intervening space. There is no sound of them. They are not on the roads, or on the air, either in sight or echo; and yet they are coming on! The intervening time is the sluggards sleeping time; and it seems an age. But his want will come. All slothfulness is, no doubt, rebuked; but especially that which has all heaven for its garnered stores; all hell for its experience of want; all time for its season of neglect; and all eternity to break upon its sleep.Miller.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
ADMONITIONS AGAINST SLOTHFULNESS, Pro 6:6-11.
The principle of making suitable provision for the future lies at the very basis of our happiness, and has its applications and illustrations in various spheres of human action. It is our duty to provide for our future physical wants food, raiment, shelter, and whatsoever the body may need for its well-being. It is our duty, also, to provide, in proper time, for the wants of the mind, by suitable education and discipline, and the laying up of those stores of knowledge which will be needed for our coming offices and responsibilities, that we may perform well our parts both with respect to God and man. Above all, it is our duty and interest to cultivate and improve our moral and spiritual nature, securing those measures of divine grace which will be so much needed in future times of trial and in the service of God and humanity, and which are essential to our happiness, both in this world and the world to come. The application in the text is only to the first of these, but it equally belongs to the others. “Diligent in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” Rom 12:11.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6. Go to the ant The ant has, in all ages, been a favourite illustration in the inculcation of the duties of industry, diligence, and forethought, for these little insects are among the most notable examples of the instinctive operation of the principle above inculcated. But the latest researches of naturalists indicate that the (European) ant does not store up grain for the winter, as has been commonly supposed. It is generally torpid in winter and needs no food. Perhaps in warmer climates the case may be different. European ants remain active all winter in hot-houses. They are said to become torpid at 27 Fahrenheit.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
A Warning To The Lazy ( Pro 6:6-11 ).
The urgency required of the surety in dealing with his problem in Pro 6:1-5, and the possibility that he might be slack in doing so, may well have raised in Solomon’s mind the dangers of laziness. For whereas the ants are also urgent, the sluggard is the very opposite. He puts off his problems and goes to sleep. And the consequence will be that instead of having food stored up for the winter he will be in poverty and need. So as he will not listen to Solomon’s wisdom what he should rather do is learn wisdom from the ant.
It will be noted that this subsection consists of two contrasts, on the one hand the ant which is not under anyone’s instructions and yet works hard, and consequently ensures that it has sufficient provision, and on the other the sluggard who listens to no one’s instructions and slumbers and sleeps, and who will thus will find himself in poverty and want.
Pro 6:6-8
‘Go to the ant, you sluggard,
Consider her ways, and be wise,
Which having no chief,
Overseer, or ruler,
Provides her bread in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.
Instead of addressing this man as ‘my son’, he addresses him as ‘you sluggard’, and calls on him to consider the ant. (Note ‘my son — my son’ (Pro 6:1; Pro 6:3) as compared with ‘you sluggard’ — you sluggard’ (Pro 6:6; Pro 6:9)). This is an admonition rather than an entreaty. He does not see him as a ‘son’, eager to learn from him, but as someone who has to be stirred up and cajoled. Sarcastically he indicates that as he will not listen to Solomon, he should listen to the ant. He wants him to watch ants scurrying this way and that, and learn a lesson from them. The ant is one of the ‘creeping things’ of which Solomon spoke (1Ki 4:33). It was probably the harvester ant, which stores grain within its nest, and is found in large quantities throughout Palestine.
And it taught a salutary lesson, for this ant, without any admonition or overlordship, works away busily all through the summer in order to provision its nest. It never stops. It makes use of both summertime and harvest time. The busyness of the ant is proverbial. Arguments as to whether ants are under leadership are irrelevant. Insects do not give instructions to each other in order to be obeyed. They simply respond to their natural conditioning.
Pro 6:9-11
How long will you sleep, O sluggard?
When will you arise out of your sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep,
So will your poverty come as a robber,
And your want as an armed man.
