Worm

Would anyone take comfort from being called a worm? God does it to Israel: “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee.” The word usually points to how small and short-lived people are, as Job says: “man, that is a worm.” It can also mean decay, as in Exodus 16, where manna kept past its day “bred worms, and stank.” And Jesus speaks of a place “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Christians differ on how literally to take those words in Mark 9.

7 verses

Exodus

Exodus 16:20

Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

Exodus 16:24

And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

Job

Job 25:6

How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?

Isaiah

Isaiah 41:14

Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Mark

Mark 9:44

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mark 9:46

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

Mark 9:48

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

(1.) Heb. sas (Isa. 51:8), denotes the caterpillar of the clothes-moth.

(2.) The manna bred worms (tola’im), but on the Sabbath there was not any worm (rimmah) therein (Ex. 16:20, 24). Here these words refer to caterpillars or larvae, which feed on corrupting matter.

These two Hebrew words appear to be interchangeable (Job 25:6; Isa. 14:11). Tola’im in some places denotes the caterpillar (Deut. 28:39; Jonah 4:7), and rimmah, the larvae, as bred from putridity (Job 17:14; 21:26; 24:20). In Micah 7:17, where it is said, “They shall move out of their holes like worms,” perhaps serpents or “creeping things,” or as in the Revised Version, “crawling things,” are meant.

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The word is used figuratively in Job 25:6; Ps. 22:6; Isa. 41:14; Mark 9:44, 46, 48; Isa. 66:24.

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

the representative in the Authorized Version of several Hebrew words. Sas , which occurs in (Isaiah 51:18) probably denotes some particular species of moth, whose larva is injurious to wool. Rimmah , (Exodus 16:20) points evidently to various kinds of maggots and the larvae of insects which feed on putrefying animal matter, rather than to earthworms. Toleah is applied in (28:39) to some kinds of larvae destructive to the vines. In (Job 19:26; 21:26; 24:20) there is an allusion to worms (insect larvae) feeding on the dead bodies of the buried. There is the same allusion in (Isaiah 66:24) which words are applied by our Lord, (Mark 9:44,46,48) metaphorically to the torments of the guilty in the world of departed spirits. The valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, where the filth of the city was cast, was alive with worms. The death of Herod Agrippa I, was caused by worms. (Acts 12:23)