Mark 9:44 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Where their worm dieth not,— These expressions seem to be borrowed from Isaiah 66:24. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. In this passage the prophet is describing the miserable end of hardened sinners, by a similitude taken from the behaviour of conquerors, who, after having gained the battle, and beaten the enemy out of the field, go forth to view the slain. Thus at the last day, the devil with all his adherents being finally and completely vanquished, the saints than go forth to view them doomed by the just judgment of God to eternal death. And this their punishment is represented by two metaphors, drawn from the different way of burying the dead, in use among the Jews. Bodies of men interred in the earth, are eaten up of worms, which die when their food faileth; and those that are burned, are consumed in fire, which extinguishes itself when there is no more fuel added to feed it. But it shall not be so with the wicked; their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched. These metaphors, therefore, as they are used by our Lord, and by the prophet Isaiah, paint the eternal punishments of the damned in strong and lively colours. Dr. Doddridge observes, that there may indeed be an allusion here to Isaiah 66:24 but that the expression would have been just and proper without it. Dr. Rymer supposes, that both the worm and the fire are meant of the body, and refer to the two different kinds of funerals among the ancients, interment and burning. So that our Lord may seem here to prevent an objection against the permanent misery of thewicked in hell, arising from the frail constitution of the body; as if he should have said, "The body will not then be as it is at present, but will be incapable of consumption or dissolution. In its natural state, theworms may devour the whole, and die for want of nourishment; thefire may consume it, and be extinguished for want of fuel: but there shall be perpetual food for the worm that corrodes it; perpetual fire for the fuel that torments it." The most superficial reader must be sensible that our Lord's repeating so frequently his declaration concerning the duration of future punishment, (see Mark 9:46; Mark 9:48.) has in it something very aweful, and implies that mankind should attend to it, as a matter of infinite importance to them. It likewise affords a lesson to all ministers of the gospel, directing them to enforce the principles of religion which they inculcate, by frequently and earnestly holding forth to the view of their hearers, the terrors of a future judgment.