Chapter
Verse

Proverbs 30:25

ESV the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer;
NIV Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;
NASB The ants are not a strong people, But they prepare their food in the summer;
CSB ants are not a strong people, yet they store up their food in the summer;
NLT Ants — they aren’t strong, but they store up food all summer.
KJV The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
NKJV The ants are a people not strong, Yet they prepare their food in the summer;

What does Proverbs 30:25 mean?

Ants are Agur's first example (Proverbs 30:24) of insignificant creatures which still accomplish great things. Ants demonstrate their "wisdom"—here meaning common sense or application of knowledge—by preparing for cold weather by storing food in the summer. This was used as a direct contrast to the foolishness of lazing around when one ought to be preparing fields for a harvest (Proverbs 6:6–11). Ants are relatively tiny; even a colony makes up less weight than a small person. Yet these creatures survive and provide for their young all the same.

Typically, an ant can lift as much as twenty times its own weight. A colony of ants can produce thousands of workers whose main job is to gather food for the next generation. Although they cannot "hear," in the same way as other animals, ants interpret vibrations they feel from the ground through their feet. Agur marveled at the wisdom of these industrious little creatures. This is part of a wider biblical theme: that God can accomplish great things using the meekest of instruments (1 Corinthians 1:27–28).
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