ash is a moth whose garment-eating image depicts destruction and fragility.

The term is used chiefly in images of a moth consuming garments or portraying corrosive decline: Isaiah 50:9, Isaiah 51:8, Job 13:28, and Hosea 5:12 place it in scenes of eating, wasting, or decay. It also occurs in comparisons that portray vulnerability or insubstantiality, as a house likened to a moth in Job 27:18 and people crushed before it in Job 4:19; the APB wording in Psalm 39:12 does not make this term's particular contribution identifiable.

1. Garment-consuming image of decay · dominant

   In Isaiah 50:9 and Isaiah 51:8, the masculine singular absolute form occurs where the APB renders a moth eating people or things "like a garment" and "like wool." In Job 13:28 the same form stands in the comparison of wasting away with a garment eaten by a moth, while Hosea 5:12 uses the image alongside decay in a statement about Ephraim and Judah.

   Isaiah 50:9Isaiah 51:8Job 13:28Hosea 5:12
2. Image of frailty or slightness · common

   In Job 27:18, the form occurs in a comparison for a house: the APB renders it as built "like a moth," alongside a watchman's booth. In Job 4:19, it appears in the statement that those dwelling in clay houses are "crushed before the moth," placing the term within an image of human vulnerability.

   Job 27:18Job 4:19

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB explicitly renders the term as "moth" in Hosea 5:12, Isaiah 50:9, Isaiah 51:8, Job 13:28, Job 27:18, and Job 4:19, often within comparisons involving garments, decay, or fragile construction. In Psalm 39:12, the supplied APB text does not visibly reflect the term.