1. plag. [Latin plaga, a stroke; Gr. See Lick and Lay . The primary sense is a stroke or striking. So afflict is from the root of flog, and probably of the same family as plague ]
2. Any thing troublesome or vexatious; but in this sense, applied to the vexations we suffer from men, and not to the unavoidable evils inflicted on us by Divine Providence. The application of the word to the latter, would now be irreverent and reproachful.
3. A pestilential disease; an acute, malignant and contagious disease that often prevails in Egypt, Syria and Turkey, and has at times infected the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality.
2. An acute malignantcontagious fever, that often prevails in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, and has at times visited the large cities of Europe with frightful mortality; hence, any pestilence; as, the great London plague.
PLAGUE (λοι/χός, Pestis, Pestilentia). This name has been given to any epidemic disease causing a great mortality, and in this sense was used by Galen and the ancient medical writers, but is now confined to a special disease, otherwise called Oriental, Levantine, or Bubonic Plague, which may be shortly defined as a specific febrile disease, transmissible from the sick to healthy persons, accompanied usually by buboes and sometimes by carbuncles. This definition excludes many of the celebrated pestilences recorded in history,—such as the plague of Athens, described by Thucydides; that not less celebrated one which occurred in the reign of Marcus Aurelius and spread over nearly the whole of the Roman world (164- 180 a.d.), which is referred to, though not fully described, by the contemporary pen of Galen; and that of the 3d century (about 253), the symptoms of which are known from the allusions of St Cyprian (Sermo de Mortalitate). There is a certain resemblance between all these, but they were very different from Oriental plague.
Symptoms.— There are two chief forms :—(l)mild plague, pestis minor, larval plague (Radcliffe), peste fruste, in which the special symptoms are accompanied by little fever or general disturbance; and (2) ordinary epidemic or severe plague, pestis major, in which the general disturbance is very severe. Cases which are rapidly fatal from the general disturbance without marked local symptoms have been distinguished as fulminant plague (pestis siderans, peste foudroyante)....
1. In the minor form of the disease spontaneous swellings of the glands occur, chiefly in groins and armpits, but also in neck or other parts, which either undergo resolution or suppurate. There is a certain amount of fever; the temperature is rarely high, but has been known to be 104° Fahr. The duration of the disease is ten to twenty days usually, but may be eight weeks, for most of which time the general health is little impaired and the patient able to go about as usual. It rarely, if ever, causes death, the only fatal case at Astrakhan in 1877 having been so through a complication. The disease is not obviously contagious; whether it is propagated by infection or not is unknown. It is possibly rather of a miasmatic character. This form of disease has sometimes preceded or followed severe epidemics, as in Mesopotamia (Irak) on several occasions, 1873-78, and in Astrakhan, 1877; its importance in relation to the origin of plague has only lately been appreciated.
It might be expected that gradations would be found connecting this form with the severe epidemic form; but this appears to be not usually the case, the latter form appearing somewhat suddenly and abruptly. Hence the minor form has probably often been regarded as a distinct disease, even when observed in plague countries.
2. As regards pestis major, or severe plague, the symptoms appear to have been nearly the same in all great epidemics for several centuries, if not for two thousand years, but will be best given from modern observations, such as those of Surgeon-Major Colvill, Dr Cabiadis, and others in Irak, and recent observers in India. The early symptoms are sometimes like those of ague (shivers, often long continued, and pains in the limbs), but combined with nervous symptoms. The patient becomes distracted, tosses about in constant fear of something he cannot describe, has a difficulty in understanding the questions put to him, and is slow in answering. He is often described as staggering like a drunken man. There is severe headache, intense thirst, and severe pain in the epigastrium. The eyes are red and turbid; the tongue swollen, dry, and fissured, sometimes black, sometimes remarkably white (Colvill). This condition may pass into coma even before fever sets in. In other cases biliousvomiting is the earliest symptom. The fever which sets in may last twenty-four to thirty hours, or more. The temperature maybe 100° to 107° Fahr., or even higher; but in the most rapidly fatal cases there may be little or no fever. Generally there is obstinateconstipation, but sometimes diarrhoea. Besides these symptoms there are certain special ones especially characteristic of plague.
