ANT ( nemâlâh , Arab. [Note: Arabic.] namlah ). Ants are exceedingly abundant all over Palestine, where, through their vast numbers, they perform a most important rôle, by continually changing the surface soil in the way earthworms do in northern countries. No more apt illustration of diligence ( Proverbs 6:6-8 ) could be found than these little insects, which, in all but the wettest weather, can be seen scurrying backwards and forwards on the long tracks they have made. Some common varieties of Palestine ants ( Aphœnogaster barbara, A. structor and Pheidole megacephala ) store up great quantities of various kinds of seeds, which they are able, in some unknown way, to prevent germinating and make use of as food ( Proverbs 30:25 ). Whole troops of these little insects may be seen carrying seeds, often many times their own size and weight, from a distant garden or corn-field. The writer has even seen a procession of ants carrying their harvest under the thickness of a broad mud wall which bounded the corn-field, and then across a wide and frequented road. The stores of seeds so collected have been found so great that the Mishna laid down rules in regard to their ownership. If they were discovered in the field before reaping, they belonged to the owner, but if afterwards, they were all or in part for the poor. The sagacity of the ant in this and other respects is widely recognized both in Oriental lore as in Proverbs 30:24-25 and even more forcibly by the modern naturalist. E. W. G. Masterman.
Ant.There are several species of ants, but to which of these the Proverbs refer is not known: the Hebrew word nemalah is said to be from a root signifying 'to crowd together,' which applies to all ants. Buxtorf traces it from the root 'to eat.' This insect is held up as a practical reproof to the sluggard; the scripture says that it provides its meat in the summer, and gathereth its food in the harvest. Prov. 6:6; Prov. 30:25. Sceptics take exception to this, because ants are held to be carnivorous and they could not lay up such food in summer; but there is abundance of evidence to prove that they lay up grain in the summer, and if it becomes damp they bring it out into the sun and dry it. Another point worthy of note is that they have 'no guide, overseer, or ruler,' and yet no one can watch this insect without seeing that they are 'exceeding wise:' each one finds what his particular work is, and diligently does it — a profitable lesson for the saints of God to learn.