Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Proverbs 6:6-11
A Warning To The Lazy (Proverbs 6:6).
The urgency required of the surety in dealing with his problem in Proverbs 6:1, and the possibility that he might be slack in doing so, may well have raised in Solomon's mind the dangers of laziness. For whereas the ants are also urgent, the sluggard is the very opposite. He puts off his problems and goes to sleep. And the consequence will be that instead of having food stored up for the winter he will be in poverty and need. So as he will not listen to Solomon's wisdom what he should rather do is learn wisdom from the ant.
It will be noted that this subsection consists of two contrasts, on the one hand the ant which is not under anyone's instructions and yet works hard, and consequently ensures that it has sufficient provision, and on the other the sluggard who listens to no one's instructions and slumbers and sleeps, and who will thus will find himself in poverty and want.
‘Go to the ant, you sluggard,
Consider her ways, and be wise,
Which having no chief,
Overseer, or ruler,
Provides her bread in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.
Instead of addressing this man as ‘my son', he addresses him as ‘you sluggard', and calls on him to consider the ant. (Note ‘my son -- my son' (Proverbs 6:1; Proverbs 6:3) as compared with ‘you sluggard' -- you sluggard' (Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 6:9)). This is an admonition rather than an entreaty. He does not see him as a ‘son', eager to learn from him, but as someone who has to be stirred up and cajoled. Sarcastically he indicates that as he will not listen to Solomon, he should listen to the ant. He wants him to watch ants scurrying this way and that, and learn a lesson from them. The ant is one of the ‘creeping things' of which Solomon spoke (1 Kings 4:33). It was probably the harvester ant, which stores grain within its nest, and is found in large quantities throughout Palestine.
And it taught a salutary lesson, for this ant, without any admonition or overlordship, works away busily all through the summer in order to provision its nest. It never stops. It makes use of both summertime and harvest time. The busyness of the ant is proverbial. Arguments as to whether ants are under leadership are irrelevant. Insects do not give instructions to each other in order to be obeyed. They simply respond to their natural conditioning.
How long will you sleep, O sluggard?
When will you arise out of your sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep,
So will your poverty come as a robber,
And your want as an armed man.
The sluggard sleeps and slumbers (compare Proverbs 24:33), just as the surety was warned not to do (Proverbs 6:4). He sees it as ‘a little sleep' no matter how long it lasts. He deceives himself. And paradoxically he dreams of wealth and plenty (Proverbs 13:4). But the consequence will be that poverty creeps up on him like a robber, and want like an armed man (compare Proverbs 24:34). This armed man could be an armed robber, or a soldier seeking spoils. Thus poverty and want both creep up on a man, and can equally be violent. They wrest his goods from him. They take his goods by stealth or force (as indeed would the creditor in the first illustration).