The sluggard sleeps and slumbers (compare Pro 24:33), just as the surety was warned not to do (Pro 6:4). He sees it as ‘a little sleep’ no matter how long it lasts. He deceives himself. And paradoxically he dreams of wealth and plenty (Pro 13:4). But the consequence will be that poverty creeps up on him like a robber, and want like an armed man (compare Pro 24:34). This armed man could be an armed robber, or a soldier seeking spoils. Thus poverty and want both creep up on a man, and can equally be violent. They wrest his goods from him. They take his goods by stealth or force (as indeed would the creditor in the first illustration).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Physical Body of Man: The Path of the Sluggard – Sin first enters the heart (Pro 5:1-23), then it corrupts the mind (Pro 6:1-5), and finally, it defiles the body (Pro 6:6-11). This explains why Jesus taught that it was not what went into the mouth that defiled the man, but that which came out of the mouth that defiled him.
Mat 15:11, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”
Pro 5:1-23 shows the path of the adulteress as it defiles the heart. Pro 6:1-5 shows the path of the loose tongue as it defiles the mind. Pro 6:6-11 will show the path of the sluggard as it destroys the life of a man. Thus, the theme of this passage is that the path of laziness will destroy a man by bringing him to poverty.
Illustration – I grew up as a child having to work in the garden and feed the animals. I thought that Dad was being too hard on us. However, when I grew up and began to work on a job, I quickly saw its value. My willingness to work hard has benefited me all of my adult life.
Pro 6:6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Pro 6:6
Pro 6:7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Pro 6:8 Pro 6:8
Pro 10:5, “ He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.”
Pro 6:9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
Pro 6:10 Pro 6:9-10
Pro 6:11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
Pro 6:11
Pro 6:11 Comments – If we have not sowed any seed, one day a need will come and there will be no provision. Slothfulness was the reason for lack. It cannot be blamed on God. Laziness does not profit us in the kingdom of God.
Pro 6:10-11 Scripture References – Note the same verse in Pro 24:33-34 and a similar verse in Ecc 4:5:
Pro 24:33-34, “Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.”
Ecc 4:5, “The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Pro 6:6. Go to the ant Horace has made use of the same similitude:
Thus the little ant (to human lore No mean example) forms her frugal store, Gather’d with mighty toils on every side, Nor ignorant, nor careless to provide For future want. Sat. I. lib. 1:
The reader will also find in Virgil’s AEn. 4: ver. 404 a fine simile taken from this industrious little creature. Concerning its natural history, Scheuchzer treats at large on the place. See also Spectacle de la Nature, tom. 1: and Dr. Delaney’s 17th Sermon on the Social Duties.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 767
THE SLUGGARD REPROVED
Pro 6:6-10. Go to the ant, thou sluggard: consider her ways and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her fool in the harvest. How long wilt they sleep. O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
FORESIGHT in relation to temporal concerns, though not universally practised, is universally approved: and it is a ground of thankfulness that those classes of society who have hitherto scarcely known how to secure any little sums which they might save, have now, by the establishment of Provident Banks, encouragement to provide for themselves against the day of adversity [Note: Preached the week before the establishment of a Provident Bank at Cambridge.]. Happy would it be if a similar zeal were now exerted in relation to the concerns of eternity. But here, alas! there is still a sad indifference amongst us. The wants which we are sure to feel in the eternal world are not anticipated: nor is the importance of providing for them generally felt. In relation to these things, all around us are cast, as it were, into a deep sleep, from which they need to be roused by the most solemn warnings. This address therefore of Solomon to the sluggards of his day may well serve us as a foundation for a similar remonstrance with those who are yet sleeping in security and sin.
Addressing ourselves to persons of this description, we will speak,
I.
In a way of humiliating reproof
Justly does Solomon observe, that a sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render a reason [Note: Pro 26:16.]. The more careless men are about their souls, the more confident they are of their future safety. But how confident soever they may be, they may go and learn wisdom of the meanest insect.
There is scarcely any thing in the whole creation from which we may not derive the most valuable instruction. The ox and the ass, the crane and the swallow, are brought forward by God himself to teach and reprove us [Note: Isa 1:3. Jer 8:7.]: and here we are referred for instruction to the ant. She collects in summer the food that is necessary for her subsistence in the winter. She does it with incredible labour, dragging to her cell grains of corn, that one would scarcely conceive she should be able to move. And this she does without any guide to direct her, or overseer to watch her, or ruler to call her to account. And, that her labour may not ultimately prove vain, she bites off, we are told, the ends of every grain, to prevent it from vegetating in the ground.
Go now to the ant, thou sluggard, and consider her ways: consider,
1.
