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WORM.—1. sâs, Isa_51:6 (cf. Arab [Note: Arabic.] , sûs, a moth or a worm), the larva of a clothes-moth. See Moth. 2. rimmâh (Exo_16:24, Job_25:6, Isa_14:11). 3. tôlâ‘, tôlç‘âh’ or tôla‘ath (Exo_16:20, Job_25:6, Isa_14:11; Isa_66:24, Jon_4:7 etc.). Both 2 and 3 are used to describe the same kind of worms (cf. Exo_16:20; Exo_16:24), and most references are to maggots and other insect larvæ which breed on putrid organic matter. These are very common in Palestine, occurring even on neglected sores and, of course, on dead bodies (Job_19:26; Job_21:26; Job_24:20). Jonah’s worm (tôlç‘âh) was probably some larva which attacks the roots, or perhaps a centipede. The ‘worms’ of Deu_28:39 were probably caterpillars. 4. râqâb (Hos_5:12 AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] ). In Pro_12:4 where the same word is also tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘rottenness,’ it is rendered in LXX [Note: Septuagint.] skôlçx, ‘wood-worm,’ which seems appropriate to the context. 5. zôch ãl ç‘ârets, ‘worms of the earth’ (Mic_7:17), may possibly refer to true earthworms (which are comparatively rare in Palestine), but more probably to serpents. See Serpent (10). 6. skôlçx, Mar_9:44 etc. The expression ‘eaten of worms,’ used (Act_12:23) in describing the death of Herod Agrippa i., would seem to refer to a death accompanied by violent abdominal pains, such symptoms being commonly ascribed in the Holy Land to-day to abdominal worms (Lumbricoides)—a belief often revived by the evacuation of such worms near the time of death (cf. p. 600a).
E. W. G. Masterman.