6:7

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler,

Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler: The three words commander, overseer, and ruler all refer to people who have authority.

The Contemporary English Version uses one term for all of these authorities: “leaders.” This may be an option in languages that do not have three separate terms. However, the author used three terms in order to emphasize that ants do not need a complicated leadership structure. You should try to maintain that emphasis if possible.

commander: In Hebrew, this word generally refers to a military leader or administrator. Other ways to translate this word here are:

chief (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
leader (Good News Translation)
-or-
prince (Revised English Bible)

overseer: In Hebrew, this word refers to anyone responsible for organizing the people. Other ways to translate this word are:

chief (Good News Translation)
-or-
governor (Revised English Bible)
-or-
officer (New Revised Standard Version)

ruler: In Hebrew, this word is a general term for someone who governs other people.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.