Her wise foresight
[Has she a time approaching, against which it is needful for her to provide; and hast not thou? Is there not a time coming, when thou must stand in the presence of thy God, and give an account of every thing that thou hast done in the body, whether it be good or evil? And hast thou not now to provide a righteousness wherein to appear before God, even the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein alone thou canst ever stand in the presence of a holy God? Hast thou not a new nature also to obtain, in order to fit thee for the enjoyment of the heavenly world? And is not the present the only time when this provision can be made? If thou neglect the present opportunities, wilt thou find them in the eternal world? Is there any work or device to be executed in the grave, whither thou goest [Note: Ecc 9:10.]? If her work, which relates only to the short transient life of the body, is important, is not yours, which relates to the eternal interests of the soul, much more important! Go then to the ant, and learn wisdom of her.]
2.
Her voluntary labour
[She has none to direct her: she is guided by instinct alone. But you have reason to guide you, and to assure you of the certainty and importance of those things which you have not yet seen with your eyes. You have God himself also inspecting every thing that you do, and pledged to call you into judgment for it, and to assign you your everlasting portion according to it. Should not you then exert yourselves with all diligence? Are you not convinced, that to prepare for eternity is a reasonable service. yea, that it is, in fact, the one thing needful? Will you then grudge your labour? Will you not put forth willingly and habitually all the powers of your souls in this blessed work? ]
3.
Her prudent care
[Is she careful to prevent her labours from ever proving abortive: and should not you prosecute your work to a successful issue? Yet Solomon justly observes, that the slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting [Note: Pro 12:27.]: yea, that his very desire killeth him, because his hands refuse to labour [Note: Pro 21:25.]. Some kind of pains we all have taken in attending ordinances, and in complying with outward forms: but there we have rested, without any persevering efforts to render those means effectual for the salvation of our souls. We feel somewhat of a general desire after eternal happiness: and with that consciousness of desire we are satisfied, without pressing forward for the attainment of the things desired: and thus is fulfilled in us another declaration of Solomon. The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing [Note: Pro 13:4.]? If good desires would suffice, the sluggard would get to heaven as well as others: but if great and persevering exertions are necessary, he will rather forego the prize, than use the diligence necessary for the attainment of it. In a word, instead of looking to himself that he lose not the things that he has wrought, but that he receive a full reward [Note: 2 John. ver. 8.], he suffers Satan to take out of his heart the seed that has been sown in it, and to keep him, like the foolish virgins, from providing oil for himself, till it is too late. Say, thou sluggard, whether these things be not true of thee, and whether thou hast not need to go and learn wisdom of the diminutive and despised ant?]
We will yet further prosecute our address,
II.
In a way of solemn warning
As a man who has no provision independent of his labour, and no disposition to exert himself, must soon feel the pressure of poverty and want, so, sluggard, shalt thou feel these evils in relation to thy soul
1.
Reflect on the awfulness of thy state
[The consequences of thy sloth are coming upon thee: they are coming gradually indeed, but irresistibly. A traveller comes not to his journeys end all at once, but gradually, and almost imperceptibly, by many successive steps. So neither wilt thou find the fatal consequence of thy sloth all at once: but every day and hour brings them nearer towards thee; and that too so clearly, that, if thou wouldst stop to examine, thou shouldst see evident symptoms of their approach. Who has not found, that the longer he lives in any sin, the more he becomes addicted to it, and enslaved by it? The truth is, that as a man by indulging sloth, whether of mind or body, becomes daily more unfitted for exertion, so the man who is remiss and negligent in his spiritual concerns becomes daily more alienated from God, and more averse to those efforts that are necessary for his salvation [Note: Pro 10:4; Pro 19:15.]. The curse which is denounced against him seems so distant, that it will never come: but it is advancing as fast as the wings of time can carry it; as St. Peter says, Their judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not [Note: 2Pe 2:3.]. O sluggard! remember this: thou mayest linger, like Lot in the plain; but thy judgment lingereth not; thou mayest slumber on yet a little while, but thy damnation slumbereth not: the time is fast approaching when God will say to thee, as to him who hid his talent in a napkin, Thou wicked and slothful servant! and will give orders concerning thee, Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, where shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth [Note: Mat 25:26; Mat 25:30.].
