21 Under three things the earth quakes,
And under four, it cannot bear up:
22 Under a slave when he becomes king,
And a fool when he is satisfied with food,
23 Under an unloved woman when she gets a husband,
And a maidservant when she supplants her mistress.24 Four things are small on the earth,
But they are exceedingly wise:
25 The ants are not a strong people,
But they prepare their food in the summer;
26 The [j]shephanim are not mighty people,
Yet they make their houses in the rocks;
27 The locusts have no king,
Yet all of them go out in ranks;
28 The lizard you may grasp with the hands,
Yet it is in kings’ palaces.
I find myself looking at this passage in reverse order, so let’s start with these “wise” things. I’ve learned a lot about ants over the last few years, and they are indeed an amazing creature. Their communication with each other and their diligence would certainly give them the appearance of wisdom. I’m not certain we could call it actual wisdom, but they have this in common with the others in this list: they know what is needed to survive, and they get the job done.
These small creatures don’t while away the day in idle pursuits, everything they do is on purpose. Likewise, the shephanim (or hyrax) is a small, fury animal that would no doubt be easy prey were it to live anywhere else. However, God has given them the wisdom to nest in the rocks, where they are much safer. The study of the animal kingdom would no doubt reveal many more examples that are in stark contrast to our “friends” in vv. 22-23.
A slave is (generally) not fit to be king, not necessarily because he is a bad person, but in part due to what landed him in that position in the first place. In that culture, slavery was often the result of debt and poor decisions. That is, debt so great that the only way to pay it off was to become a slave. Besides that, they’ve been taking orders for years, and are hardly practiced at the skills needed to be a leader.
Likewise, we see the unloved woman and the maidservant in places they don’t belong. We might feel bad for the unloved woman, that’s a sad state. That said, I suspect the implication is she was “unloved” because of her lack of character. The husband she eventually snares will be in sad shape indeed.
Whatever the case, these examples of poor character should goad us into action. Learn from the ant, the locust, the hyrax (not so sure about the lizard!), and listen to the voice of your Creator. Be diligent in all you do, avoid the temptations of the flesh, and keep moving forward.