172 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



IV. Thola, or Tholea, or Tholaath. — This is a Hebrew word, and is 

 found in Deuteronomy, in the part which treats of the punishments with 

 which the Israelites were menaced if they abandoned the law of God*. 

 This verse is thus rendered in the translation of the Greek and Hebrew 

 texts by the pastors and professors of the Church of Genevaf . 



" You shall plant vines, you shall cultivate them, you shall not drink 

 the wine of them and you shall gather nothing from them, because the 

 worms shall eat \he\r fruit" 



De Sacy, after the Vulgate, translates it in the following manner : 



" You shall plant a vine and you shall dress it, but you shall not drink 

 the wine of it, and you shall gather nothing from it, because it shall be 

 destroyed by the worms." 



In the first of these translations the wotA fruit is printed in italics, 

 because in fact it is not in the Hebrew ; but it ought not to be added, 

 for it is useless to the sense, which is complete without it, and it may 

 lead to error ; for the insects which injure the vine by cutting the root 

 are not the same as those which knaw the leaves, nor are the latter the 

 same as those which eat the fruit. 



The word Tholath in the interlineary version of the Hebrew Bible by 

 Arias MontanusJ is also translated by Vermis. But the Hebrews had 

 also another word for worm, rimma. This word is often employed 

 figuratively in the Bible in the same sense as thola, to designate a vile 

 being or an animal engendered from corruption. 



The word rimma is employed several times in this sense in the Book 

 of Job ; in Exodus, chap. xvi. verse 24 ; in Hosea, chap.xiv. verse 11. 



The word tholaat is also employed in Job, chap, xxiii. verse 6 ; in 

 Exodus, chap. xvi. verse 20; in the passage already cited of Deutero- 

 nomy; in Psalm xxii. verse 17 ; and lastly in Jonas, chap. iv. verse 7. 



But it is necessary for our object to cite the whole of this last passage, 

 and to justify the translation we shall give, which will differ from that 

 of the professors of Geneva and from the Vulgate of De Sacy. In this 

 chapter it is said, that the prophet having quitted the city, and stopped 

 at a place in the east, made himself a shed. 



" Then, said the prophet, God caused ajjlant (kikajon) to spring up, 

 which being elevated above Jonas, became a shadow for his head, which 

 pleased Jonas extremely ; but at the dawn of the next day God prepared 

 a worm (tholaat), which wounded the plant (kikajon) and caused it to 

 wither." 



I can easily show that I am right in translating it thus, in preference 

 to adopting any of the three versions that are before me. 



• Deuteronomy, chap, xxviii. verse 29. 



t La Sainte Bible, ou le Vieux et le Nouveau Testament, traduits par les Pas- 

 tcurs et les Professeurs de I'Eglise de Geneve. Geneve, 1805, t. i. p. 276. 

 1 Bible of Arias Montanus. 



