The dispositions of the wolf to attack the weaker animals, especially those which are under the protection of man, is alluded to by our Saviour in the parable of the hireling shepherd, Matth. vii. 15: "The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the flock." And the apostle Paul, in his address to the elders of Ephesus, gives the name of this insidious and cruel animal to the false teachers who disturbed the peace, and perverted the faith of their people.

I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock." Acts xx. 29.

In the sacred writings, the wolf is every where opposed to the sheep and the goats; as if his cruelty and rage were reserved especially for these creatures. Compare Luke x. 3; Matth. vii. 15; x. 16; Isai. xi. 6; lxv. 25.

The "valley of Zeboim," 1 Sam. xiii. 18, and Nehem. xi. 34, probably means, haunts of the Zeeb. Some suppose the name to be derived from a species of serpent which abounded thereabouts; and in the verse of Samuel, the Chaldee renders, "the valley of the serpent." But I rather suppose the wolf or the hyæna to be intended. See HYENA.

WORM.

The general name for little creeping insects. Several kinds are spoken of in scripture.

I. Those that breed in putrefied bodies; RIMMAH, Exod. xvi. 20, 24; Job vii. 5; xvii. 14; xxi. 26; xxiv. 20; xxv. 6; Isai. xiv. 11; and OKWANE, Ecclesiasticus vii. 17; x. 13; 1 Maccab. ii. 62; 2 Maccab. ix. 9; Judith xvi. 15; Mark ix. 44, 46, 48; and Acts xii. 23.

II. That which eats woollen garments; DD SAS, Isai. li. 8; and ons, Matth. vi. 19, 20; Luke xii. 33.

III. That which, perforating the leaves and barks of trees, causes the little excrescences called " kermes," whence is made a crimson dye; yb, THOLA; Deut. xxviii. 39; Job xxv. 6; Psalm xxii. 6; Isai. xiv. 11; xli.

Occ. Deut. xxix. 18; Prov. v. 4; Jer. ix. 15; xxiii. 15; Lam. iii. 15, 19; Amos v. 7; vi. 12.

AVINOON. Rev. viii. 11.

In the Septuagint, the original word is variously rendered, and generally by terms expressive of its figurative sense, for what is offensive, odious, or deleterious; but in the Syriac and Arabic versions, and in the Latin Vulgate, it is rendered wormwood; and this is adopted by Celsius, Hierobot. vol. i. p. 480, who names it the Absinthium Santonicum Judaicum, a plant that Rauwolf thus describes: "Circa Bethlehem provenit copiosum Absinthii genus, foliis cinereis, quale est nostratis, in quorum vertice semen copiosissimum est, gravis odoris, qui nauseam moveat etiam valde molestam, gustu acre, salsum, amarum. Hanc plantam Arabes SCHEBA vocant. Semen ejus minutissimum est, lumbricis necandis utilissimum, quamobrem semen contra vermes mercatoribus nuncupatur 22"

From the passages of scripture, however, where this plant is mentioned, something more than the bitterness of its qualities seems to be intimated, and effects are attributed to it, greater than can be produced by the wormwood of Europe. The Chaldee paraphrase gives it even the character of the wornwood of death." It may therefore mean a plant allied, perhaps, to the absinthium in appearance and in taste, but possessing more nauseous, hurtful, and formidable properties.

33:

ZACCOUN, or ZACCHOM; a tree so called from Zaccheus, found in the plain of Jericho. It is thus described by Mariti, Trav. v. ii. p. "The branches are covered with prickles four or five inches long; the bark knotty and wrinkled, and green on the tree, but yellow when dry. The wood is of the colour of box-wood. The leaves are like those of the olive; but narrower, sharper, and a more beautiful green. It bears a white, odoriferous flower. Its fruit, which is a kind of acorn,

without a calyx, and enclosed in a pellicle, yields, when squeezed, an oil, which, for contusions and wounds, is preferred even to the balsam of Mecca. That of the best quality is obtained by expression, and an inferior sort by boiling the pumice after it has been pressed."

Perhaps this is the oil mentioned Mark vi. 13; Luke x. 33; and James v. 14.

The tree is probably the Eleagnus, mentioned by Hasselquist (p. 287).