124 BARON WALKENAER ON THE 



drink of the wine, nor gather the fruit thereof, for the worm 

 shall eat it." 



Sacy, translating from the Vulgate, has : — 



" Thou shalt plant the vine and dress it, but thou shalt not 

 drink the wine thereof, neither gather any thing therefrom, 

 because it shall be destroyed by worms." 



Respecting the first of these versions, we may remark, that 

 the word " fruit" is printed in italics because there is no such 

 word in the Hebrew, and, indeed, there was no necessity for 

 its insertion. The sense does not require it, it is complete 

 without the word ; and it is, moreover, liable to mislead ; for 

 the insects which injure the vine by wounding the roots are 

 not the same that eat the leaves, and these again differ from 

 such as consume the fruit. 



The word tholath in the interlined version of the Hebrew 

 Bible of Arius Montanus,^ is also translated by worms {yer7nis). 

 But the Hebrews had also another word for worm — r'lmma. 

 This word is often employed in the Bible in a figurative sense, 

 in the same way that thola is — for an unclean creature, or an 

 animal which is engendered in corruption. 



In this sense the word rirama occurs frequently in Job ; it 

 occurs also in Exod. xvi. 24 ; in Hosea xiv. II. 



The word tholaat is also used in Job xxiii. 6; in Exod. 

 xvi. 20 ; in the passage in Deuteronomy we have quoted ; in 

 Psalm xxii. 17; and in the book of Jonah, iv. 7. 



But it will be necessary for our purpose to quote the whole 

 of this passage, and to demonstrate the correctness of the 

 translation we shall ourselves make of it, which differs from 

 that of the Geneva professors, and also from Sacy's version 

 from the Vulgate. It is said that the prophet, having gone 

 out of the city, stopped on the eastern side of it, and built him- 

 self a booth. 



" Then," says the prophet, " God created a plant {kikajon), 

 which grew higher than Jonah, and formed a shade over his 

 head, and this caused Jonah exceedingly to rejoice ; but the 

 next day, very early in the morning, God brought a worm 

 {tholaat), which injured the plant {hikajon), and made it wither." 



It will be easy for me to show that I have good reasons for 

 thus translating the passage, and rejecting the three versions 

 before me. 



* Bible d' Arias Montanus. 



