Ayub 13:28

13:28 So I ¹  waste away like something rotten, ² 

like a garment eaten by moths.

Yesaya 51:8

51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;

a clothes moth will devour them like wool.

But the vindication I provide ³  will be permanent;

the deliverance I give will last.”

Lukas 12:33

12:33 Sell your possessions ⁴  and give to the poor. ⁵  Provide yourselves purses that do not wear out – a treasure in heaven ⁶  that never decreases, ⁷  where no thief approaches and no moth ⁸  destroys.

Yakobus 5:2

5:2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten.

¹ tn Heb “and he.” Some of the commentators move the verse and put it after Job 14:2, 3 or 6.

² tn The word רָקָב (raqav) is used elsewhere in the Bible of dry rot in a house, or rotting bones in a grave. It is used in parallelism with “moth” both here and in Hos 5:12. The LXX has “like a wineskin.” This would be from רֹקֶב (roqev, “wineskin”). This word does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, but is attested in Sir 43:20 and in Aramaic. The change is not necessary.

³ tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”

⁴ sn The call to sell your possessions is a call to a lack of attachment to the earth and a generosity as a result.

⁵ tn Grk “give alms,” but this term is not in common use today.

⁶ tn Grk “in the heavens.”

⁷ tn Or “an unfailing treasure in heaven,” or “an inexhaustible treasure in heaven.”

⁸ tn The term σής (shs) refers to moths in general. It is specifically the larvae of moths that destroy clothing by eating holes in it (L&N 4.49; BDAG 922 s.v.). See Jas 5:2, which mentions “moth-eaten” clothing.