(a) Buboes or glandular swellings are observed in all except very rapidly fatal cases. They occur in 45 or 50 per cent, of the cases in the groin, in 35 per cent, in the axilla, also less frequently in the neck or other parts. These swellings may occur before the fever, simultaneously with it, or some hours after it has set in. A sudden pain like that of a stab is felt in some region of the body, which has given rise to the superstition that the unfortunate victim was wounded by the arrow of an invisible demon,—a belief recorded in Constantinople in the 6th century, and said still to survive in Mohammedan countries. The buboes may suppurate, and free discharge of matter from them has in all times been held to be a favourable sign and conducive to recovery.
(ό) Carbuncles were observed in about 2⅜ or 3 per cent, of the cases in recent epidemics in Irak. They are always an unfavourable sign.
(c) Petechiae or haemorrhagic spots on the skin have always been regarded as signs of the worst omen. Under the name of “tokens” they were considered in the English epidemics of the 16th century as the infallible signs of approaching death. “They appear generally only a few hours before death” (Colvill). Hodges (1665) noticed hardness which showed the existence of haemorrhage under the skin. The skin is sometimes so covered with petechiae as to become of a dark lividhue after death, recalling the name Black Death (Cabiadis).
The occurrence of the above symptoms, especially the first, in an idiopathic fever attacking many persons at one time is sufficient to make the diagnosis of plague.
A very notable and fatal form of the disease is that in which haemorrhages from the lungs, stomach, bowels, nose, &c., occur. These are of the worst omen, and are seen in some cases where there are no buboes, and which are rapidly fatal. This was observed in Irak in recent epidemics, in the outbreak on the Volga in 1878-79, and in the plague of India. It was a noticeable symptom in the black death, and was observed even in the plague of the 6th century. The bleeding is mostly from the lungs, and is sometimes associated with other symptoms of lung affection. This form of the disease appears, however, to have no distinct historical or geographical limit. A similar haemorrhagic form has been observed in small-pox and scarlet fever, and is always extremely fatal.
In all plague epidemics cases occur in which death takes place very rapidly, even within twenty-four hours, without the development of the special symptoms of the disease. Such cases are reported by Diemerbroek, Hodges, and others in the 17th century, and have been observed in recent epidemics in Irak, as well as in the recent plague on the Volga. Some are more like cases of poisoning than of infection, and much resemble the instances of death from the exhalations of dead bodies (cadaveric poisoning) which are met with from time to time. It is these which have given rise to the expression fulminant plague.
Duration.— The duration of an attack of plague may be from some hours to a month. Three-fifths of the cases observed by Mr Colvill were fatal on the third day, and the majority of cases in India had the same termination (Francis). Five-sixths of fatal cases end by the fifth day. Most of those who survive the fifth day get well; after the seventh day a patient in Baghdad was considered by his friends safe; and in Mr Colvill’s cases only 4 per cent, of fatal cases died after the tenth day. In non-fatal cases with suppuratingbuboes the disease may be protracted to two or three weeks or a month.
Mortality.— Plague is the most fatal of all known diseases which affect large numbers of people. The mortality, according to official registers in Baghdad, was 55 ’ 7 per cent, of those attacked. Dr Cabiadis thinks this too high, owing to many cases of recovery not being reported. But in some epidemics the proportion of fatal cases is much higher. In Vetlanka it was about 90 per cent., and in some other villages on the Volga every person who took the disease died. The older accounts do not give the proportion of deaths and attacks.
Morbid Anatomy.— Examinations after death have not done much to elucidate the nature of plague, except negatively. The appearances are those of death from an acute infective disease, and resemble those of typhus, except for the special affection of the lymphatic glands. The brain and the lungs are found to contain excess of blood; the right side of the heart distended, the blood darkcoloured and undergoing rapid decomposition. The spleen is found enlarged, and in a less degree the liver. The stomach and intestinal canal often show signs of inflammation and haemorrhage, sometimes ulceration. The characteristic swelling of the lymphatic glands, both external and internal, is often accompanied by inflammation of the cellular tissue around. Petechial patches are sometimes found on the internal organs. Pathology of Plague.— All that is known of plague goes to show that it is a specific febrile disease depending on the reception into the body of a specific organic contagion, which becomes multiplied in the body of the patient. Analogy makes it very probable that this contagion is a living organism of the class Bacteria, but the suspected organism has not yet been discovered. The nearest ally of plague is typhus fever, so that some authorities have spoken of it as the typhus of hot climates, modified by temperature, &c., but this opinion does not appear to have ever been held by any competent physician who has examined the disease at first hand. It appears to be as distinct from typhus as this is from enteric fever, or other so-called typhoid diseases. It has also been thought that plague is related to intermittent or remittentmalarious fevers; but the most recent observations show that there is no real connexion between these diseases. In India, says Dr Francis, neither intermission nor remission has ever been observed in plague. It is quite distinct from and in no way modified by the types of fever that are caused by malaria. Dr Cabiadis speaks to the same effect of plague in Irak, and insists that the physical conditions which favour the production of marsh poison are not necessarily favourable to plague.
External Conditions of Plague.— The nature of the soil has little influence on plague. It may flourish in alluvial deltas, on calcareous ridges or granitic mountains. Moisture in the soil has generally been thought to be an important factor in its production, but, though often found in marsh situations, such as the banks of the Nile, the Euphrates, or even the Volga, it also occurs in India at elevations approaching 7000 feet, and in Kurdistan at 5000 to 6000 feet above the sea.
The temperature most favourable to plague is a moderately high one. The disease is unknown in the tropics. When prevalent in Egypt it was said never to penetrate farther south than Assouan. It has not crossed the plains of India within historic times. Where the disease does occur, a temperature of 80° to 85° or more, combined with absence of moisture, usually stops the epidemic. In Egypt it was observed to cease as an epidemic almost suddenly about the 2 2d to 24th of June, and not to begin again till September. In Irak it dies out suddenly during the summer. When the temperature rises above 86° it begins to diminish; and it ceases abruptly at a temperature of 113°. In India it has been observed by Dr Francis when the temperature of his tent was 83° to 95°, or in a grass hut to 105°, while the air was moist; but he thinks a lower temperature with dryness renders the poison inert.
On the other hand, in northern countries, the disease is usually checked by the cold of winter, starts up in the spring, and is most active in August and September. To this rule there have been some remarkable exceptions, such as the epidemic on the Volga in 1878-79, which raged during severe winter weather, and the great plague of Moscow in 1770.
Sanitary Conditions.— Of all the co-operating causes of the plague, uncleanliness is the most powerful,—meaning by this the accumulation of decaying animal matter around human bodies or dwellings. The saturation of the soil with filth is perhaps the most important point. A plague seat in Mesopotamia is thus described by Colvill :—“The ground is so saturated with moisture that the refuse of the village is neither absorbed nor evaporated, but . . . acquires the form of a bluish-black oily fluid, which surrounds the huts and covers the paths, and stains the walls 2 feet from the ground; and in fact the village is in such a state of filth that it requires to be seen to be believed.” Of the people among whom the Pali plague of India raged it is said “they were filthy beyond conception” (Francis). There can be little doubt that European cities in the Middle Ages, and down to the 17th century, presented very similar conditions. These conditions may be considered to act by supplying a suitable environment for the life and growth of the organized poison (or bacterium) outside the human body. Where these are wanting one of the main factors in the spread and permanence of the disease will be absent, a fact which makes it probable that increased cleanliness is the chief cause of the disappearance of plague from Europe.
Overcrowded dwellings, especially with deficient ventilation, greatly favour the spread of the disease; but this is not necessarily correlative with density of population, and plague may flourish in thinly peopled countries.
Of social conditions poverty has by far the most powerful influence on the spread and development of plague. Many plague epidemics have followed on years of famine, or been connected with destruction of crops and cattle. The races among which the disease is endemic are almost without exception under-nourished, if not destitute. In the villages on the Volga there appeared to the writer, in 1879, to be little destitution, though the diet of the people was very meagre. In all city epidemics the poor are the chief or almost the only sufferers. This is as true of Baghdad in the 19th century as it was of London in the 17 th. Those of the upper classes who have been attacked have been chiefly doctors, clergy, officials, and others whose occupations take them among the sick.
Origin and Spread of Plague.— Although the above-mentioned conditions are those in which plague originates, and may be considered in a general way essential to its continued existence, it is plain that they do not account for its origin. Poverty, overcrowding, filth, and marsh soil, with a temperature suited to plague, occur in many parts of the world where this disease has never been heard of or has ceased to exist. The geographical distribution of diseases cannot, any more than the distribution of plants or animals, be explained by climatic causes alone. With regard to plague it is quite clear that there are some parts of the world where it is at home, or, as the phrase is, “endemic.” In other parts it is probable (or, as some think, certain) that its existence, and even its periodical recurrence, depend on importation from an endemic centre. Although it is not always easy to distinguish between these cases, they must be considered separately.
