The Sluggard and the Ant

The words

1. Armed Man

   Want is rendered need in the NET.

   After the refrain about a little sleep, the warning pictures want arriving like an armed man, alongside approaching poverty.

   Proverbs 6:10–11 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Proverbs 6:6-11 (opens a new tab)

2. Diligent

   Proverbs contrasts the diligent hand that rules with the slothful under tribute, which the NET renders as forced labor.

   Proverbs 12:24 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Proverbs 12:24-27 (opens a new tab)

3. Guide

   Commander, in the NET’s rendering.

   The ant is described as having no guide, overseer or ruler, yet preparing food in summer and gathering it at harvest.

   Proverbs 6:7–8 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Proverbs 6:6-11 (opens a new tab)

4. Harvest

   The ant’s gathering at harvest follows its summer provision in the verse, before the questions about the sluggard’s sleep.

   Proverbs 6:8–9 (opens a new tab)

5. Hunger

   Proverbs 19:15 links slothfulness with deep sleep and says an idle soul will suffer hunger, continuing the warning about neglect.

   Proverbs 19:15 (opens a new tab)

6. Instruction

   The observer looks at the overgrown field and broken wall, considers what is seen, and receives instruction from the scene.

   Proverbs 24:30–32 (opens a new tab)

7. Nettles

   Weeds, in the NET’s rendering.

   Nettles cover the ground in the neglected field, while thorns grow throughout it and the stone wall lies broken down.

   Proverbs 24:30–31 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Proverbs 24:30-34 (opens a new tab)

8. Overseer

   Overseer stands between guide and ruler in the list of authorities the ant lacks, contrasting its preparation with the sluggard’s delay.

   Proverbs 6:6–9 (opens a new tab)

9. Poverty

   The warning compares approaching poverty with a traveler and want with an armed man, after the repeated request for a little rest.

   Proverbs 6:10–11 (opens a new tab)

10. Proverbs

    The collection opens with the title “The proverbs of Solomon,” then announces purposes including wisdom, instruction and understanding.

    Did you know?

    The NET renders the opening’s “dark sayings” as riddles, keeping them alongside the sayings of the wise.

    Proverbs 1:1–6 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Proverbs 1:1-7 (opens a new tab)

11. Sleep

    The sluggard is asked how long sleep will continue and when waking will come, before the refrain about a little sleep.

    Did you know?

    The same sequence of a little sleep, slumber and folded hands reappears after the neglected field in Proverbs 24:33.

    Proverbs 6:9–10 (opens a new tab) · Proverbs 24:33 (opens a new tab)

12. Sluggard

    A lazy or sluggish person, in the NET note.

    The sluggard is told to consider the ant’s ways and be wise; the ant’s preparation leads into questions about delayed waking.

    Proverbs 6:6–9 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Proverbs 6:6-11 (opens a new tab)

13. Slumber

    Slumber appears between sleep and folded hands in the repeated refrain, linking the ant passage with the lesson from the field.

    Proverbs 6:10 (opens a new tab) · Proverbs 24:32–33 (opens a new tab)

14. Stone Wall

    The broken stone wall completes the field’s picture of neglect, alongside thorns and nettles, before the observer pauses to learn.

    Proverbs 24:31–32 (opens a new tab)

15. Summer

    Summer is the ant’s season of providing food, paired in the same verse with gathering food during harvest.

    Did you know?

    Proverbs 30:24–25 places ants among four small creatures called exceedingly wise, again mentioning their preparation of food in summer.

    Proverbs 6:8 (opens a new tab) · Proverbs 30:24–25 (opens a new tab)