Bible Encyclopedias
White of an Egg

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

is the rendering adopted in the A.V. at Job 6:6 for the Heb. רַיר חִלָּמוּת ', rir challamuth (Sept. ἐν ῥήμασιν κενοῖς [v.r.καινοῖς], Vulg. quod gustatum offert mortem). Most interpreters derive the Hebrew word from חָלִם, chalam, to dream, and, guided by the context, explain it to denote somnolency, fiatuity (comp. Ecclesiastes 5:2; Ecclesiastes 5:9), and so insipidity (comp. μωρςό in Dioscorides, spoken of tasteless roots). The Syriac renders it by chalamta, which signifies portulacca or purslain, an herb formerly eaten as a salad, but proverbial for its insipidity ("portulacca stultior," in Meidan. Proverb. No. 344, page 219, ed. 'Schultens). The phrase will thus mean purslain-broth, i.e., silly discourse. (See MALLOWS). The rabbins, following the Targums, regard it as i.q. Chald. חֶלְמוֹן, the coagultum of an egg or curd; and so explain the phrase, as the A.V., to mean the slime or white of an egg, put as an emblem of insipidity. This in itself is not ill; but the other seems more consonant with Oriental usage. See Gesenius, Thesaur. page 480.

Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'White of an Egg'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tce/​w/white-of-an-egg.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.