Tumors; Emerods
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(1 Sam. 5:6, 9, 12)—the painful affliction that struck Philistine cities after the capture of the ark. The Hebrew textual traditions use terms commonly rendered tumors, swellings, or hemorrhoids, while the accompanying mice and widespread death have led some interpreters to suggest epidemic disease such as bubonic plague. The precise diagnosis cannot be established. “Emerods” is the archaic English form found in the King James Version; modern English should use “tumors” without claiming more medical certainty than the text permits.