SUMMARY
Learn from the ants: Don’t be lazy!
ANALYSIS
This is the first and one of the most memorable of a good number of warnings against sloth in Proverbs. One of the classic seven deadly sins has been identified as laziness or, to use the more ancient and colorful word, sloth. The device of learning from nonhuman creatures is another one that comes up often in Proverbs (see also 30:24-28).