Isaiah 41 · a question people ask
Why does the LORD call Jacob a worm (41:14)?
The chapter doesn't give a reason for the word. It shows what the LORD does with it. In one verse he calls Jacob a worm, tells him not to be afraid, promises help and names himself: "Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel" (41:14). In the next he says what he has made him: "Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth" (41:15). Isaiah has this Hebrew word for worm twice more, and both are of death: "worms cover you" (14:11) and "their worm will not die" (66:24). Here the worm is the one the LORD helps and makes into something new. The chapter says the change is the LORD's doing: "I have made you" (41:15).
The verses
“Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.”
“Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.”
““They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.””