Topic
Pestilence
20 passages cited, from 3 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Leviticus 26:25ISBE · Nave Sent as a judgment
And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
- Exodus 5:3ISBE
And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.
- Exodus 9:15ISBE
For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
- Leviticus 26:16Nave Sent as a judgment
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
- Numbers 14:12ISBE
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.
- Deuteronomy 28:21ISBE
The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
- 2 Samuel 24:21ISBE
And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
- 1 Chronicles 21:12ISBE
Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout…
- 2 Chronicles 6:28ISBE
¶ If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be:
- Psalms 91:6ISBE
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
- Ezekiel 14:19ISBE
¶ Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:
- Ezekiel 14:21ISBE
For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?
Show 8 more
- Amos 4:10 ISBE
- Habakkuk 3:5 ISBE
- Matthew 24:7 ISBE
- Luke 21:11 ISBE
- Acts 19:8 ISBE
- 2 Corinthians 5:11 ISBE
- Galatians 1:10 ISBE
- 1 Timothy 6:9 ISBE
In the reference works
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 0 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 20 references
pes'-ti-lens (debher; loimos): 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 Am 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 Ex 5:3; 9:15; Le 26:25; Nu 14:12; De 28:21; 2Sa 24:21; 1Ch 21:12; Eze 14:19,21. 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 (Ps 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.Ac 19:8 the King James Version writes "persuading the things" (the Revised Version (British and American) "as to the things") for "present the things persuasively." And in Ga 1:10 (the English Revised Version and the King James Version, not in the American Standard Revised Version) and 2Co 5:11, there is a half-ironic force in the word: Paul's enemies have accused him of using unworthy persuasion in making his conversions.
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 (Mt 24:7 the King James Version; Lu 21:11) coupled with famine. The assonance of loimos and limos 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 (Ps 91:6) on account of its sudden onset out of obscurity not associated with any apparent cause.
Alexander Macalister
In the topical indexes
Texts: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.