In the case of an endemic disease we suppose that the poison is either kept in existence by continued transmission from one case to another, or that it can subsist outside the human body in soil, water, or otherwise. The first mode of existence is that of a pure contagious disease, such as small-pox; and it is plain that this mode of continued existence obtains in the case of plague also. It is not, however, clear that the second may not also be one of the modes of existence of plague, which would then be a so-called “miasmatic” disease like ague, as well as a contagious one. In India, for instance, the disease appears as if it depended on a poison in the soil, since it returns years after to the same spot, appearing in many villages simultaneously; and some morbid influence causes the death of animals (rats) which live under ground. Similar facts have been observed in China; and, if further inquiry should confirm the hypothesis, it would show that plague is (like anthrax or the “steppemurrain” of cattle) both miasmatic and contagious. If so, there is no difficulty in supposing the disease to be carried by contagion to a distant part, and there to be established in the soil, for a longer or shorter period, as the conditions are more or less favourable. The adoption of this hypothesis would remove many of the difficulties attending the explanation of plague epidemics, and to some extent reconcile the controversies of the last three centuries between the il contagionist” and “non-contagionist” schools. It has been maintained by the former that European epidemics have always been caused by the importation of the disease from its home in the East, by the latter that it arose on European soil in the same way as in Egypt or Syria.
In the case of an imported n on-endemic disease, the only question which arises is how the importation is effected,—whether the disease may be brought by the air alone, whether by infected persons only, or whether also by objects which have been in close relation to infected persons. Transmission of the disease by the air cannot be pronounced impossible: and there are facts to show that it is even probable with distances measured by yards, or possibly even hundreds of yards; but there is no evidence whatever that the disease has ever been carried by the air over distances measured by miles. Transmission of the disease by infected persons over longer or shorter distances, and from one country to another, is an established fact. Transmission by infected objects over great distances and from one country to another seems less clearly established. The last two cases must be separately considered.
1. It is clear that the first necessary condition to such transmission is contagion, or transference of the disease from the sick to the healthy. The existence of contagion is shown by such facts as these :—when a case of plague breaks out in a house the other inmates are extremely likely to take the disease; and even in severe forms the plague does not cease till it has affected all or nearly all the household. This is indisputably an almost universal law. In the plague of London in 1603 it was said the disease entered Jιardly any house but it seized all that lived in it. And in 1879, on the Volga, in one village, as was ascertained by Mr Colvill and the present writer, the plague attacked five houses containing thirty-three persons, all of whom except two took the disease and died. In this respect plague resembles typhus. In the next place the disease will spread from an infected house to persons who have close relations with it. Thus in the villages on the Volga it was noticed that after one family was affected cousins and relations by marriage were the next to be attacked. Doctors and those visiting the house are also exposed to the risk, though in a less degree. In Vetlanka on the Volga three physicians and six surgical assistants died. On the other hand, doctors in some instances have singularly escaped from being attacked by the disease. In Egypt, in 1835, out of ten French physicians engaged one only died, nor was this immunity secured by any precautions. These experiences do not prove that the disease is not contagious, but they modify the exaggerated notions which have been held on the subject. The facts appear to be expressed by saying that it may undoubtedly be communicated from one person to another, but chiefly by breathing the air of the sick room, and this generally from prolonged not from momentary exposure,— so that the possibility of communication by chance meetings and similar contingencies may be disregarded. This view is that of Dr Cabiadis and others who have studied plague in Irak where no doctor or assistant, with one exception, suffered from the disease. It is not inconsistent with the experience recorded in Egypt. But it is clear that the intensity of contagion varies greatly in different epidemics. Modern experience contradicts the belief formerly entertained that contact with plague patients was the only or even the chief means of acquiring the disease. Everything tends to show that the atmosphere...
