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[1]. This verse is thus rendered in the translation of the Greek and Hebrew texts by the pastors and professors of the Church of Geneva[2].
"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 their 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 word 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 Montanus[3] 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 Deuteronomy; 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 a plant (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.