These judgments too shall come upon you irresistibly. You well know how entirely a man unarmed and sleeping is at the mercy of an armed man that seeks his life. And such will be your state, in the day that God shall deal with you, and visit you for your sins. You may call on the hills to fall upon you, and the rocks to cover you, from the wrath of your offended God; but they cannot perform for you this friendly office: no creature in the universe can help you: though hand join in hand, you cannot pass unpunished. Reflect on this, thou sluggard! Now thou mayest puff at Gods judgments: but ere long thou wilt bitterly regret that thou didst not improve the opportunities afforded thee to escape from them.]
2.
Reflect also on the vanity of thine excuses
[There are none so hardened as to avow a fixed determination never to seek after God: on the contrary, there is in almost all an indistinct purpose to turn unto the Lord at some more convenient season, which they hope is at no very great distance. Hence to those who would rouse them to exertion, they say, A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep. They acknowledge in general terms the propriety, and even the necessity, of exertion; but they wish a little more time for indulgence to the flesh, before they set themselves in earnest to mortify and subdue it. But what has been the consequence of indulgence hitherto? Are you at all more disposed for exertion now, than you were when first you were bidden to arise? Is your ability for Gods service at all increased by deferring your attempts to serve him? Have you not found, invariably, that procrastination has increased your difficulties, at the very time that it also enfeebled your powers? Say not then any longer, There is a lion in the way, nor plead any longer for delay: but arise and call upon your God, if peradventure time may be yet afforded you to work out your salvation, and to flee from the wrath to come.]
Address
1.
Those who have never yet been awakened
[Have you no work to do? or is it a matter of small importance whether it be done or not? Is not the present life the only time for doing it? How long, then, wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Knowest thou not, that if thou sleepest on till this short life be past, thou wilt assuredly awake in hell? What then shall I say to thee? Shall I say to thee, as Christ did to his sleepy disciples, Sleep on now, and take thy rest? No: God forbid. Let me rather say, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light [Note: Eph 5:14.]. Verily, if thou wouldst now, even now, call upon his name, it should not be too late. Whatever thou wantest, it should be given thee: he would give thee the light of truth to shine into thy heart; the light of joy in his reconciled countenance: the light of holiness to attest thine acceptance with him: and the light of glory to perfect thy felicity. While ye have the light then, walk in the light, that ye may be the children of light.]
2.
Those who, though in part awakened, are yet disposed to give way to slothful habits
[This, alas! was the case both with the wise and foolish virgins: they all slumbered and slept. But let me affectionately guard you against yielding to sloth. It is said, and the very best amongst us know the truth of it by bitter experience, that the idle soul shall suffer hunger [Note: Pro 19:15.]. Who has not heard of the vineyard of the sluggard, where, through inattention, nothing was produced but nettles and thorns? To him is the same warning given as to the sluggard in the text [Note: Pro 24:30-34.] Guard then against the excuses which ye are ready to make. See the excuses made by the Bride in the book of Canticles; how injurious to her welfare! how destructive of her peace [Note: Son 5:2-7.]! Watch ye then, and pray always. Had the disciples watched, when they were directed to do it by their Lord, they would never have forsaken him as they did in the hour of his deepest trial. But, if you do not watch and be sober, depend upon it that Satan will prevail against you, and sift you as wheat. Be sober then, and vigilant. Give not way to drowsiness in your spiritual calling: but give all diligence to make your calling sure. And, seeing that ye look for a period when God shall come to judge the world, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. And what I say unto one, I say unto all, Watch.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
These are beautiful scriptures in which the Lord sends his people to gather instruction from the inferior creatures of his creation. For in point of divine knowledge by reason of the fall, man is sunk lower than the instinct of the brute, in providing for his own eternal safety. We have another beautiful passage to the same effect. Jer 8:7
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
A Secular Sermon on Foresight
Pro 6:6-11
Creation is full of teachers. There are indeed “sermons in stones, and books in the running brooks.” It is a mistake to imagine that men can learn only from the highest; there is learning in the lowest as well. “Praise” may be found even in the mouth of the “suckling.” God has written a lesson upon the minutest works of his hands. Everything represents thought. The infinite variety of his creations is but the expression of the infinite aspects of his mind. The facets of the diamond throw back differing flashes to the sun; and all God’s works are facets, which burn, each with a singular glory. All is eloquent. All is music music in form, or music in motion. All light teaches; all beauty persuades; all life inspires. We are now to gather around an insect. The busy ant is to be our minister. Instead of looking upward we are to look downward. We who could listen to an angel are to incline our ear to an ant.
