ROT; ROTTENNESS

rot, rot'-'-n-nes (verb raqebh, noun raqabh (riqqabhon, Job 41:27), with maq, "decay" (Isaiah 5:24), and `abhash, "shrivel" (so Joel 1:17 the Revised Version margin)): "Rottenness of the bones" (Proverbs 12:4; 14:30; Habakkuk 3:16) is ulceration (caries) of the bones, used as an example of an intensely painful disease. the King James Version, in addition, has "rot" in Numbers 5:21-22,27, where the Revised Version (British and American) has "fall away" (naphal), but a euphemistic paraphrase is in point (see the comms.). In Jeremiah 38:11-12 the King James Version has "old rotten rags" for melach, "rag" (the Revised Version (British and American) "wornout garments," a translation that specializes too far).

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.