The Plague of the Philistines

Introduction

When the Philistines take possession of the Ark, God punishes them with a disease. But what disease is it? That proves to be a difficult question. To answer this question, we will have to use all the tools of linguistics.
The punishment is mentioned in 1 Samuel 5:6:
The LORD dealt harshly with the people of Ashdod, sowing panic and striking all the inhabitants of the principality with sores.
The NBG translates this as "bowels," the NBV as "hemorrhoids," and the KJV, HSV, and NBV21 translate it as "swellings."
1 Samuel 5:6 refers to the inhabitants of Ashdod. Later, the inhabitants of Gath and Ekron were struck by the same disease (1 Samuel 5:9,12). The description of Ekron indicates that the disease could be fatal. When the Ark was returned, the Philistines provided gold replicas of their boils (1 Samuel 6:4,5,11,17). We also read about replicas of mice.
We encounter the word translated "swellings" one more time in Deut. 28:27.
The LORD will strike you with boils like the Egyptians, with swellings, scabs, and itch, with incurable diseases.

Ketiv and Qere

The Hebrew text of the Tanakh (what we call the Old Testament) sometimes includes instructions for reading aloud. The Ketiv ("what is written") is then provided with commentary in the margin in the form of a Qere ("what is read"). The most common example is that if the divine name YHWH is written, it should be read Adonai. In many other cases, this involves replacing an obsolete word with a more modern one, or replacing a letter in a word with a similar letter. In fact, the Qeri version reflects a textual commentary by the rabbis.
In Deut. 28:27, the Ketiv "ophalim" is replaced by the Qere "techorim." Ophalim literally means growths. This can refer to hemorrhoids, tumors, bubonic plague, a penile disease, or something else. We will return to this later. Techorim are likely abscesses that can occur anywhere on the body. This phenomenon of replacing an explicit term referring to intimate parts of the body with a euphemism is common. In Deut. 28:30, a very explicit term for "having sex" is similarly replaced by the expression "lying with."
In any case, it seems logical to assume that the plague of the Philistines describes an affliction of the intimate parts, and that the reading of this text was intended to be somewhat purified. This is also in line with rabbinic tradition, which stipulates that coarse language should be replaced by euphemisms (Megillah 25b). Both Deut. 28:27 and 1 Sam. 5-6 are cited as examples.

LXX

The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint, abbreviated LXX) uses a Greek word in both Deuteronomy and 1 Samuel that can be translated as "hind." The disease could then indeed be rendered as "hemorrhoids." And the gold statues the Philistines are said to have made could have been buttocks, something more imaginable than images of hemorrhoids.
In the Hebrew text, we only read that the disease could be fatal in the third city, Ekron. And only in 1 Samuel 6, when the making of gold statues is mentioned, is there a mention of mice (or rats). In the Septuagint, however, the disease is already indicated as fatal in the first city, Ashdod, and the mice are also mentioned.

Additional information

In ancient times, a connection was already made with Psalm 78:66, which refers to this story. There, it is stated that God struck the Philistines "from behind." Based on this, the connection with hemorrhoids was made. Incidentally, the Hebrew can also be translated as meaning that God struck the Philistines backward, thus back (as translated in the NBV and NBV21).
During archaeological excavations in Gath and Ashkelon, small bottles in the shape of uncircumcised penises have been found. This seems to indicate that the penis had great symbolic significance in Philistine culture. From this perspective, it is remarkable that we read that God's hand was against the inhabitants of the Philistine cities (1 Sam. 5:7, 9, 11), but when referring to the disease, the text explicitly refers to "men," not inhabitants (1 Sam. 5:7, 9, 12). This nuance has unfortunately been lost in Dutch translations. For these reasons, some scholars believe it refers to a condition of the penis. A drawback to this interpretation is that "ophalim" literally means "elevation" in Hebrew. It could be a growth or a hillock, but the jump to a condition of the male genitals is difficult to substantiate linguistically.
There's another striking aspect. In this story, we also read about a plague of mice or rats (Hebrew makes no distinction and has only one word for rodents). And the way the disease and the rodents are mentioned alongside each other suggests they are related. Now, bubonic plague is spread by rats via the rat flea. And bubonic plague manifests itself, among other things, through boils, particularly in the groin (and armpits). Furthermore, we know from Egyptian sources that bubonic plague occurred in antiquity. In other words, this disease could also be the source.

Final remarks

All things considered, the conclusion regarding the plague of the Philistines is:
- It was a growth or something similar
- Since the Rabbis tended to substitute the term when reading aloud, it must have referred to the intimate parts of a person
- The disease could be fatal
- It is possible that exclusively or primarily men were affected
- There may be a connection to a plague of rats
Since hemorrhoids are not fatal, and it is also difficult to imagine that gold replicas could have been made of them, this translation is not obvious.
Although the bubonic plague fits this description best, it is not clear whether this disease is indeed meant. Since history took place more than 3,000 years ago, it is also possible that it refers to a disease that is no longer known.

Bas Krins