WORLD is the English term by which our translators have rendered four Hebrew words : r.
'117, comes from a root which signifies to rest,' to discontinue,' and hence to cease from life,' ` to beat rest ;' and as a noun, the place of rest,' the grave.' The word occurs in the comp/aim uttered by Hezekiah when in prospect of dissolu tion, and when Ile contemplates his state among the inhabitants, not of the upper, but the lower world (Is. xxxviii. r) ; thus combining with many other passages to show that the Hebrews, probably borrowing the idea from the Egyptian tombs, had a vague conception of some shadowy state where the manes of their departed friends lay at rest in their ashes, retaining only an indefinable person ality in a land of darkness and the shadow of death' (Job x. 21, 22). 2. 4n means to conceal,' and derivatively any hidden thing,' hence age,' antiquity," remote and hidden ages ;' also the world,' as the hidden or unknown thing (Ps. xlix„ i) ; in a similar manner, 3. 4.1j, (in the N. T.
alibi"), the root-signification of which is to hide,' denotes a very remote, indefinite, and therefore unknown period in time past or time to come, which metaphysicians call eternity a parte ante, and eternity a parte post. In Ps. lxxiii. 12 it is rendered world ;' but in this and in the previous instance it may be questioned whether the natural creation is really meant, and not rather the world' in our metaphorical use of the term, as denoting the intelligent world, the rational inhabitants of the earth, and still more specifically that portion of them with which we are immediately concernect, 4- .71,1 comes from a radix that signifies to flow ;' and as water is the unfailing cause of fertility in the East, it denotes to be productive," to bear fruit ;' and as a noun, the fruit-bearer,' that is, the earth. This word is frequently rendered world' in the common version, but if more was intended than the earth on which we dwell, it may be doubted if the passages in which it occurs will justify the translators.
In truth, the Hebrews had no word which com prised the entire visible universe. When they wanted to speak comprehensively of God's creation, they joined two words together and used the phrase heaven and earth' (Gen. i. I). We have already seen that they had an idea of an under world ; the meaning of their ordinary term for earth, rt., which signifies the lower,' shows that they also regarded the earth as beneath the sun ; while the term for heaven, rpnly, denoting `what is elevated,' indicates that their view was that the heavens, or the heights, were above. Above, below, and under —these three relations of space comprehend their conception of the world.—J. K, WORM (nr, rVin ; Sept, cnuanZ, crarpta, afpfrts ; Vulg. vermis, putredo, tinea. No distinc tion is observed in the use of the Hebrew words. For instance, rim is applied to the creature bred in the manna (Exod. xvi. 24) ; to that which preys on human flesh (Job vii. 5 ; xvii. 14 ; xxi. 26 ; xxiv. 20 ; IS. X1V. II) ; and 1/9M, to the creature bred in the manna (Exod. xvi. 2o) ; to that which preys on human flesh (Is. xiv. ; lxvi. 24) ; on vegetables, as on the gourd of Jonah (iv. 7) ; and
on vines (Deut. xxviii. 39). The ancient Hebrews applied these words as indeterminately as the com mon people now do the words worm," fly,' etc. The only distinction occurring in the Bible is 4)c, n3bm, the insect which furnished the crimson dye [CoLouas]. Similar indeterminateness at tends the Septuagint and Vulgate renderings. Aristotle also applies the word aiccanf to the larva of any insect—riKret rcivra crucantca, all in sects produce a worm' (Hist. Nat. v. 19). The insect which the manna is said to have 'bred, when kept till the morning '—nrn, auchNnE, vermis (Exod. xvi. 20, 24)— whatever it was, must he considered as miraculously produced as a punishment for disobedience, since the substance now understood to be the same •keeps good for weeks and months, nor did the specimen laid up in the ark breed worms [MANNA]. An insect is alluded to as injuring vines and grapes (Dent. xxviii. 39) ; 36in, a Cant, VerlltiS. The Greeks had a distinct name for this insect, and probably EIS early as the Septuagint translation of Exodus was made, ver. ro and 4 (Theophrastus, .De Causis, iii. 27). It was called by the Latins involvolus, convolvulus, and volvox (Plautus, Cis tdl. Act iv. Sc. 2 ; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xvii. 28). Rosenmiiller thinks it to have been the Searabaus hirtellus, or the Scarabaus muticus hirtus testaceo It:kr:Cans of Linnxus (Syst. Nat. tom. i. pt. iv. p. 1577). Forskal calls it the Pyralis vitana, or Pyralis fasciana. A species of beetle, Lethrus cephalotes, is injurious to the vines of Hungary ; other species of beetles do similar mischief (ryn chites, bacchus, eumolpus). Vine-leaves in France are frequently destroyed by the larva of a moth, Tortrix vitana. In Germany another species does great injury to the young branches, preventing their expansion by the webs in which it involves them ; and a third species, Tortrix fasciana, mai:es the grapes themselves its food (Kirby and Spence, Introduction to Entomology, vol. i. p. 2o5, London r828). It may serve as an illustration of the loose ness of popular diction respecting insects, to re mark that what the farmers call the fly' in the turnip, is in reality a small species of jumping beetle, for which turnip-ilea would be a more ap propriate name. In Job vii. 5 the patriarch com plains that his 'flesh isclothed with worms and clods of dust,' rini, o-arpict aucanKwv ; and in 2 Maccab. ix. 9, it is stated to be the fate of Antiochus, that while he lived worms' (aucanuas) rose up out of his body ;' and St. Luke records this disorder to have been inflicted on Herod (Acts xii. 23, am.oXnub 13puros : comp. Joseph. Antiq. xix. 8. 2 ; XVI 6. 5 ; De Bell. .7ud. i. 33. 5). It has 1:xxn attempted to explain all these instances as cases of phthiriasis, or the lousy disease ; but the conjecture is inconsistent with the words employed in the several narratives; and since they are instances of persons being de voured by worms while alive, contrary to the order of nature, we are compelled to ascribe the pheno menon to divine agency. For the account of insects infesting the human frame, from disease, see Kirby and Spence (introdudion to Entomology', vol.