Ant
Animals in the Bible
The harvester ant is a fairly large dark brown ant, and like most ants, its nest is home to a queen ant, to workers, and to soldier ants that protect the nest. The nest is underground with an entrance that is usually well marked both by the tiny trails leading into it and by the amount of chaff dumped near the entrance by the ants. Any ant is capable of carrying many times its own weight.
Pictures
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
נְמָלָה nemalah · 2 verses
What it stands for
The ant is the symbol of diligence and hard work.
More about it
The Hebrew word probably covers all kinds of ants, but the most obvious ant that fits the scriptural context is the Harvester Ant Messor semirufus, which is common all over the land of Israel. It collects grain and grass seeds, when these ripen in the summer, and stores them in its nest for the winter.
Also in Insects, spiders, and worms
Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema