Job 24:20. The worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered.
It is an Oriental opinion that worms exist in the skin and in all parts of the body, and that they are among the principal causes of its destruction. Roberts (Oriental illustrations, p. 271) quotes from an ancient Indian medical work in which eighteen kinds of worms are enumerated by the author in as many different parts of the body. In Job 19:26, the translators have supplied the word worms: “Though after my skin worms destroy this body.” Though the word is not in the original, yet the sentiment is in accordance with the text we are now illustrating and with several other passages. See Job 7:5; 17:14; 21:26; Isaiah 14:11. In India it is common for a sick man to say, “Ah, my body is but a nest for worms; they have paths in all parts of my frame!” “Ah, these worms are continually eating my flesh!”