The word is evidently used in the same sense by Job. The "worm shall feed sweetly on him" (xxiv. 20). "They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them" (xxi. 26). The same word is employed in his lamentation over his evil case: "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome" (vii. 5). In xxv. 6 he uses both words: "Man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm." This passage is more correctly rendered in the Hebrew Bible: "Man that is a worm (rimmah), and the son of man which is a maggot" (tole'ah). Both words are also used in connexion with each other by Isaiah: "The worm (rimmah) is spread under thee, and the worms (tola'im) cover thee" (xiv. 11).
The well-known passage in Job xix. 26 is altogether wrongly rendered in the text, the marginal translation being much more correct. The Worm is not mentioned at all in that passage, which the Jewish Bible renders as follows: "Even after my skin shall have been stripped off this [body] and flesh, I shall see God."
The Worm which destroyed the gourd of Jonah was a Tolaeth (another form of tole'ah). See Jonah iv. 7.
The passage in Micah probably refers to the earthworm: "They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth" (vii. 17). In this case, however, the expression is a general one, and, as may be seen by reference to the marginal translation, is more correctly rendered not as "worms," but as "creeping things."
THE HORSE LEECH.
Signification of the word Alukah—The Arabic word—Leeches in Palestine—The horse and the Leech—Leeches in England.
In Prov. xxx. 15 there is a word which only occurs once in the Scriptures. This is alukah, which is translated as horse-leech. "The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give."
The Hebrew Bible does not translate the word at all. There is, however, no doubt that the translation is a correct one. Buxtorf renders the word as sanguisuga hirudo, and it is worthy of remark that the Arabic name for the Leech, Aluk, is identical with the Hebrew Alukah.
The Leeches are very common in Palestine, and infest the rivers to such an extent that they enter the nostrils of animals who come to drink, and cause great annoyance and even danger. The following anecdote, related by Mr. H. Dixon in his "Holy Land," gives us a good idea of the prevalence of the Leeches, and the tenacity with which they retain their hold:—