moth

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated into English as “moth(s)” was translated as “cockroach(es)” in Gola “since moths are not seen as destroying things but cockroaches are” (source: Don Slager). The same translation was chosen for Uripiv (source: Ross McKerras).

In Yakan it is translated as “termites” (source: Yakan Back Translation) and in Tagbanwa as “chewing-insects” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation).

 

There is general consensus that ‘ash refers to a moth, and sas to its larva stage in the Hebrew Bible, and that sēs in the New Testament also refers to a moth. The moth referred to is always in contexts of destroyed or damaged clothing, so the reference is obviously to a moth that lays its eggs on human clothing. This limits the type of moth to one of the clothes moths of the Tineidae family, probably Tineola biselliella. Although the damage is blamed on the moth in the Bible, it is actually its larvae that cause the damage. It is possible that both moth and larva are meant when ‘ash is used.

Clothes moths are smallish brown or gray moths that lay eggs in clothing or other forms of cloth. The eggs hatch into very small caterpillars, which almost immediately begin to feed on the fibers. They make small silken cocoons from which only the heads protrude, and later finally emerge as moths.

Moths are symbols of decay, ruin, and slow destruction.

Source: All Creatures Great and Small: Living things in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also let them be overthrown before you.

complete verse (Job 4:19)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Job 4:19:

  • Kupsabiny: “What then can be said about people who were created from dust/soil,
    who were formed from soil which can be crushed to pieces like an insect.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Will He not find more and more faults with those who live in clay houses? Their support is only dust, which can be crushed like a butterfly.
    their leaning/support is only dust,
    which can be crushed like a small butterfly.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “how much more with people who were- just -created from the ground, who are easy to crush like the insects!” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Job 4:19

This verse begins with a Hebrew particle which can have the sense of Revised Standard Version‘s how much more, in which verse 18 is the base for the comparison. That is, God will trust human beings less and find even more fault in them than in angels. The verse has three lines which are all parallel. They all emphasize the frailty of human life.

Who dwell in houses of clay: human beings were formed from the dust of the earth in Genesis 2.7; 3.19; also Job 10.9; 33.6; 1 Corinthians 15.47. The figure of a house or tent representing the physical body is common in the Old Testament. Whose foundation is in the dust: the solidity of a building depends upon the firmness of its foundation, and man’s “house of clay,” which is his body, rests on nothing more substantial than dust (Psa 103.14).

If the figure dwell in houses of clay is likely to be understood as referring to people who live in mud-walled houses, it will be necessary to shift to a different figure or to say, for example, “a human being,” or “an ordinary person,” or “ordinary people whose bodies God created from clay.” If the figure of the dwelling is not kept in line a, it will not be possible to keep foundation is in the dust in line b. In that case we may sometimes say, for example, “who are nothing more than dust” or “who are weak as dust.”

The final line of this verse shifts the metaphor to another frail creature, the moth, which is used to emphasize the vulnerability of human beings. Who are crushed before the moth: this expression is to be taken to mean “who are crushed quicker than a person can crush a moth.” It fits the context to understand this line to mean “They (human beings) are crushed like a moth,” and this is the way most translators understand it. So man is crushed by God as easily as a person crushes a fragile moth. Crushed before the moth must often be restructured to say, for example, “who are as fragile as a moth” or “who die as easily as a person crushes a moth.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

textual location of Job 4:12-21

According to the Job translation by Greenstein (2019), Job 4:12-21 should be located following Job 3:26. He explains:

“For many reasons the passage 4:12-21 should be read here, right after chapter 3, as the conclusion of Jobs opening speech. One may suppose that two pages of ancient papyrus or parchment containing the two equal halves of chapter 4 were accidentally interchanged in the course of the text’s transmission. In an oft-compared Babylonian composition about a pious sufferer (“I Shall Praise the Lord of Wisdom”) it is the complainant, not the would-be sage, who experiences a divine revelation. It is also Job the sufferer, not his companions, who receives a theophany near the end of the book. More important, in the ensuing chapters both Eliphaz and Job refer to Jobs claim to have enjoyed a revelation. Further, Eliphaz (in chapter 15) and Bildad (in chapter 25) cite the words of the revelation as Jobs, and Elihu, who engages only with the arguments of Job, quotes from it (33:15).”