WORM. Five Heb. and one Gr. words are tr. worm in KJV and most other Eng. VSS, and this treatment is generally regarded as correct. An attempt will be made to identify the words in some contexts, but this is not easy, for the word in most languages is a vague one, applied, even in a semi-technical sense, to a wide range of animals. In Eng., for instance, it is given to members of four whole phyla (including flatworms, round worms, etc.) as well as to beetle grubs, caterpillars, and even to a species of lizard—the blind worm. In addition, the word has a completely non-specific, fig. use as when a person is called a worm. This usage is found in several passages, e.g. Isaiah 41:14, “Fear not, you worm Jacob.”
1. זֹחֲלֵ֣י אֶ֔רֶץ (Mic 7:17, worm KJV; crawling things ASV, RSV; also tr. serpent [q.v.] KJV, Deut 32:24). The KJV “move out of their holes like worms of the earth” suggests to some commentators the earthworm’s habit of lying on the ground at night, when dew falls; this is unlikely in the light of the RSV tr. which attaches “crawling things” to the preceding clause and begins a new sentence, “They shall come trembling out of their strongholds.” It is better to regard זֹחֲלֵ֣י אֶ֔רֶץ as similar to the Eng. “creepy crawly,” i.e. nonspecific.
2. סָס, H6182, (worm, all Eng. VSS. Isaiah 51:8). “For the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them like wool.” The context at first might suggest that this is the grub of the clothes moth, and many commentators accept this. Against that, it is usual in OT and NT and in current Eng. to speak of the moth as the actual destroyer, while this is in fact the larva. Further, the latter lives in a small felted case, with only the head exposed, and it is not at all worm-like. It is therefore possible that סָס, H6182, can be identified with the cockroach or some other insect that destroys fibres. (See Moth.)
3. תּﯴלָע֒, H9355, (worm, all Eng. VSS. also [once] crimson, Isa 1:18, all Eng. VSS, and [once] scarlet KJV, purple RSV Lam 4:5). This is found only in Exodus 16:20, referring to the manna kept over to the next day in disobedience to God’s commands “it bred worms and became foul.” But cf. v. 24, referring to manna collected for the Sabbath and “there were no worms (רִמָּה, H8231) in it.” A possible explanation is that the former describes a specific infestation, perhaps by one of the blow flies whose maggots would quickly turn it into a seething mass in the high temperatures of the desert; while the latter is a more general term, including both the former and also other potential invaders.
4. רִמָּה, H8231, (worm, all Eng. VSS, except maggot, Job 25:6 and Isa 14:11 RSV). The only literal use of this word is discussed above. It is also used six times in fig. contexts so varied that this must be considered a term as general as the Eng. word worm.
5. תּﯴלַ֣עַת, תּﯴלֵעָֽה (worm, all Eng. VSS. Used once literally [Jonah 4:7] and six times fig.). The contexts suggest that this could be a general term for a different group of worms, for in two cases this word and רִמָּה, H8231, are used together as contrasting pairs. “Maggots are the bed beneath you, and worms are your covering” (Isa 14:11; Job 25:6). However, this word has another much more frequent use. It occurs twenty-seven times, sometimes qualified by shanī (red) and is everywhere tr. “scarlet,” for the context clearly indicates a color. In Heb. the adjectives for color are few; it is suggested that the need for a sophisticated vocabulary of such words had not arisen, and such colors as were recognized were usually referred to the natural substances from which they were obtained. In these passages, therefore, תּﯴלַ֣עַת becomes synonymous with “scarlet,” and in two of its three occurrences this is also true of תּﯴלֵעָֽה. The insect from which this dye was obtained belongs to the Coccidae (scale insects and mealy bugs), a family with several other dye producers and also some major pests of fruit trees. The scarlet dye came from Coccus illicis, whose host plant is the holm oak, once very plentiful in N Pal., but now much reduced. These insects pierce the thin bark of twigs in order to suck the sap, from which they prepare a waxy scale to protect their soft bodies. The dye is in this scale. The active ingredient is kermesic acid, and the dye is one of the anthroquinones. It is yellow-red in water and becomes the typical violet-red in acid solution. Synthetic dyes have now largely replaced it. The insect is very small, about the size of plant lice, to which it is related, and this suggests that the root meaning of תּﯴלַ֣עַת may be a small grub.
6. σκώληξ, G5038, (worm, all Eng. VSS; Mark 9:48; Acts 12:23). (Scolex [Eng.] is the term used for the embryonic tapeworm.) The former passage is purely fig., but there is no need to regard the latter as anything but literal (see A. Rendle Short, The Bible and Modern Medicine [1953], 66ff.) A parallel account of this incident is given by Josephus: “...and (Herod) was eaten of worms and died.” There are several ways in which intestinal worms could cause fairly sudden death even today, and a further suggestion is that he had a hydatid cyst; this is the alternate host stage of the dog tapeworm.
Note. A well-known passage, sung in Handel’s Messiah, is not a correct tr. In KJV the word worm is in Italics and Job 19:26 should read, “after my skin has been destroyed.”
Bibliography EBr, Vol. 13 (1951), 351, 352.