Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, August 26th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

New Life Version

Proverbs 30:25

The ants are not a strong people, but they store up their food in the summer.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Animals;   Ant;   Industry;   Riddle;   Summer;   Thompson Chain Reference - Ant;   Insects;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Summer;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Ant;   Proverb, the Book of;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Pardon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Ant;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Fable;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Insects;   Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Agur;   Ant;   Jakeh;   Massa;   Proverb;   Proverbs, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Ant;   Proverbs, Book of;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Ant;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Summer;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Ant;  

Encyclopedias:

- Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Ant;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ant in Jewish Literature, the;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
ants are not a strong people,yet they store up their food in the summer;
Hebrew Names Version
The ants are not a strong people, Yet they provide their food in the summer;
King James Version
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
English Standard Version
the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;
New American Standard Bible
The ants are not a strong people, But they prepare their food in the summer;
New Century Version
Ants are not very strong, but they store up food in the summer.
Amplified Bible
The ants are not a strong people, Yet they prepare their food in the summer;
World English Bible
The ants are not a strong people, Yet they provide their food in the summer;
Geneva Bible (1587)
The pismires a people not strong, yet prepare they their meate in sommer:
Legacy Standard Bible
The ants are not a strong people,But they prepare their food in the summer;
Berean Standard Bible
the ants are not a strong species, yet they store up their food in the summer;
Contemporary English Version
Ants, who seem to be feeble, but store up food all summer long;
Complete Jewish Bible
the ants, a species not strong, yet they store up their food in the summer;
Darby Translation
The ants, a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;
Easy-to-Read Version
Ants are small and weak, but they save their food all summer;
George Lamsa Translation
The ants which have no strength, yet they provide their food in the summer;
Good News Translation
Ants: they are weak, but they store up their food in the summer.
Lexham English Bible
The ants are a people who are not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer;
Literal Translation
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in summer;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The Emmettes are but a weake people, yet gather they their meate together in ye haruest.
American Standard Version
The ants are a people not strong, Yet they provide their food in the summer;
Bible in Basic English
The ants are a people not strong, but they put by a store of food in the summer;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
The ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;
King James Version (1611)
The Ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meate in the summer.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The emmets are [but] a weake people, which yet gather their meate in the sommer:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
An unbelieving man judges rashly: but he that trusts in the Lord will act carefully.
English Revised Version
The ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their meat in the summer;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
amtis, a feble puple, that maken redi mete in heruest to hem silf;
Update Bible Version
The ants are not a strong people, Yet they provide their food in the summer;
Webster's Bible Translation
The ants [are] a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer;
New English Translation
ants are creatures with little strength, but they prepare their food in the summer;
New King James Version
The ants are a people not strong, Yet they prepare their food in the summer;
New Living Translation
Ants—they aren't strong, but they store up food all summer.
New Revised Standard
the ants are a people without strength, yet they provide their food in the summer;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The ants, a people, not strong, - yet prepare they, in summer, their food;
Douay-Rheims Bible
The ants, a feeble people, which provide themselves food in the harvest:
Revised Standard Version
the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;
Young's Literal Translation
The ants [are] a people not strong, And they prepare in summer their food,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The ants are not a strong people, But they prepare their food in the summer;

Contextual Overview

24 There are four things that are small on the earth, but they are very wise: 25 The ants are not a strong people, but they store up their food in the summer. 26 The badgers are not a strong people, but they make their houses in the rocks. 27 The locusts have no king, but they go as an army. 28 You can take the lizard in your hands, but it is found in kings' houses.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

The ants may truly be called a people, as they have houses, towns, public roads, etc.; and shew their wisdom and prudence by preparing their meat in due season. Proverbs 6:6-8

Reciprocal: Proverbs 6:8 - General Proverbs 10:5 - gathereth Joel 1:6 - nation

Cross-References

Genesis 18:33
Then the Lord went on His way when He finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
Genesis 24:54
Then he and the men with him ate and drank and stayed the night there. When they got up in the morning, he said, "Send me away to my boss."
Genesis 24:56
But he said to them, "Do not make me stay any more days, since the Lord has made my way go well. Send me away so I may go to my boss."
Genesis 26:3
Live in this land and I will be with you and bring good to you. For I will give all these lands to you and your children. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham.
Genesis 28:13
And he saw the Lord standing above them. He said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac. I will give to you and your children after you the land where you are lying.
Genesis 28:15
See, I am with you. I will care for you everywhere you go. And I will bring you again to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done all the things I promised you."
Genesis 30:4
So she gave Bilhah to him for a wife, the woman who served her. And Jacob went in to her.
Genesis 30:5
Bilhah was going to have a child and she gave birth to a son.
Genesis 30:6
Then Rachel said, "God has done the right thing for me. He has heard my voice and has given me a son." So she gave him the name Dan.
Genesis 30:7
Bilhah, the woman who served Rachel, was going to have another child. And she gave birth to another son for Jacob.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The ants [are] a people not strong,.... Far from it; what is weaker than an ant? a multitude of them may be destroyed at once, with the crush of a foot. Pliny calls it "minimum animal", the least animal; and the Arabians use it as a proverb, to call a weak man one weaker than an ant: and there is one sort of ants called "dsar", so small that one hundred of them will not weigh more than a barley corn g: they are called a people, because they associate together in great numbers; though small in bulk, and weak as to power and strength; and which is a figure elsewhere used in the sacred Scriptures; see Joel 1:6; and by profane writers, as Homer and Virgil, who speak of bees as a people and nation h; and of nations of flies, and of flying birds, geese, cranes, and swans i;

yet their prepare their meat in the summer; build granaries with great art and wisdom, carry in grains of corn with great labour and industry, in the summer season, when only to be got, and lay them up against winter. Phocylides k the poet says much the same things of them; he calls them a tribe or nation, small but laborious, and says, they gather and carry in their food in summer for the winter, which is a proof of their wisdom. Cicero l says, the ant has not only sense, but mind, reason, and memory. Aelianus m ascribes unspeakable wisdom to it; and Pliny n discourse and conversation; Joel 1:6- :,

Joel 1:6- :;

Joel 1:6- :. It is a pattern of industry and diligence both as to temporal and spiritual things, Ecclesiastes 9:10.

g Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 4. c. 22. col. 598. h εθνεα μελισσαων Iliad. 2. v. 87. "Et populos et proelia dicam", Georgic. l. 4. v. 4, 5. i Iliad. 2. v. 459, 469. & 15. v. 690, 691. k Poem. Admon. v. 158, 159. l De Natura Deorum, l. 3. m De Animal. l. 16. c. 15. n Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 30.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal reference note. Note the word “people” applied here to ants, as to locusts in Joel 1:6. The marvel lies in their collective, and, as it were, organized action.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile