Proverbs 6:7
in Proverbs 6Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Which having no chief, Overseer, or ruler,
KJV
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
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This verse in Proverbs 6
Commentary
5 notes on this verseWhich, having no guide, etc. If such a small animal, lacking a leader and devoid of reason, foresees things for itself by nature as its guide for the future, much more so should you, created in the image of God, called to see His glory, …
This site's exposition
consider her ways, and be wise
on Proverbs 6:6-11
The sluggard is sent to school under an insect rather than a teacher, since the ant works without a guide, overseer, or ruler to compel her, storing food in summer for a need she has not yet felt. The rhetorical question, how long wilt thou sleep, presses the son with the ant's example already standing as the answer he cannot escape. The little sleep, a little slumber repeated three times mimics the sluggard's own excuse making, and poverty is pictured arriving not gradually but as a traveler and an armed man, unannounced once it comes.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
He is to take him to school himself, for, if the scholar will take no pains, the master must take the more; the sluggard is not willing to come to school to him (dreaming scholars will never love wakeful teachers) and therefore he has found him out another school, as low as he can desire. The master he is sent to school to: Go to the ant, to the bee, so the LXX.
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
The words express the wonder with which the Hebrew observer looked on the phenomena of insect life. “Guide,” better captain, as in Jos 10:24. The Septuagint introduces here a corresponding reference to the industry of the bee.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֲשֶׁ֖ר | ʾasher | which | H834 → | 5497 times |
| אֵֽין־ | ʾein- | not | H369 → | 789 times |
| לָ֥הּ | lah | [belongs] to it | ||
| קָצִ֗ין | katzin | [is] commander of | H7101 → | |
| שֹׁטֵ֥ר | shoter | icer | H7860 → | |
| וּמֹשֵֽׁל׃ | umoshel | and ruler | H4910 → | 81 times |
אֲשֶׁ֖רwhich
ʾasherH834 →5497 times
אֵֽין־not
ʾein-H369 →789 times
לָ֥הּ[belongs] to it
lah
קָצִ֗ין[is] commander of
katzinH7101 →
שֹׁטֵ֥רicer
shoterH7860 →
וּמֹשֵֽׁל׃and ruler
umoshelH4910 →81 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 38:39Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions
it leads to
- Psalms 104:21
The young lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.
- Job 4:10–11
The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
- Psalms 145:15–16
The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Psalms 104:21
Through
Proverbs 30:27the locusts have no king, yet they all advance in formation;
it leads to
- Joel 1:6–7
For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.
- Exodus 10:4–6
But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.
- Joel 2:7–11
They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course.
- Psalms 105:34
He spoke, and the locusts came— young locusts without number.
- Joel 2:25
I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.
- Joel 1:6–7
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.