Pestilence

or plague, generally is used by the Hebrews for all epidemic or contagious diseases. The prophets usually connect together sword, pestilence, and famine, being three of the most grievous inflictions of the Almighty upon a guilty people. See DISEASES.

The terms pestilence and plague are used with much laxity in our Authorized Version. The latter, however, is by far the wider term, as we read of ’plagues of leprosy,’ ’of hail,’ and of many other visitations. Pestilence is employed to denote a deadly epidemic. In our time however, both these terms are nearly synonymous; but plague is, by medical writers at least, restricted to mean the glandular plague of the East. There is indeed no description of any pestilence in the Bible, which would enable us to form an adequate idea of its specific character. Severe epidemics are the common accompaniments of dense crowding in cities, and of famine; and we accordingly often find them mentioned in connection (Lev 26:25; Jer 14:12; Jer 29:18; Mat 24:7; Luk 21:11). But there is no better argument for believing that ’pestilence’ in these instances means the glandular plague, than the fact of its being at present a prevalent epidemic of the East. It is also remarkable that the Mosaic law, which contains such strict rules for the seclusion of lepers, should have allowed a disease to pass unnoticed, which is above all others the most deadly, and, at the same time, the most easily checked by sanitary regulations of the same kind.

Or PLAGUE, in the Hebrew tongue, as in most others, expresses all sorts of distempers and calamitites. The Hebrew word which properly signifies "the plague" is extended to all epidemical and contagious diseases. The prophets generally connect together the sword, the pestilence, and the famine, as three evils, which usually accompany each other.\par The glandular plague, which in modern times has proved so fatal in the East, is the most virulent and contagious of diseases. In the fourteenth century it overran Europe, Asia, and Africa, and 25,000,000 are estimated to have died of it within three years. Like the Asiatic cholera, it is one of the most appalling scourges sin has brought on this world; and may in this point of view correspond with the "plagues" referred to in the Bible, Exo 9:14 11:1 1Ki 8:37 .\par

Pestilence. See Plague, The.

This is often mentioned along with the sword and the famine as punishment from God upon His rebellious people. It is represented as being sent directly by God Himself. When David had numbered the people, the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and there died 70,000 men. 2Sa 24:15-16.

There Being Pestilences Prior To The Coming Of The LORD

Mat_24:1-7; Mar_13:1-8; Luk_21:5-11.

Who The LORD Sends Pestilence Upon

Lev_26:13-25; Deu_28:15-21; Jer_24:1-10; Amo_4:9-10.

PESTILENCE (λοιμός).—The word is found twice in the Gospels, in both cases in the prophecy of Christ regarding the last days (Mat 24:7 [Authorized Version ; Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 , following WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] and others, omits], Luk 21:11). In the OT the word is used in a generic sense, and usually indicates a direct Divine visitation (Lev 26:25, Num 14:12, 1Ch 21:14, Psa 78:50 etc.). The disease, whatever its nature, is not rarely associated with war and its consequences (Jer 24:10; Jer 29:17; Jer 34:17, Eze 6:11 etc.). Thus it seems to be used by Christ in the texts quoted.

The specific meaning of the word λοιμός is not easily determined. It seems to indicate a swiftly-developing and mortal illness, contagious or infectious in its nature, as we may infer from Act 24:5. It may point to the glandular or bubonic plague, well known and universally dreaded by the ancients, and the great scourge of the world in the Middle Ages. (See Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , iii. pp. 324, 755).

Henry E. Dosker.

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By: Emil G. Hirsch, Schulim Ochser

The dreaded infectious disease frequent in ancient Israel and proving fatal in the majority of cases was probably the bubonic plague, which in antiquity was especially prevalent in Egypt, and also occurred in other countries of the East (Pliny, "Historia Naturalis," iii. 4). Moses threatened the people with this pestilence (Lev. xxvi. 25; Deut. xxviii. 21), while Yhwh warned the spies that it would be the punishment for the evil report which they had brought of the Holy Land (Num. xiv. 12). The Psalmist besought protection from the plague (Ps. xci. 3, 6), and Solomon prayed for deliverance from it when Israel should come to the Temple (I Kings viii. 37); but Jeremiah (xiv. 12, xxi. 6, xxiv. 10) and Ezekiel (v. 12, vii. 15) threatened the people with this disease if they continued to despise the word of God. Pestilence was also one of the four judgments which God inflicted upon Jerusalem in order to turn it into wilderness (Ezek. xiv. 21). In II Sam. xxiv. 13-15 and I Chron. xxi. 11-14 there is an account of a plague which caused a mortality of 70,000 in Israel within three days (years ?). Amos (iv. 10) says that the plague in the wilderness was not effective in reforming the people, the allusion probably being to one of the two "maggefot" which killed many persons within a short time, according to Num. xvii. 9 and xxv. 8. This pestilence is different from that whichattacks animals and from which the cattle of the Egyptians died (Ex. ix. 6-8).

