Proverbs 6: Go to the Ant, Thou Sluggard

"My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth… go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes… Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter" (6:1–5). "Striking hands" sealed a guarantee: if the borrower defaulted, the guarantor paid. The advice is urgent: go and plead to be released.

"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?… 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" (6:6–11).

"These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren" (6:16–19). The list moves down the body (eyes, tongue, hands, heart, feet), then to the courtroom and the community.

"Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife" (6:27–29). A hungry thief is pitied, though he must repay sevenfold (vv. 30–31); the adulterer "destroyeth his own soul" (v. 32), and the husband "will not regard any ransom" (v. 35).

Surety

Guaranteeing loans was common in the ancient Near East and is attested in Mesopotamian contracts. Proverbs warns against it repeatedly (11:15; 17:18; 20:16; 22:26–27; 27:13). The concern is not lending to the poor, which the law commands (Deuteronomy 15:7–11), but pledging oneself for a debt one cannot control. Genesis 43:9 and 44:32 show Judah making himself surety for Benjamin.

The ant

Harvester ants of the Levant (Messor species) collect seeds in summer and store them in underground granaries; their stores were noticed by ancient writers, and rabbinic law even discusses grain found in ant-holes (Mishnah Pe'ah 4:11). Proverbs says the ant has "no guide, overseer, or ruler," which is how her work appears to an observer, not a claim about ant biology. The lesson is self-motivated foresight.

Numerical sayings

"Six… yea, seven" is the X / X+1 pattern found also in 30:15–31, Amos 1–2 ("for three transgressions… and for four") and Ugaritic poetry. The second number points to the climax, here the seventh item: "he that soweth discord among brethren," which echoes verse 14 and ties the list to the troublemaker just described.

6:16 in the Hebrew and Greek

The library's Hebrew (WLC) prints two forms at the end of 6:16: the written text (ketiv) to'avot and the read text (qere) to'avat, "abominations of / abomination of his soul," a small Masoretic note on how to read the word. The library's Greek reads 6:16 quite differently: "he rejoices in all the things the Lord hates, and he will be crushed for the impurity of his soul," joining it to the troublemaker of vv. 12–15. See the passage page.

The bee: a Greek addition

After the ant (6:8), the Greek adds three lines about the bee: "Or go to the bee, and learn how industrious she is… her produce kings and commoners use for health" (library's Greek, Giguet). There is no Hebrew counterpart. It is one of the best-known Greek pluses in Proverbs; ancient Greek writers admired bees as models of order, and the addition may come from the translator's own culture. See the passage page.

Fire in the lap and the hungry thief

The adulterer and the thief (vv. 30–35) are compared, not equated: theft from hunger is understood but still repaid (sevenfold is a round, severe figure; the law in Exodus 22:1–4 requires double to fivefold); adultery cannot be repaid at all. The point is that some harms cannot be undone with money.

Seven things, and the seven deadly sins

The six-and-seven list of 6:16–19 is not the source of the later Christian "seven deadly sins" (pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust), which developed from Evagrius of Pontus (4th century) and Gregory the Great (6th century). The two lists overlap only partly (pride; perhaps sloth from 6:6–11). The Proverbs list is weighted toward sins against neighbours and community: lying, violence, false witness, sowing discord.

The ant in later tradition

Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper makes a similar point about foresight, but there is no evidence of borrowing in either direction. The rabbis cited 6:6 when praising diligence; Christian writers (for example Basil and Ambrose in their sermons on creation) used the ant as a model of providence.