OF EGYPT. The design of these visitations, growing more awful and tremendous in their progress, was to make Pharaoh know, and confess, that the God of the Hebrews was the supreme Lord, and to exhibit his power and his justice in the strongest light to all the nations of the earth, Exod. ix, 16; 1 Sam. iv, 8, &c; to execute judgment upon the Egyptians and upon all their gods, inanimate and bestial, for their cruelty to the Israelites, and for their grovellingpolytheism and idolatry, Exod. vii, 14–17; xii, 12. The Nile was the principal divinity of the Egyptians. According to Heliodorus, they paid divine honours to this river, and revered it as the first of their gods. They declared him to be the rival of heaven, since he watered the country without the aid of the clouds and rain. His principal festival was at the summer solstice, when the inundation commenced; at which season, in the dog days, by a cruel idolatrousrite, they sacrificed red-haired persons, principally foreigners, to Typhon, or the power that presided over tempests, at Busiris, Heliopolis, &c, by burning them alive, and scattering their ashes in the air, for the good of the people, as we learn from Plutarch. Hence Bryant infers the probability, that these victims were chosen from among the Israelites, during their residence in Egypt. The judgment then inflicted upon the river, and all the waters of Egypt, in the presence of Pharaoh and of his servants, as foretold,--when, as soon as Aaron had smitten the waters of the river, they were turned into blood, and continued in that state for seven days, so that all the fish died, and the Egyptians could not drink of the waters of the river, in which they delighted as the most wholesome of all waters, but were forced to dig wells for pure water to drink--was a ...significant sign of God’s displeasure for their senseless idolatry in worshipping the river and its fish, and also a manifest reproof of that bloody edict whereby the infants were slain,” Wisdom xi, 7.
In the plague of frogs, their sacred river itself was made an active instrument of their punishment, together with another of their gods. The frog was one of their sacred animals, consecrated to the sun, and considered as an emblem of divine inspiration in its inflations.
The plague of lice, which was produced without any previous intimation to Pharaoh, was peculiarly offensive to a people so superstitiously nice and cleanly as the Egyptians; and, above all, to their priests, who used to shave their whole body every third day, that neither louse, nor any other vermin, might be found upon them while they were employed in serving their gods, as we learn from Herodotus; and Plutarch informs us, that they never wore woollen garments, but linen only, because linen is least apt to produce lice. This plague, therefore, was particularly disgraceful to the magicians themselves; and when they tried to imitate it, but failed, on account of the minuteness of the objects, (not like serpents, water, or frogs, of a sensible bulk that could be handled,) they were forced to confess that this was no human feat of legerdemain, but rather the finger of God.” Thus were the illusions of their magic put down, and their vaunting in wisdom reproved with disgrace,” Wisdom xvii, 7. Their folly was manifest unto all men,” in absurdly and wickedly attempting at first to place the feats of human art on a level with the stupendous operations of divine power, in the first two plagues; and being foiled in the third, by shamefully miscarrying, they exposed themselves to the contempt of their admirers. Philo, the Jew, has a fine observation on the plagues of Egypt: Some, perhaps, may inquire, Why did God punish the country by such minute and contemptible animals as frogs, lice, flies, rather than by bears, lions, leopards, or other kinds of savage beasts which prey on human flesh? Or, if not by these, why not by the Egyptian asp, whose bite is instant death? But let him learn, if he be ignorant, first, that God chose rather to correct than to destroy the inhabitants; for, if he desired to annihilate them utterly, he had no need to have made use of animals as his auxiliaries, but of the divinely inflicted evils of famine and pestilence. Next, let him farther learn that lesson so necessary for every state of life, namely, that men, when they war, seek the most powerful aid to supply their own weakness; but God, the highest and the greatest power, who stands in need of nothing, if at any time he chooses to employ instruments, as it were, to inflictchastisement, chooses not the strongest and greatest, disregarding their strength, but rather the mean and the minute, whom he endues with invincible and irresistible power to chastise offenders.” The first three plagues were common to the Egyptians and the Israelites, to convince both that “there was none like the Lord;” and to wean the latter from their Egyptian idolatries, and induce them to return to the Lord their God. And when this end was answered, the Israelites were exempted from the ensuing plagues; for the Lord severed the land of Goshen from the rest of Egypt; whence the ensuing plagues, confined to the latter, more plainly appeared to have been inflicted by the God of the Hebrews, Exodus viii, 20–23, to convince both more clearly of “the goodness and severity of God,” Rom. xi, 22; that great plagues remain for the ungodly, but mercy embraceth the righteous on every side,” Psalm xxxii, 10.
The visitation of flies, of the gad fly, or hornet, was more intolerable than any of the preceding. By this, his minute, but mighty army, God afterward drove out some of the devoted nations of Canaan before Joshua, Exod. xxiii, 28; Deut. vii, 20; Josh. xxiv, 12. This insect was worshipped in Palestine and elsewhere under the title of Baal-zebub, lord of the gad fly,” 2 Kings i, 1, 2. Egypt, we learn from Herodotus, abounded with prodigious swarms of flies, or gnats; but this was in the heat of summer, during the dog days; whence this fly is called by the Septuagint κυνόμνια, _the dog fly_. But the appointed time of this plague was in the middle of winter; and, accordingly, this plague extorted Pharaoh’s partial consent, Go ye, sacrifice to your God, but in the land;” and when Moses and Aaron objected the offence they would give to the Egyptians, who would stone them for sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians,” namely, animal sacrifices, he reluctantly consented, only ye shall not go very far away;” for he was apprehensive of their flight, like his predecessor, who first enslaved the Israelites, Exod. i, 10; and he again desired them to entreat for him.” But he again dealt deceitfully; and after the flies were removed so effectually that not one was left, when Moses entreated the Lord, Pharaoh hardened his heart this fifth time also, neither would he let the people go.”