According to Ta'an. iii. 1, a city ravaged by the pestilence must institute fast-days and prayers. In answer to the question when may an infectious disease be called a pestilence, the Mishnah declares that if three persons die during three consecutive days in any city of 500 inhabitants, the pestilence is raging there. Further details are given in the baraita Ta'an. 21a, which decides that if nine persons die within three consecutive days in a city of 1,500 inhabitants, the pestilence is present; but that if nine persons die in one day and none in the following days, or if only nine persons die within four consecutive days, there is no pestilence. Ta'an. 21b states that in the first half of the third century C.E. the pestilence ravaged Syria, but did not come near the habitation of Abba Arika.

Bibliography:

Riehm, Handwörterb. s.v.;

Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyc. xi. 72-74.

PESTILENCE.—See Medicine, p. 598b.

pes´ti-lens (דּבר, debher; λοιμός, loimós): Any sudden fatal epidemic is designated by this word, and in its Biblical use it generally indicates that these are divine visitations. The word is most frequently used in the prophetic books, and it occurs 25 times in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, always associated with the sword and famine. In 4 other passages it is combined with noisome or evil beasts, or war. In Amo 4:10 this judgment is compared with the plagues of Egypt, and in Hab 3:5 it is a concomitant of the march of God from the Arabian mountain. There is the same judicial character associated with pestilence in Exo 5:3; Exo 9:15; Lev 26:25; Num 14:12; Deu 28:21; 2Sa 24:21; 1Ch 21:12; Eze 14:19, Eze 14:21. In the dedication prayer of Solomon, a special value is besought for such petitions against pestilence as may be presented toward the temple (2Ch 6:28). Such a deliverance is promised to those who put their trust in God (Psa 91:6). Here the pestilence is called noisome, a shortened form of “annoysome,” used in the sense of “hateful” or that which causes trouble or distress. In modern English it has acquired the sense of loathsome. “Noisome” is used by Tyndale where the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) have “hurtful” in 1Ti 6:9.

The Latin word pestilentia is connected with pestis, “the plague,” but pestilence is used of any visitation and is not the name of any special disease; debher is applied to diseases of cattle and is translated “murrain.”

In the New Testament pestilence is mentioned in our Lord’s eschatological discourse (Mat 24:7 the King James Version; Luk 21:11) coupled with famine. The assonance of loimós and limós in these passages (loimos is omitted in the Revised Version (British and American) passage for Mt) occurs in several classical passages, e.g. Herodotus vii. 171. The pestilence is said to walk in darkness (Psa 91:6) on account of its sudden onset out of obscurity not associated with any apparent cause.

A variation of a Hebrew word for a deadly plague that spreads easily. Pestilence is never portrayed in the Bible as a random event. It is always regarded as a judgment or punishment sent by God.

Pestilence in the Old Testament

Pestilence was a punishment for Israel's neglect of its covenant (Leviticus 26:25; Deuteronomy 28:21). This is the reason for the frequent use of the word by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel. These prophets were prosecuting God’s covenant lawsuit against his people. The sentence had been determined, and they announced that its infliction was impending. For this reason, pestilence almost always occurs as part of a list of plagues, such as the formula “sword, famine, and pestilence” used throughout Jeremiah’s prophecy in some translations (Jeremiah 14:12 and other verses). Pestilence punishes sin. So, it does not strike everyone. The one who remains faithful will be protected from its effects (Psalm 91:1–3). The enemies of Israel could also be objects of this form of judgment (Psalm 78:50; Ezekiel 28:23; 38:22).

Differences Between Pestilence and Plague

Pestilence is not identical to plague in the Old Testament. "Plague" often means diseases like:

• Bubonic plague

• Measles

• Smallpox

"Pestilence" may refer to:

• Cholera

• Typhus

• Typhoid

• Dysentery

These diseases often afflicted a city under siege. There is some overlap in the terms, however. Seventy thousand Israelites died after David's census. This shows the severity of divine punishment (2 Samuel 24:13–15).

Pestilence in the New Testament

The Greek word loimos occurs three times in the New Testament. In Acts 24:5, Tertullus used this term as an offensive description of Paul: “We have found this man to be a pestilence.” Jesus predicted that the destruction of the temple would be preceded by several judgments, including pestilence or plague (Luke 21:11).

See also Disease; Plague.

Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.