The great lesson which the ant teaches is foresight; the duty of rightly improving the passing hour, the wisdom of making the best of our opportunities. Some people appear to be utterly destitute of foresight. They cannot see the very next gate that is to be opened. They have no grasp of the day, the week, the month. They enjoy breakfast, and trust for dinner. They get the vicious notion that other people should work for them; and that, somehow, things will turn out all right. Now all wise people anxiously study the doctrine of inferences. They look upon one action as bearing upon another. Their lives are practically logical. Their behaviour is a chain of reasoning.
The faculty of foresight, the power of doing something for the future, is a faculty most divine. Rightly educated and developed, it gives man peculiar elevation, and invests him with commanding influence. He who sees farthest will rule best Foresight is not to be confounded with distrust There is a loose and light-headed theology which says: “Let to-morrow mind its own business, God will make all right.” That is not faith, it is presumption; it is not philosophy, it is nonsense; it is not repose, it is the laziest indolence.
The wise exercise of foresight makes life pleasant. The man who cannot see through two moments is always in a hurry, is never calm, is always jostled and pushed by an invisible crowd; he sees a spectre where he might hail a friend; he cringes as a serf where he might dictate as a baron.
This foresight makes life pleasant by economising time. Time is golden. Moments cannot be weighed by carats. Hours glitter with a light purer than the ray of rubies. One man finds no hours in the day; another finds twenty-four, and makes them forty-eight: and while midnight flings its solemn message over a sleeping town the wise man says to his God: “Thou deliveredst unto me a day, behold I have doubled its breadth of gold!”
This we find in our intercourse with men that the man who has least to do takes most time to do it in, and that he who has most to accomplish is up hill long before the sluggard has saddled his lazy ass. Our greatest men have ever been the severest economists of time. The coxcomb spends time at the looking-glass which the philosopher spends over the inkhorn. While the pedant has no time to teach a child, great statesmen are teaching Homer to talk English. The ill-trained girl whose impoverished intellect is a lineal descendant of Pharaoh’s leanest kine cannot find time to go to the Sunday-school, while one of our Lord Chancellors was never late at his Sunday class through eight-and-twenty years! Men grow very poetical about sunset who have never a single word to say about sunrise! Men have cruelly rejected the Esau of morning, and flattered the Jacob of evening. Poor slighted sunrise! The West has many laureates, the East remains unsung. And yet not unsung. Work is its poetry; labour is the harp on which its praise is harped; and the moral monuments which industry has piled shall live when the palaces of the Csars have crumbled, and even the pyramids of the Pharaohs are the shadows of an unremembered past.
Foresight renders life pleasant by systematising duties. System is success. Some persons have no power of systematising. They are clumsy; their fingers are all thumbs, and all their thumbs are upon their left hands. This is true among men and women alike. A slatternly woman is tormentor enough for any man who loves order. She has many clocks, but no time. She rocks her duties to sleep, and then imagines she has discharged them. She puts off every engagement, and discounts all her purposes at a ruinous percentage. So also with the man of no system. He frets himself to death, and perishes not alone. Procrastination binds him hand and foot, and takes him out to be maddened by the laugh of triumphant enemies. He keeps books, but they are all waste-books. He has ledgers, but they are blank. He is always going to do something, but never does it. He moves, seconds, and carries resolutions every day; that is, he moves them off to one side, and carries them into oblivion! The men in the Church who do least are generally the men of leisure. They have only time to cross their legs beside a pleasant fire and criticise other people. They sleep long, that they may have vigour to grumble long. Half poisoned with wine, and half melted with fire, they have no apprehension of the possibilities of life. They dread noise because it is unfavourable to dreams, and their only objection to sleeping is that they have to waken again! Every Church is more or less cumbered with such men, men of rapid tongues but leaden feet.
Foresight renders life pleasant by diminishing difficulties. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. The man who sleeps on fine days is sure to complain most loudly in wet weather. Foresight numbers and weighs contingencies. Logical thinking leads to logical acting. The person who is destitute of foresight multiplies the difficulties of other people. He never carries an umbrella, but is willing to share that of his thoughtful companion; seldom has any change, so must have a beggar’s stomach without a beggar’s name; was going to bring something but forgot it, and therefore must share the oil of the wise virgins!
