Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 6:8
Provideth her meat in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest.
8. The LXX. addition to this verse is interesting, both as illustrating their tendency to gloss, and also because it exhibits the bee in a favourable light, as an example of industry and wisdom, whereas, unless we regard it as latent in the use of the word as a proper name ( Deborah, Jdg 4:4), that character of the insect is never referred to by the O.T. writers, who were familiar with it only in its wild state, and had no opportunity of watching its habits, but only noticed its vindictiveness in attacking men (Psa 118:12; Isa 7:18).
Their addition is:
“Or, go to the bee, and learn what a work woman she is,
And how comely she makes her work,
Whose labours kings and common people gather to them,
And she is desired and had in honour of all men for health;
And though she be weak in strength of body,
Yet through her honouring wisdom is she advanced.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
When they come forth in great numbers, as in winter they stir not out of their holes.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Provideth her meat in the summer,…. Against the winter, of which it is mindful, when it never comes out of its place, having in the summer time got a sufficiency laid up in cells for its use: she toils in the heat of summer to get in her provision for the winter, being sensible that nothing is to be gotten then; she works at it night and day while the season lasts; so diligent is it in laying up its stores at the proper opportunity l;
[and] gathereth her food in the harvest; the time when corn is ripe, and is shed on the earth; this it gathereth, and lays up in its repositories against a time of need. The seeds it gathers and lays up; it bites off the chit or bud end of them, that they may not grow, as Pliny m and others observe, but be a winter store; hence its name in Hebrew is “nemalah”, from “namal”, “to cut off”; it being done by biting. Yea, according to Aelianus n, it seems to have some sense of futurity with respect to famine, which being near, it will work exceeding hard to lay up food, fruits, and seed; and, according to Virgil o and others, it seems to presage old age, and therefore provides against it. An instruction this to work, while persons are in health, and have youth on their side; that they may have not only a sufficiency for present use, but to lay up against a time of sickness and old age. The Septuagint and Arabic versions add,
“or go to the bee, and learn what a worker she is, and what an admirable work she performs; whose labours kings and private persons use for health: she is desirable to all, and famous; and though weak in strength, honouring wisdom is advanced.”
But this is not in the Hebrew text; but perhaps being written in the margin of some copy of the Septuagint as a parallel instance, was by some unskilful copier put into the text of the Greek version, from whence the Arabic version has taken it; it crept in very early, for Clemens of Alexandria makes mention of it p.
l “Ac veluti ingentem formicae farris acervum”, &c. Virgil. Aeneid. l. 4. v. 402, &c. So Horat. Satyr. 1. v. 36. m Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 30. Plutarch. vol. 2. de Solert. Animal. p. 968. n Vat. Hist. l. 1. c. 12. o “Inopi metuens formica senectae”, Georgic. l. 1. v. 186. So Horace, ut supra. Juvenal. Satyr. 6. v. 360. p Stromat. l. 1. p. 286.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. Provideth her meat While the original is used of any kind of food, it especially denotes grain. But it is roundly asserted that no European ants feed on any kind of grain that they are altogether carnivorous. Bennett found that, however long they had been kept without food, they would not touch corn, (grain.) Nor has any species of ant been yet found with food of any kind laid up in its nest. These are certainly extraordinary statements, if correct, indicating that not only may popular opinion be wrong, but that a host of learned men in all ages have been in error. Aristotle, Pliny, Horace, Plutarch, Virgil, Juvenal, St. Jerome, as well as Solomon, may be quoted as authority for the fact that ants do lay up food in store for the future. It is true, Solomon does not say what kind of food the ant provides, but only that she provides food in the summer and in the harvest. So also Horace, Sat. i: “The ant, small as she is, sets us an example. She is very laborious. She carries in her mouth whatever she can, and adds it to her constructed store-heap, providing against a future period with great precaution.” The white ants, or termites, so abundant in tropical countries, do, according to reliable authority, store up food in their nests or houses. It is, moreover, admitted by some that ants do carry various things to their nests, as portions of leaves and kernels of grain, not, however, for food, as asserted, but because they have a fancy for them! “They are great robbers,” says Thomson, ( Land and Book,) “and plunder by night and by day, and a farmer must keep a sharp eye on his [threshing] floor or they will abstract a large quantity of grain in a single night.” See article Ant, in M’Clintock and Strong.
To make this note the more complete, we insert, from “Popular Science Monthly,” as further illustrating the habits of certain species of the ant family, the following: “Mr. Traherne Moggridge has recently, by careful observation in the south of Europe, confirmed in many of their minutest details the accounts given by ancient writers, as to the ants being eaters of grain. He describes the ants as ascending the stalks of cereals and gnawing off the grains, while others below detached the seed from the chaff and carried it home; as gnawing off the radicle, to prevent germination; and as spreading their stores in the sun to dry them after wet weather. These statements Mr. Moggridge has verified, supplementing them by discovering the granaries in which they are stored, sometimes excavated in solid rock. He has seen them in the act of collecting seeds, and has traced seeds to the granaries; he has seen them bring out the grains to dry after a rain, and nibble off the radicle from those which were germinating; lastly, he has seen them feed on the seeds so collected. Their depredations are of such extent as must cause serious loss to cultivators.” E.R. Leland.
