p. 84). Allusion is made in various passages to worms' preying upon the dead. Thus Job, in the anticipation of death, says, I have said to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister' (Job xvii. 14 ; comp. xxi. 26; xxiv. 20 ; IS. XiV. I I ; 1XV1. 24 ; Ecclus. x. ; xix. 3 ; Maccab. 62). In one apparent instance of this nature (Job xix. 26), though after my skin worms destroy this body,' the word wonns ' is supplied by our translators. These passages, and especially the latter, have con tributed to the popular impression in this country, that the human body, when buried in the gmve, consumed by worms. The Oriental method of burial in wrappers, and of depositing the corpse in caves, etc., would no doubt often afford the spec tacle of the human body devoured by the larvx of different insects ; but the allusions in Scripture to such sights do not apply to burial in this country, except where the body, as was the case in London till lately, is buried in a wooden coffin only, in vaults which have communications with the external air, when, even in the centre of the metropolis, the writer has found swarms of a species of fly, of a cimex aspect, which insinuates itself between the lid and lower part of the coffin, and whose larvm battened in the corpse within, while the adult insect sported in the lurid atmosphere of the vault. The 'gourd' of Jonah is said to have been destroyed by `a W01111' (Jon. iv. 7) ; KthxnE, Ve 17th.
The identity of the gourd with the R "ChM: C01111111tIlif seems to be well established [Knc.Avolv] ; and Rumphius (Herbal-. Amboinens. tont. iv. p. 95) testifies to the ravages of a species of black cater. pillar upon iL These are produced, he says, in great quantities in the summer time, dining a gentle rain, and eat up the leaves of the Palma Christi, and gnaw its branches to the pith in a single night (Michaelis, Suppl. ad Lexie. Hebraic. p. 2187). Allusions to the worm in wood occur in the tuagint of Prov. xii. 4, and XXV. 20 ; iv EtAce ertatiXtg ; Vulg. vermis ligno ; which words have nothing corresponding to them in the present HebreNv Text (see Vulgate of 2 Kings xxiii. 8). The word worm' occurs metaphorically (Job xxv. 6), 'how much less man that is a AN-orm' ovirpta, putredo), and the son of man which is a worm ;' ofcc,5Xn, vermis (Ps. xxii. 6 ; Is.
xli. 14). Homer also compares a man of inferior consequence to a worm, ore ow-6W irt yain lair° meets (II. xiii. 654). it is possible that the word 3,6111 was also given as a proper name ; thus Tola' occurs among the descendants of Issachar (Gen. xlvi. i3), and was also the name of a person of the same tribe (Judg. x. I3ochart conjec tures that the name was given to these children by their parents because the tribe of Issachar was one of the meanest, and they were themselves in needy circumstances, or that these were very sickly child ren when born. He remarks, however, that the first Tola became a great man, the head of the Tolaites (Num. xxvi. 23), who, in the days of David, amounted to 22,600 (1 Chron. vii. 2) ; and that the latter judged Israel twenty years (Judg. x. 1, 2). Worm' occurs in the N. T. in a figurative sense only (Mark ix. 44, 46, 48): Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched f Nvords borrowed from Is. bcvi. 24, which originally relate to a tem poral state of things, but which had also become, in our Lord's time, the popular representation of future punishment (Judith xvi. 17 ; Ecclus. vii. 17) [Sour. ; TOPHET]. Origen here understands worm' in a metaphorical sense, as denoting the accusation of conscience ; but Austin, Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Theophylact, etc., contend that the word should be understood literally. Several mistranslations occur. In Is. li. 8, and the worm shall eat them like wool,' the word CD means a species of moth [Mom]. In Mk. vii.
17, the words 'like worms of the earth, '6/11D riN, literally, creepers in the dust,"serpents ;' Vulg. reptilia terra. (comp. Dent. xxxii. 24). In Maccab. 62, 4 Fear not the words of a sinful man, for his glory shall be dung and worms ;' instead of Korpla, dung,' should be read aarpla, tottenness,' as in the Sept. of Job vii. 5 ; xxv. 6. So also in Ecclus. xix. 3, Moths and worms shall have him that cleaveth to harlots ;' instead of ofires, moths,' read airrl, 'rottenness.' Bochart (Nitro zoicon, ed. Rosenmiiller, Lips. 1793-1796, vol. ; De Vermibus).—J. F. D.