Foam

Foam appears once in the Authorized Version of the Old Testament in Hosea 10:7, where Samaria's king is said to be "cut off as the foam upon the water" — an image of insubstantiality and swift disappearance. The Hebrew word (qetseph) is alternatively rendered "chip" or "splinter" by the LXX and the Revised Version margin, suggesting the image may be of floating wood-splinters rather than water-foam; but the sense in either reading is the same: the king of the northern kingdom will vanish like something that floats momentarily and is gone.

In the New Testament, foam appears in the description of the epileptic boy whom Jesus healed: the boy would "foam at the mouth" (aphrizo) during his seizures, indicating the neurological intensity of his condition (Mark 9:18, 20; Luke 9:39). The Letter of Jude 13 uses "wild waves of the sea foaming out their shame" as a metaphor for the character of false teachers — their lives produce nothing of value, only visible but ephemeral display that will be swept away.