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Tuesday, April 29th, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Proverbs 30:25

Ants: they are weak, 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;
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 Life Bible
The ants are not a strong people, but they store up their food in the 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 animals in the world that are small, but very, very clever: 25 Ants: they are weak, but they store up their food in the summer. 26 Rock badgers: they are not strong either, but they make their homes among the rocks. 27 Locusts: they have no king, but they move in formation. 28 Lizards: you can hold one in your hand, but you can find them in palaces.

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
After he had finished speaking with Abraham, the Lord went away, and Abraham returned home.
Genesis 24:54
Then Abraham's servant and the men with him ate and drank, and spent the night there. When they got up in the morning, he said, "Let me go back to my master."
Genesis 24:56
But he said, "Don't make us stay. The Lord has made my journey a success; let me go back to my master."
Genesis 26:3
Live here, and I will be with you and bless you. I am going to give all this territory to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham.
Genesis 28:13
And there was the Lord standing beside him. "I am the Lord , the God of Abraham and Isaac," he said. "I will give to you and to your descendants this land on which you are lying.
Genesis 28:15
Remember, I will be with you and protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised you."
Genesis 30:4
So she gave Bilhah to her husband, and he had intercourse with her.
Genesis 30:5
Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son.
Genesis 30:6
Rachel said, "God has judged in my favor. He has heard my prayer and has given me a son"; so she named him Dan.
Genesis 30:7
Bilhah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a second son.

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.


 
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