Solomon sends all such men to the ant, an insect which has “no guide, overseer, or ruler.” Some spiritless people require guides, overseers, and rulers. They will not do anything except under the whip. Such people are never to be trusted. If men will not work without being watched, they will watch the watcher and sleep when they can. A true worker needs no watching. The darkness and the light are both alike unto him. He works because it is right. He is his own critic. His spirit is in harmony with the divine and absolute, and in his conscience is the tribunal before which his life is constantly arraigned. The man who requires watching is a thief. He may not have stolen money, but he has a thief’s heart, and may one day have a thief’s hand.
What is the action of the ant which is to be suggestive to men of the sluggard’s mould? She “provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” That is to say, she makes the best of her opportunities. Opportunity! Let the young think of that word; it is full of meaning. The bridge gives a traveller an opportunity of crossing the river; the ladder gives a man an opportunity of descending or climbing; the spring gives the farmer an opportunity of sowing seed. Now write it on the youngest memory; stamp it on the opening brain; set it before you as a lesson never to be forgotten, every life has opportunities; every life has a summer! A summer! The ant provideth her meat in the summer; how wise, how well! No year has two Juries. May never comes twice in the same year. Only once! Once the summer binds the million-tinted coronal around her blushing temples; once she charms the landscape into beauty, and the forest into song, and the orchard into fruitfulness; once she waves her wand, and angels of celestial loveliness beautify the garden and shed the fragrance of heaven through the tainted air of earth! Only once! The ant, without “guide, overseer, or ruler,” knows this, and makes the most of it Go to her, ye sons of folly, “consider her ways, and be wise.”
The child has opportunities. Make of them opportunities to accumulate information; to lay the basis of pure and exalted habitudes; to take on the outlines of the only beauty that is immortal!
The young man has opportunities. His employers mark his conduct, calculate his capabilities, and adjudge him accordingly. Always be qualifying yourselves for something higher. “Aim high; he who aimeth at the sky shoots higher far than he who means a tree.” Wait He who waits often wins. Impatience is a sign of weakness. The weak twig trembles, the strong root is unmoved.
As every life has a summer, so every life has a winter. The ant, without “guide, overseer, or ruler,” knew this, and consequently provided accordingly. Many men endeavour to remember this fact in secular life, and they do well. There is a money-making period in human life, and men should avail themselves of its privileges. No man of health who possesses reasonable opportunities for laying by a provision for what has been well termed a “rainy day” should spend all he makes, and throw himself upon society as a pauper. Remember that you will not always be so strong as you are now. The sun shines, make your hay! If you have only twenty shillings per week, save a few of them. Believe that debt is disgrace, and avoid it as you would flee from a serpent You are to take a broad view of human life; to strike averages; to calculate contingencies; to institute inquiries, and balance antagonisms. This will afford a substantial basis of action. The summer and the winter will be looked at together; the morning and the evening will interpenetrate. If you fail to operate upon this plan; if you think the whole year will be summer, and that one day will be as advantageous as another; and that you are master of all circumstances, then “shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” See what comes of setting natural law aside! Poverty and want are sent of God to chastise neglect of life’s summer! Beware how you treat that sunny messenger of God! She comes laden in order that you may unburden her for your own advantage; she comes with a warmth which you may so use as to cause it to penetrate the whole year. But neglect it, and you perish! Poverty is behind her, and if you refuse riches you shall have want.
In thus recommending preparation for life’s winter we are far from advocating penuriousness. Covetousness is an affront to God! The penurious man turns summer itself into winter, and if he had all the wealth of Golconda he would be as poor as the barren rock. Let there be no mistake then. “The liberal soul shall be made fat.” “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.” Aye! covetousness tends to poverty as well as neglect. Strike the golden mean. Be prudent, yet be generous; be zealous for thine own interests, and then love thy neighbour as thyself!
Are we, then, fully at one upon this subject of foresight? Do we agree as to its desirableness, its value, its expediency? Does the mother turn to her daughter, and say: “Child, remember these things, and do them”? Does any father turn to his son, and say: “He that doeth these sayings shall build his house upon a rock”? If so, it is well! But I add to all this: if we are agreed up to this point, there is a point beyond to which we are irresistibly driven! If foresight is good in one department, it is good in another; and those who have tested its value should be the most eager to extend its application. Let us go from the less to the greater. Here is a person who prides himself on his foresight. He bears a high repute for range and intensity of vision in all secular concerns. Yet by the very sweep and clearness of his foresight I brand him as a fool! He never missed a train, yet he was never in time for public worship; he never failed to keep an appointment with man, yet he never made an appointment with God; he was never too late for the post, yet he is in danger of being too late for heaven; he never failed to see gold in any bargain, yet he has turned away the fine gold of the gospel! He has foreseen everything but the chief thing: he has seen the shadow, not the substance; he has made a covenant with the servant and let the king pass by! Here is folly in the very midst of wisdom; and if the very wisdom be folly how great is that folly, if the light be darkness how terrible is the gloom!
Here is a woman who also prides herself on her foresight, yet the mark of folly is on her forehead! “She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands,” yet her soul is naked; “she riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household,” yet her heart pineth with hunger; “she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff,” yet she rejects the robe woven by the atoning Saviour; “she eateth no-the bread of idleness,” yet she does not work out her own salt vation! Wise in the little, but foolish in the great! She saves the copper, but gives up the gold to the burglar. Is this a foresight to be proud of? Is it not in very deed a fool’s sagacity? Christ simply requires of us what we willingly yield to others and ourselves. He says, Prepare, watch, be ready, trim your lamps; this is exactly what men do in the affairs of daily life, yet, while they deem themselves sagacious, they regard God as unjust! “I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say.” “O that men were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” Remember that to have foreseen everything but the day of death is to have lived a life which shall, in the words of Holy Writ, be “buried with the burial of an ass.”
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Pro 6:6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Ver. 6. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. ] Man, that was once the captain of God’s school, is now, for his truantcy, turned down into the lowest form as it were, to learn his A B C’s again; yea, to be taught by these lowest creatures. So Christ sends us to school to the birds of the air, and lilies of the field, to learn dependence upon divine providence, Mat 6:25-29 and to the stork, crane, and swallow, to be taught to take the seasons of grace, and not to let slip the opportunities that God putteth into our hands. Jer 8:7 This poor despicable creature the ant, is here set in the chair to read us a lecture of sedulity and good husbandry. What a deal of grain gets she together in summer! What pains doth she take for it, labouring not by daylight only, but by moonshine also! What huge heaps hath she! What care to bring forth her store, and lay it drying on a sunshine day, lest with moisture it should putrefy, &c. Not only Aristotle, Aelian, and Pliny, but also Basil, Ambrose, and Jerome, have observed and written much of the nature and industry of this poor creature; telling us in addition that in the ant, bee, stork, &c., God hath set before us, as in a picture, the lively resemblance of many excellent virtues, which we ought to pursue and practise. These, saith one, are veri laicorum libri, the true laymen’s books, the images that may teach men the right knowledge of God and of his will, of themselves and their duties.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 6:6-11
Pro 6:6-11
THE WARNING AGAINST LAZINESS (THE TENTH DISCOURSE)
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard;
Consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no chief,
Overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her bread in the summer,
And gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall thy poverty come as a robber,
And thy want as an armed man.”
“The ant figures in most of the ancient and proverbial literature as the type of provident thrift and industry. Aesop’s fable regarding the ant and the grasshopper is an example of this. We reject the conceited inference in the comment that, “Modern investigations shows that ants do have an intricate organization,” the inference being that “Modern man is so smart that he is above such an erroneous notion as that which we have here.”
There are many varieties of ants; and, “Some of these lay up provisions … The agricultural ant of Texas, which resembles the ant of Palestine, not only stores up food, but even prepares the soil, kills the weeds, and finally reaps the harvest. And, as for the proposition that ants indeed do have overseers, governors, etc., “All objections on this subject are based upon insufficient data, and have been completely answered by recent observations.” Any careful observation of ants certainly reveals that countless numbers of them carry on their activities without any “bosses” or supervisors of any kind!
“No chief, overseer or ruler” (Pro 6:7). “Although three words are used here, they are used as synonyms. The meaning is that the ants work without any boss to oversee and command their labors.
“So shall come thy poverty … and … thy want … as an armed man” (Pro 6:11). Laziness is destructive, and the failure by men to engage diligently in work is a violation of the Word of God. The same Bible which says, “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, also says, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work.” God’s plan has no promises and no benefits in store for the idler. The New Testament admonition still stands that, “If a man will not work, don’t let him eat.” It appears to this writer that our current society may believe that they have graduated from this injunction; but God’s Word has a habit of always winning at last.