This second breach of promise on the part of Pharaoh drew down a plague of a more deadly description than the preceding. The fifth plague of murrain destroyed all the cattle of Egypt, but of the cattle of the Israelites died not one.” It was immediately inflicted by God himself, after previous notification, and without the agency of Moses and Aaron, to manifest the divine indignation at Pharaoh’s falsehood. And though the king sent and found that not one of the Israelites was dead, yet his heart was hardened this sixth time also, and he would not let the people go, Exod. ix, 1–7.
At length, after Pharaoh had repeatedly abused the gracious respites and warnings vouchsafed to him and his servants, a sorer set of plagues, affecting themselves, began to be inflicted; and Moses now, for the first time, appears as the executioner of divine vengeance; for in the presence of Pharaoh, by the divine command, he sprinkled ashes of the furnace toward heaven, and it became a boil, breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boil, which affected them and all the Egyptians, Exod. ix, 8–11. This was a very significant plague: the furnace from which the ashes were taken aptly represented the iron furnace” of Egyptian bondage, Deut. iv, 20, and the scattering of the ashes in the air might have referred to the usage of the Egyptians in their Typhonian sacrifices of human victims; while it converted another of the elements, and of their gods, the air, or ether, into an instrument of their chastisement. And now the Lord,” for the first time, hardened the heart of Pharaoh,” after he had so repeatedly hardened it himself, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had foretold unto Moses,” Exod. ix, 12. Though Pharaoh probably felt, the scourge of the boil, as well as his people, it did not soften nor humble his heart; and when he wilfully and obstinately turned away from the light, and shut his eyes against the luminous evidences vouchsafed to him of the supremacy of the God of the Hebrews, and had twice broken his promise when he was indulged with a respite, and dealt deceitfully, he became a just object of punishment; and God now began to increase the hardness or obduracy of his heart. And such is the usual and the righteous course of his providence; when nations or individuals despise the warnings of Heaven, abuse their best gifts, and resist the means of grace, God then delivers them over to a reprobate” or undiscerning mind, to work all uncleanness with greediness,” Rom. i, 28.
In the tremendous plague of hail, the united elements of air, water, and fire, were employed to terrify and punish the Egyptians by their principal divinities. This plague was formally announced to Pharaoh and his people: I will at this season send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I could stretch out my hand, and smite thee and thy people with pestilence,” or destroy thee at once, like thy cattle with the murrain, and thou shouldest be cut off from the earth; but, in truth, for this cause have I sustained thee, that I might manifest in thee my power, and that my name might be declared throughout the whole earth,” Exod. ix, 13–16. This rendering of the passage is more conformable to the context, the Chaldeeparaphrase, and to Philo, than the received translation, For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence;” for surely Pharaoh and his people were not smitten with pestilence; and they were preserved” or kept from immediate destruction, according to the Septuagint, διετηρήθης, to manifest the divine power,” by the number and variety of their plagues. Still, however, in the midst of judgment, God remembered mercy; he gave a graciouswarning to the Egyptians, to avoid, if they chose, the threatened calamity: Send, therefore, now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; every man and beast that shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.” And this warning had some effect: He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh, made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses; and he that regarded not the word of the Lord, left his servants and his cattle in the field,” Exod. ix, 17–21. But it may be asked, If all the cattle of the Egyptians were destroyed by the foregoing plague of murrain, as asserted Exod. ix, 6, how came there to be any cattle left? Surely the Egyptians might have recruited their stock from the land of Goshen, where not one of the cattle of the Israelites died.” And this justifies the supposition, that there was some respite, or interval, between the several plagues, and confirms the conjecture of the duration of the whole, about a quarter of a year. And that the warning, in this case, was respected by many of the Egyptians, we may infer from the number of chariots and horsemen that went in pursuit of the Israelites afterward. This was foretold to be a very grievoushail, such as had not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground; and the hailsmote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hailsmote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.” Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time; the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked: entreat the Lord,” for it is enough, that there might be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.” But when there was respite, Pharaoh sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants; neither would he let the people go,” Exod. ix, 27–35. In this instance, there is a remarkable suspension of the judicial infatuation. Pharaoh had humbled himself, and acknowledged his own and his people’s guilt, and the justice of the divine plague: the Lord, therefore, forbore this time to harden his heart. But he abused the long sufferance of God, and this additional respite; he sinned yet more, because he now sinnedwilfully, after he had received information of the truth; he relapsed, and hardened his own heart a seventh time. He became, therefore, a vessel of wrath, fitted to destruction,” Heb. x, 26; Rom. ix, 22.
