Bible Dictionary
Emerods
Emerods were painful tumors or swellings associated with the plague that struck the Philistines when they held the ark of the covenant. The exact medical condition is uncertain.
Definition
Emerods were rounded swellings or tumors associated with the plague that struck the Philistines while the ark of the covenant was in their land. Older interpreters identified them with hemorrhoids, but the supplied material states that this identification is uncertain.
Biblical Usage
The emerods appear in the narrative of the Philistine plague. Golden models of the swellings were made as votive offerings when the ark was returned.
Historical Background
The Hebrew terms can mean swellings or tumors. The account also mentions an invasion of mice or rats, and the supplied material notes that the symptoms may fit an epidemic of bubonic plague.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(28:27; 1 Samuel 5:6,9,12; 6:4,5,11) Probably hemorrhiodal tumors, or bleeding piles, are intended. These are very common in Syria at present, Oriental habits of want of exercise and improper food, producing derangement of the liver, constipation, etc., being such as to cause them.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>em'-er-odz `ophalim, techorim:</p><p>These words are used in the account of the plague which broke out among the Philistines while the captive Ark of the Covenant was in their land. `Ophalim literally means rounded eminences or swellings, and in the Revised Version (British and American) is translated "tumors" (1Sa 5:6-12). In the Hebrew text of this passage the Qere substitutes for it the word techorim, a term which occurs in the next chapter in the description of the golden models of these swellings that were made as votive offerings (1Sa 6:11-17). The swellings were symptoms of a plague, and the history is precisely that of the outbreak of an epidemic of bubonic plague. The older writers supposed by comparison of the account in 1Sa with Ps 78:66 that they were hemorrhoids (or piles), and the older English term in the King James Version is a 16th-century form of that Greek word, which occurs in several medical treatises of the 16th and 17th centuries. There is, however, no evidence that this identification is correct. In the light of the modern research which has proved that the rat-flea (Pulex cheopis) is the most active agent in conveying the virus of plague to the human subject, it is worthy of note that the plague of tumors was accompanied by an invasion of mice (`akhbor) or rats. The rat is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, although it was as common in Canaan and Israelite times as it is today, a fact demonstrated by the frequency with which their bones occur in all strata of the old Palestinian cities, so it is probable that the term used was a generic one for both rodents.</p><p>The coincidence of destructive epidemics and invasions of mice is also recorded by Herodotus (ii.141), who preserves a legend that the army of Sennacherib which entered Egypt was destroyed by the agency of mice. He states that a statue of Ptah, commemorating the event, was extant in his day. The god held a mouse in his hand, and bore the inscription: "Whosoever sees me, let him reverence the gods." This may have been a reminiscence of the story in Isa 37:36.</p><p>For other references see PLAGUE.</p><p>Alex. Macalister</p>