Pro 6:6. Ants are well distributed and are everywhere known for ambitious activity. To speak of his sleep-loving son as a sluggard was not complementary (it means lazy one), but it was fitting. Solomons use of animals (roe and bird in y. 5 and ant in this verse) is in keeping with Job 12:7 : Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee.
Pro 6:7. The ant is a fitting representative of true ambition, for an ant does not have to have a boss to make her work. And when did you ever see one that wasnt working? Remember Aesops fable about the ant and the grasshopper?
Pro 6:8. While some who live in cold climates where ants become dormant during winter have argued that Proverbs is in error here in its representation of the habit of the ant, Tristrum in Pulpit Commentary says, Contrary to its habits in colder climates, the ant is not there dormant through the winter; and among the tamarisks of the Dead Sea it may be seen in January actively engaged in collecting the aphides and saccharine exudations…Two of the most common species of the Holy Land…are strictly seed-feeders and in summer lay up large stores of grain for winter use.
Pro 6:9. The same words as Pro 6:9-10 are found in Pro 24:33-34. Again he refers to his son as a sleeping sluggard. He is such a contrast to the industrious ant. Early to bed, early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise is an old saying not too well practiced by many modern youth who neither want to go to bed at night nor get up in the morning! Our verse is not arguing against a proper amount of sleep but against that over-sleeping that youth is sometimes guilty of (sleeping all morning if not called and made to get up). This is a good way to waste ones life and have little to show by way of accomplishment.
Pro 6:10. The emphasis is on little. Have you ever known an ambitionless young person to say, Let me sleep a little longer; or, Ill get up in a little while? But if left to him/her, the little becomes a lot.
Pro 6:11. A sluggards poverty is also referred to in other passages: He becometh poor that worketh with a slack hand (Pro 10:4); The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing (Pro 13:4); The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing (Pro 20:4). A robber was always in need, and an armed man was a poorly-paid man (compare Luk 3:14). In other words, a little sleep, a little slumber, and a little folding of the hands lead to a lot of poverty! The expression, thy poverty and thy want, represent the destitution of the sluggard as flowing directly from his own habit of self-indulgence (Pulpit Commentary).
STUDY QUESTIONS – Pro 6:6-11
1. For what is ant especially known (Pro 6:6)?
2. Do ants have no leader (Pro 6:7)?
3. Comment on the strange habits of ants (Pro 6:8).
4. Is late-sleeping for healthy people encouraged in the Bible (Pro 6:9)?
5. What word in Pro 6:10 is emphatic?
6. Comment on the possessions of an armed man and robber in the Bible days (Pro 6:11).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the ant: The ant has been famous in all ages for its social habits, foresight, economy and industry. Collecting their food at the proper seasons, they bite off the ends of the grain to prevent it from germinating, and lay it up in cells till needed. Pro 1:17, Job 12:7, Job 12:8, Isa 1:3, Mat 6:26
thou: Pro 6:9, Pro 10:26, Pro 13:4, Pro 15:19, Pro 18:9, Pro 19:15, Pro 19:24, Pro 20:4, Pro 21:25, Pro 22:13, Pro 24:30-34, Pro 26:13-16, Mat 25:26, Rom 12:11, Heb 6:12
Reciprocal: Gen 41:34 – and take Exo 16:21 – General Rth 2:23 – General Pro 3:32 – the froward Pro 6:10 – General Pro 10:4 – becometh Pro 10:5 – gathereth Pro 13:23 – destroyed Pro 30:25 – General Jer 8:7 – stork Luk 16:8 – done
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 6:6-8. Go to the ant, &c. Nor are industry and diligence requisite in this alone, but in all thy affairs; to which, therefore, if thou art slothful, I must excite thee by the example of the ants; whose orderly and unanimous diligence, in collecting and preserving food for themselves, if thou wilt observe, thou mayest be ashamed to be indolent, and learn hereafter to imitate their provident care. Which having no guide, &c. Which is the more remarkable, because they have none to lead and direct them as mankind have; no overseer to exact their labours; no supreme governor to call them to an account for any negligence. And yet they never omit the opportunity they have in harvest to make provision against the winter; but toil perpetually, in gathering and carrying food into the cells they have digged for it in the earth; where they lay it up, and secure it with admirable art; that it may neither be injured by the weather, nor stolen from them by other creatures. Bishop Patrick.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:6 Go to the {b} ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
(b) If the word of God cannot instruct you, learn from the little ant to labour for yourself and not to burden others.