Job 25:5

The thought of Job 25:4 amplified. Even the moon, the brightest star, does not shine, is dark, when He looks upon it, and the stars are not pure, how much less man, which is a worm? The contrast drawn by Eliphaz between man and the angels is drawn here between man and the heavenly bodies; comp. ch. Job 15:15. The Hebrew has two words for "worm" here, the one the worm of decay and corruption (ch. Job 7:5; Job 17:14; Job 21:26; Job 24:20; Exodus 16:24; Isaiah 14:11), the other in the second clause, used to express the utmost abasement and abjectness, "Fear not thou worm Jacob," Isaiah 41:14, "But I am a worm and no man," Psalms 22:6, though occasionally occurring also in the sense of the other word. We have only one word in English, for though Shakespeare speaks of "Grubs and eyeless skulls," such a term can hardly be used now in language of any elevation.