The Moth of Scripture evidently the Clothes Moth—The Sis and the 'Ash—Similitude between the Hebrew sds and the Greek sês—Moths and garments— Accumulation of clothes in the East —Various uses of the hoarded robes—The Moths, the rust, and the thief.
ONLY one Lepidopterous insect is mentioned by name in the Scriptures. This is the MOTH, by which we must always understand some species of Clothes Moth—in fact, one of the Ticeidæ, which are as plentiful and destructive in Palestine as in this country.
Two words are used in the Old Testament to express the Moth, one of which, sâs, only occurs once, and then in connection with the other word 'ash. The resemblance of the Hebrew sâs and the Greek sês is to be noted, both of them denominating the same insect. See Is. 51:8: "For the moth ('ash) shall eat them up like garment, and the worm (sds) shall eat them like wool” Buxtorf translates sds as tinea, blatta.
Several references are made to the Moth in the Scriptures, and nearly all have reference to its destructive habits. The solitary exceptions occur in the Book of Job, "Behold, He put no trust in His servants; and His angels He charged with folly: how much fess in them that dwell houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?" (Chapter 4:18, 19.) A similar allusion to the Moth is made in the same Look: “He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh “(27:18).
The Moth is mentioned in one of the penitential passages of the Psalms: "When Thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity" (Psa. 39:1111When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah. (Psalm 39:11)).
The prophets also make use of the same image. “Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them" (Isa. 1:99Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:9)). The image is repeated in the next chapter (ver. 8), in which the 'Ash and the Sâs are both mentioned. Hosea employs the word as a metaphor expressive of gradual destruction: “Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness " (v. 12).
In the New Testament reference is made several times to the Moth. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal” (Matt. 6:1919Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: (Matthew 6:19)). James, in a kind of commentary on this passage, writes as follows: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
“Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
“Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasures together for the last days." (v. 1-3.)
Even to ourselves these passages are significant enough, but to the Jews and the inhabitants of Palestine they possessed a force which we can hardly realize in this country. In the East large stores of clothing are kept by the wealthy, not only for their own use, but as presents to others. At a marriage feast, for example, the host presents each of the guests with a wedding garment. Clothes are also given as marks of favor, and a present of “changes of raiment," i. e. suits of clothing, is one of the most common gifts. As at the present day, there was anciently no greater mark of favor than for the giver to present the very robe which he was wearing, and when that robe happened to be an official one, the gift included the rank which it symbolized. Thus Joseph was invested with royal robes, as well as with the royal ring (Gen. 41:4242And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; (Genesis 41:42)). Mordecai was clothed in the king's robes: “Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head.
“And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor." (Esther 6:8, 98Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: 9And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor. (Esther 6:8‑9).)
The loose clothing of the East requires no fitting, as is the case with the tight garments of the West; any garment fits any man: so that the powerful and wealthy could lay up great stores of clothing, knowing that they would fit any person to whom they were given. An allusion to this practice of keeping great stores of clothing is made in Job 27:26: “Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; "He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.”
Thus, when a man was said to have clothing, the expression was a synonym for wealth and power. See Isa. 3:66When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: (Isaiah 3:6): "When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler.”
The reader will now see how forcible was the image of the Moth and the garments, that is used so freely in the Scriptures. The Moth would not meddle with garments actually in use, so that a poor man would not be troubled with it. Only those who were rich enough to keep stores of clothing in their houses need fear the Moth, which would be as destructive to that portion of their wealth represented by their clothes as the "rust," —i. e. the Grain Moth (Tinea granella)—which consumed their stores, or the thief who came by night and stole their gold and silver.