The most wonderful ant in the world is one, so far as known, found only in the United States. Its scientific name is atta malefaciens, popularly called the stinging ant, on account of the pungency of its venom. Its habits have been thoroughly studied for twelve years by Dr. Lincecum, of Texas, and the results communicated to the Linnean Society by Charles Darwin, Esq. The following is an abstract of Dr. Lincecum’s communication: “It is a large brownish ant. He names it the agricultural ant. It dwells in what may be called paved cities, and, like a thrifty farmer, makes suitable arrangements for the changing seasons. When it has selected a situation for its habitation, if on dry ground, it bores a hole, around which it raises the surface three, and sometimes six, inches, forming a low circular mound, having a very gentle inclination from the centre to the outer border, which, on an average, is three or four feet from the entrance. But if the location is on low, flat, wet land, liable to inundation, though perfectly dry at the time the ant sets to work, it nevertheless elevates the mound in the form of a pretty sharp cone, to the height of fifteen to twenty inches or more, and makes the entrance near the summit. Around the mound, in either case, the ant clears the ground of all obstructions, levels and smooths the surface to the distance of three or four feet from the gate of the city, giving the space the appearance of a handsome pavement, as it really is. Within this paved area not a blade of any green thing is allowed to grow, except a single species of grain-bearing grass. Having planted this crop in a circle around, two or three feet from the centre of the mound, the insect tends and cultivates it with constant care, cutting away all other grasses and weeds that may spring up amongst it and around it outside of the farm-circle to the extent of one or two feet more.
“The cultivated grass grows luxuriantly, and produces a heavy crop of small, white, flinty seeds, which, under the microscope, very closely resemble ordinary rice. When ripe it is carefully harvested, and carried by the workers, chaff and all, into the granary cells, where it is divested of the chaff and packed away. The chaff is taken out and thrown beyond the limits of the paved area.
“During protracted wet weather it sometimes happens that the provision stores become damp, and are liable to sprout and spoil. In this case, on the first fine day, the ants bring out the damp and moistened grain, and expose it to the sun till it is dry, when they carry it back again, and pack away all the sound seeds, leaving those that had sprouted to waste.
* * * *
“There can be no doubt of the fact that the particular species of grain-bearing grass is intentionally planted. In farmer-like manner the ground is carefully divested of all other grasses and weeds during the time it is growing. When it is ripe the grain is taken care of, the dry stubbs cut away and carried off, the paved area being left unencumbered till the ensuing autumn, when the same ant-rice reappears within the same circle, and receives the same agricultural attention as the previous crop; and so on from year to year, as I know to be the case in all situations where the ant settlements are protected from graminivorous animals.”
In a second letter, in answer to inquiries from Mr. Darwin, whether he supposed the ants planted the seeds for the ensuing crop, Dr. L. says: “I have not the least doubt of it. My conclusions are not from hasty or careless observation, nor from seeing the ants do something that looked like it, and then guessing at the results. I have at all seasons watched the same ant-cities during the last twelve years, and I know what I stated in my former letter is true. I visited the same cities yesterday, and found the crop of ant-rice growing finely, and exhibiting also the signs of high cultivation, and not a blade of any other kind of grass or weed was seen within twelve inches of the circular row of ant-rice.”
The author of the book remarks, that “the economical habits of this wonderful insect far surpass any thing that Solomon has written of the ant, and it is not too much to say, that if any of the scriptural writers had ventured to speak of an ant that not only laid up stores of grain, but actually prepared the soil for the crop, planted the seed, kept the ground free from weeds, and finally reaped the harvest, the statement would have been utterly disbelieved, and the credibility, not only of that particular writer, but of the rest of Scripture, severely damaged. Solomon’s statement concerning the ant has afforded one of the stock arguments against the truth of Scripture, and yet we have his statements not only corroborated to the very letter by those who have visited Palestine for the express purpose of investigating its zoology, but far surpassed by the observations of a scientific man [of the United States] who had watched the insects for a series of years.” Comp. Pro 30:25.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 6:8 Provideth her meat in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest.
Ver. 8. Provideth her meat in the summer. ] She devours indeed much grain, made chiefly for the use of man; but deserves, saith an interpreter, for this very cause, to be fed with the finest wheat, and greatest dainties, that all men may have her always in their eye: diligent men to quicken their diligence, and sluggards to shame them for their slothfulness.
And gathereth her food in harvest.
a Quintil.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in the summer. True of Eastern ants.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 30:25, 1Ti 6:19
Reciprocal: Pro 10:5 – gathereth