Answers about…
worms in the Bible

The Bible uses “worm” both literally (larvae, maggots, plant pests, decay) and figuratively (human frailty, humiliation, judgment). English Bibles collapse several different Hebrew and Greek words into one English term.

The Bible’s “worms” are mostly maggots and larvae of decay or crop damage, plus one clothes-moth grub and a general “crawler” phrase. The original words are more specific than English “worm,” and the figurative uses cluster around mortality, humiliation, and final judgment.

1. Hebrew: תּוֹלָע (tôlāʿ) / תּוֹלֵעָה (tôlēʿāh) / תּוֹלַעַת (tôlaʿat)

   This is the most common word for “worms”. It is a fairly general term for a grub, maggot, caterpillar, or crawling larva.

   The same word (especially tôlaʿat šānî, “worm of scarlet”) also names the kermes insect (Kermes vermilio / Coccus ilicis) whose crushed body produced the ancient scarlet/crimson dye used in the Tabernacle and priestly garments.

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

   • Exodus 16:20 — leftover manna bred worms
   • Deuteronomy 28:39 — worms eat the grapes
   • Jonah 4:7 — God appointed a worm that attacked Jonah’s plant
   • Figurative worms — Job 25:6; Psalm 22:6; Isaiah 41:14; 66:24

2. Hebrew: rimmāh (rimmah)

   Specifically a maggot associated with rotting flesh or putrefaction. It often stands in parallel with tôlēʿāh (toleah).

   Appears in:

   • Exodus 16:24 — manna kept for the Sabbath had “no worm”
   • Job 7:5; 17:14; 21:26; 24:20 — Job’s body, the grave, the wicked
   • Isaiah 14:11 — the fallen king of Babylon

3. Hebrew: ס —transliteration: sās (sas)

   This word occurs only in Isaiah 51:8: “the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm [sās] shall eat them like wool.” It is the larva of a clothes-moth or similar wool-destroying insect, paired with ʿāš (“moth”).

4. Hebrew: זָחַל —transliteration: zāḥal (zahal)

   Hebrew: זֹחֲלֵי אֶרֶץ —transliteration: zōḥălê ʾereṣ (zohale eres)

   Literally “crawlers of the earth”

   Micah 7:17 (KJV: “They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth”) is better rendered “crawling things” or “creeping things” in most modern versions. The same root is used of serpents in Deuteronomy 32:24. It is not a precise species name.

5. Greek: σκώληξ —transliteration: skōlēx (skolex)

   A worm or maggot, especially one that feeds on corpses.

   Jesus quotes Isaiah 66:24 in Mark 9:48: “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”

6. Greek: σκωληκόβρωτος —transliteration: skōlēkobrōtos (skolekobrotos) —meaning: worm-eaten —The word is formed from skōlēx + “to eat.”

   Used only of Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:23: he was struck by an angel, “eaten by worms, and died.”

   Josephus independently describes his sudden, painful abdominal illness.

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