The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 137

1.·atsah being "to decide 11 (see Isa. i. 10; iii. "Parvula (nam exemplo est) ma.gni formica 6, 7; Micah iii. 9). The word, however, is laboris oicut used of a military commander in Josh. x. 24; Ore trahit qnodcunque potest, atque addit Judg. ii. 6-11, and in this sense it is under- aoervo, stood by the Vulgate, which has duz. Sh6ter, Quern struit, haud ignam ao non inoauta rendered "overseer," is literally "a scribe," futuri, and appears as the general designntion for Quro, simnl universum contristat Aquarius any official. In Exod. v. 6, 19 the shoter annum is the person employed by the Egyptian Non usquam prorepit, et illis utitur ante taskmasters to urge on the Israelites in Qnresitis sapiens." their forced labour; in Numb. xi. 16 the sl16ter is one of the seventy elders; and in "For thus the little ant (to human lore 1 Chron. xxiii. 4 he is a municipal magis- No mean example) forms her frugal store, trate. The meaning assigned to the word Gathered, with mighty toils, on every side, in the Authorized Version seems to be the correct one. The ant has no overseer; there Nor iguornnt, nor careless to provide is none to regulate or see that the work is For future want; yet when the stars ap• pear done. Each ant apparently works indepen- dently of the rest, though guided by a com- That darkly sadden the declining year, mon instinct to add to the common store. No more she comes abroad, but wisely lives In m6shel we have the highest title of dignity and power, the word signifying a On the fair store industrious summer gives." lord, prince, or ruler, from mashal, "to rule." Ver. 8.-Provideth her meat in the sum- (Francis' Translation.) mer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. The same provident choracter is noted in It is this charact;eristic, combined with what lF.sop's fable, 'The Ant and the Grass- has just been said, which gives point to the hopper;' see also Aristotle (' Hist. Nat.,' lesson the sluggard is to leam. The ix. 6), All objections on this subject appear teacher, as it were, argues: If the ant, so to be based on insufficient data, and have insignificant a creature in the order of the been conclusively answered by recent obser- animal kingdom, is so provident, how much vation. Apa.rt from the remark of Buffon, more should you be-you, a man endued that "the ants of tropical climates lay up with superior intelligence, and with so many provisions, and as they probably live the more resources at hand, and with greater whole year, they submit themselves.to regu- advantages l If the ant, with noue to urge, lations entirely utikn()wn among the ants direct, or control her work, is so industrious, of Europe." The late Professor. Darwin surely she provides an example at which states of the agricultural ant of Texas, yon, the sluggard, should blush, since there which in many features resembles the ant is every external incentive to rouse you to of Palestine, that it. not only stores its food, action-your duty to the community, the but prepares the soil for the crops, keeps urgent advice of your friends, and your the ground free from weeds, and finally di~ity as a man. If she provides for the reaps the harvest (Journal of Linnzan future, mnch more should yon do so, and Society, vol. i. No. 21, p. 29). Canon Tria- throw off your sloth. Objection haa been tram also observes, " The language of the taken to what is here stated of the provident wise man is not only in accordance witll habits of tbe ant in storing food, on the the universal belief of his own time, but ground that it is carnivorous and passes with the a.ccurotely ascertained facts of the winter in a. state of torpidity. That natural history. Contrary to its habits in the ant does lay up stores for future use colder climates, the o.nt is not there dormant has, however, been the opinion of all ages. through the winte1·; and among the tama- Thus Hesiod (' Days,' 14) speaks of the ant risks of the Dead Sea. it may be. seen, in as harvesting the grain, calling it t~pis, "the January, actively engaged in collecting the provident." Virgil says (' Georg.,' i. 186; aphides and saccharine exudations, in long cf. 'lEneid,' iv. 4027)- files passing and repassing up and down the trunk. 'l'wo of the most common species "Veluti ingentem formicre Carris ncervllm of the Holy Land (Alta b,arbara, the black Quum populant hiemis memores, tectoque ant, nnd Alta Btru.ctor, the brown ant) are reponunt." strictly seed-feeders; and in summer lay up large stores of grain for winter use. These "Bo the ants, when they plunder a tall heap speciEls are spread along the whole of the of com, mindful of the winter, store it in Mediterranean coasts, but are unknown. in t.heir cave." The language of Horace(' Sat.,' more northern climates. Hence writers who i 1. 32) might be 11, comment on our pas- were ignorant of ants beyond those of their 1age- own countries have been presumptuous oli. vr. 1-35] THE PROVERBS. 127