The design of the eighth and the ensuing plagues, was to confirm the faith of the Israelites: “That thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord.” This plague of locusts, inflicted on the now devoted Egyptians and their king, completed the havoc begun by the hail; by this the wheat and rye were destroyed, and every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any verdure in the trees, nor in the herbs of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. Very grievous were they; before them were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall there be such,” Exod. x, 3–15.
The awful plague of darkness over all the land of Egypt, for three days, a thick darkness which might be felt,” in the emphatic language of Scripture, was inflicted on the Egyptians, and their chief god, the sun; and was, indeed, a most significant sign of the divine displeasure, and of that mental darkness under which they now laboured. Their consternationthereat is strongly represented by their total inaction; neither rose any from his place for three days, petrified, as they were, with horror. They were also scared with strange apparitions and visions, while a heavy night was spread over them, an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them. But yet, they were unto themselves more grievous than that darkness,” Wisdom xvii, 3–21; Psalm lxxviii, 49. This terrific and horrible plague compelled Pharaoh to relax; he offered to let the men and their families go; but he wished to keep the flocks and herds as security for their return; but Moses peremptorily declared, that not a hoof should be left behind. Again “the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let them go,” Exod. x, 21–27. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the Lord” ultimately “hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land,” Exod. xi, 9, 10. This passage forms the conclusion to the nine plagues, and should properly follow the preceding; for the result of the tenth and last plague was foretold, that Pharaoh should not only let them go, but surely thrust them out altogether, Exod. xi, 1.
The tenth plague was announced to Pharaoh with much solemnity: Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even to the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of cattle. And there shall be a great cry throughout the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may know, how that the Lord doth make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee. And after that I will go out,” Exod. xi, 4–8. Such a threat, delivered in so high a tone, both in the name of the God of Israel and of Moses, did not fail to exasperate the infatuated Pharaoh, and he said, Get thee from me; take heed to thyself; see my face no more: for in the day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses said, Be it so as thou hast spoken; I will see thy face again no more. And he went out from Pharaoh in great anger,” Exod. x, 28, 29; xi, 8. And at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house in which there was not one dead,” Exod. xii, 1–30. This last tremendous judgment is described with much sublimity in the book of Wisdom, xviii, 14–18.
For when all things were wrapt in still silence, And night, in her proper speed, holding her mid course, Thy all powerful oracleleapt down from heaven, Out of the royal throne, a fierce warrior, Into the midst of the land of destruction, Wielding a sharp sword, thine unfeigned command, And standing up, he filled the whole with death, He touched the heavens, indeed, but trod upon the earth!”
And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and he called for,” or sent to, Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye said; take also your flocks and your herds, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians also were urgent upon the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We shall all be dead.” It is evident from the extreme urgency of the occasion, when all the Egyptians apprehended total destruction, if the departure of the Israelites was delayed any longer, that Pharaoh had no personal interview with Moses and Aaron, which would have wasted time, and was quite unnecessary; he only sent them a peremptorymandate to be gone on their own terms. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment. And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they freely gave what they required, and they spoiled the Egyptians,” Exod. xii, 31–36, as originally foretold to Abraham, Gen. xv, 14; and to Moses before the plagues began. This was an act of perfect retributive justice, to make the Egyptians pay for the long and laborious services of the Israelites, whom they had unjustly enslaved, in violation of their charter.
The Israelites were thrust out of Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside women and children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks and herds, even very much cattle,” Exod. xii, 37–38; Num. xi, 4; xxxiii, 3. And they went out with a high hand; for the Lord went before them by day, in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by...
