Plague
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
—the pestilence, called by Europeans the Oriental plague. This terrible, deadly disease has in every age been a fearsome scourge of Palestine, as of the whole East. Besides this, Palestine is subject to other, less malignant epidemics, arising partly from the crowding and uncleanliness in Hebrew houses, and partly from the poverty and meagerness of their sustenance.