Topic
Moth
11 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Job 4:19Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave An insect
How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
- Job 13:28Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave Destructive of garments
And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.
- Psalms 39:11Smith · ISBE · Nave An insect
When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
- Isaiah 50:9Easton · ISBE · Nave Destructive of garments
Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
- Isaiah 51:8Easton · ISBE · Nave Destructive of garments
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
- Hosea 5:12Easton · ISBE · Nave Destructive of garments
Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
- Matthew 6:19Easton · ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
¶ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
- Matthew 6:20Easton · ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
- Job 27:18ISBE · Nave An insect
He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.
- Luke 12:33Easton · ISBE
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
- James 5:2ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 8 references
Heb. ‘ash, from a root meaning “to fall away,” as moth-eaten garments fall to pieces (Job 4:19; 13:28; Isa. 50:9; 51:8; Hos. 5:12).
Gr. ses, thus rendered in Matt. 6:19, 20; Luke 12:33. Allusion is thus made to the destruction of clothing by the larvae of the clothes-moth. This is the only lepidopterous insect referred to in Scripture.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 3 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 13 references
moth (`ash; compare Arabic `uththat, "moth"; colloquial, `itt; cac, "worm" (Isa 51:8); compare Arabic sus, "worm," especially an insect larva in flesh, wood or grain; ses, "moth" (Mt 6:19,20; Lu 12:33); setobrotos, "moth-eaten" (Jas 5:2)):
The moths constitute the larger division of the order Lepidoptera. Two of the points by which they are distinguished from butterflies are that they are generally nocturnal and that their antennae are not club-shaped. Further, the larva in many cases spins a cocoon for the protection of the pupa or chrysalis, which is never the case with butterflies. The Biblical references are to the clothes-moth, i.e. various species of the genus Tinea, tiny insects which lay their eggs in woolen clothes, upon which the larvae later feed. As the larva feeds it makes a cocoon of its silk together with fibers of the cloth on which it is feeding, so that the color of the cocoon depends upon the color of the fabric. The adult is only indirectly harmful, as it is only in the larval stage that the insect injures clothing. Therefore in Isa 51:8, "For the moth (`ash) shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm (cac) shall eat them like wool," both words must refer to the larva, the distich demanding such a word as cac to balance `ash in the first half. The word "moth" occurs 7 times in the Old Testament, in Job, Psalms, Isaiah and Hosea, always in figurative expressions, typifying either that which is destructive (Job 13:28; Ps 39:11; Isa 50:9; 51:8; Ho 5:12) or that which is frail (Job 4:19; 27:18).
See INSECTS.
Alfred Ely Day
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.