V. feel pain, suffer pain, experience pain, undergo pain, bear pain, endure pain, smart, ache, suffer, bleed, ail, be the victim of, labor under afflictions, bear the cross, quaff the bitter cup, have a bad time of it, fall on evil days, go hard with, come to grief, fall a sacrifice to, drain the cup of misery to the dregs, "sup full of horrors", sit on thorns, be on pins and needles, wince, fret, chafe, worry oneself, be in a taking, fret and fume, take on, take to heart, cark, grieve, mourn, yearn, repine, pine, droop, languish, sink, give way, despair, break one's heart, weigh upon the heart
Phr. "the iron entered into our soul", haeret lateri lethalis arundo, one's heart bleeding, "down, thou climbing sorrow", "mirth cannot move a soul in agony", nessun maggior dolere che ricordarsi del tempo felice nella miseria, "sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things", "the niobe of nations"
V. cause pain, occasion pain, give pain, bring pain, induce pain, produce pain, create pain, inflict pain, pain, hurt, wound, pinch, prick, gripe, pierce, lancinate, cut, hurt the feelings, wound the feelings, grate upon the feelings, grate upon the nerves, jar upon the feelings, wring the heart, pierce the heart, lacerate the heart, break the heart, rend the heart, make the heart bleed, tear the heart strings, rend the heart strings, draw tears from the eyes, sadden, make unhappy, plunge into sorrow, grieve, fash, afflict, distress, cut up, cut to the heart, displease, annoy, incommode, discompose, trouble, disquiet, faze, feaze, feeze (u .s.), disturb, cross, perplex, molest, tease, tire, irk, vex, mortify, wherret|, worry, plague, bother, pester, bore, pother, harass, harry, badger, heckle, bait, beset, infest, persecute, importune, wring, harrow, torment, torture, bullyrag, put to the rack, put to the question, break on the wheel, rack, scarify, cruciate, crucify, convulse, agonize, barb the dart, plant a dagger in the breast, plant a thorn in one's side, irritate, provoke, sting, nettle, try the patience, pique, fret, rile, tweak the nose, chafe, gall, sting to the quick, wound to the quick, cut to the quick, aggrieve, affront, enchafe, enrage, ruffle, sour the temper, give offense, maltreat, bite, snap at, assail, smite, sicken, disgust, revolt, nauseate, disenchant, repel, offend, shock, stink in the nostrils, go against the stomach, turn the stomach, make one sick, set the teeth on edge, go against the grain, grate on the ear, stick in one's throat, stick in one's gizzard, rankle, gnaw, corrode, horrify, appal, appall, freeze the blood, make the flesh creep, make the hair stand on end, make the blood curdle, make the blood run cold, make one shudder, haunt the memory, weigh on the heart, prey on the heart, weigh on the mind, prey on the mind, weigh on the spirits, prey on the spirits, bring one's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave, add a nail to one's coffin
Int. hinc illae lachrymae, phr, surgit amari aliquid, the place being too hot to hold one, the iron entering into the soul, "he jests at scars that never felt a wound", "i must be cruel only to be kind", "what deep wounds ever closed without a scar?"
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.
“The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”
Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievousmurrain.
then the hand of the LORD will bring a severe plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.
For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Otherwise, I will send all My plagues against you and your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt one more plague. After that, he will allow you to leave this place. And when he lets you go, he will drive you out completely.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.
“When you take a census of the Israelites to number them, each man must pay the LORD a ransom for his life when he is counted. Then no plague will come upon them when they are numbered.
When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or a bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:
“When someone has a swelling or rash or bright spot on his skin that could become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest.
And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.
The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.
If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:
If, however, the spot on his skin is white and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall isolate the infected person for seven days.
And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more:
On the seventh day the priest is to reexamine him, and if he sees that the infection is unchanged and has not spread on the skin, the priest must isolate him for another seven days.
And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.
The priest will examine him again on the seventh day, and if the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is a rash. The person must wash his clothes and be clean.
And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh;
But if the skin disease breaks out all over his skin so that it covers all the skin of the infected person from head to foot, as far as the priest can see,
Then the priest shall consider: and, behold, if the leprosyhave covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean.
the priest shall examine him, and if the disease has covered his entire body, he is to pronounce the infected person clean. Since it has all turned white, he is clean.
And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the plague be turned into white; then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: he is clean.
The priest will reexamine him, and if the infection has turned white, the priest is to pronounce the infected person clean; then he is clean.
And if, when the priest seeth it, behold, it be in sight lower than the skin, and the hair thereof be turned white; the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil.
The priest shall examine it, and if it appears to be beneath the skin and the hair in it has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a diseasedinfection that has broken out in the boil.
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