This is what the verse said: “Idler, go to the ant; see its ways and become wise. Though it does not have a commander, officer, or governor, it prepares its bread in the summer and amasses its food at the harvest” (Proverbs 6:6–8). Why did Solomon see fit to teach the idler a lesson from the ant? The Rabbis said: An ant has three houses.2That is, ant holes have three compartments.
It does not store [food] in the upper one, to avoid [water] dripping in, nor in the bottom one because of the [moistness of the] mud, but in the middle one. And it lives only six months. Why? Because anything that does not possess sinews and bones can live only six months.
Its diet is only one-and-a-half wheat kernels, but is goes and gathers in the summer everything that it finds – wheat, barley, and lentils. Rabbi Tanḥuma said: All [it requires in] its life is only one-and-a-half wheat kernels, yet it gathers [all] these. Why does it do so? Because it says: ‘Perhaps the Holy One blessed be He will decree life upon me, so I will have something prepared to eat.’
Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai said: There was once an incident where they found three hundred kor3A kor is a very large volume, around 350 liters. [of food] in its hole, from what it gathered from summer to winter. That is why Solomon said: ‘“Idler, go to the ant; see its ways and become wise.” You, too, prepare for yourself mitzvot in this world for the World to Come.’ What is meant by “see its ways and become wise”?
The Rabbis said: See the proper behavior that it exhibits, as it eschews robbery. Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta said: There was once an incident involving a certain ant that dropped a wheat kernel. All the others came and smelled it, but not one of them would take it. The one to whom it belonged came back and took it.
See the wisdom that it has, all this virtue that it has, which it did not learn from any other creature, and it has neither judge nor officer, as it is stated: “It does not have a commander, officer, or governor”; you, for whom I appointed judges and officers, all the more so that you should heed them. That is, “Judges and officers you shall place for you within all your gates.”