Visitation of the sick, although not enjoined in the Mosaic books, is urged as a duty in the Talmud (Shabbath 127B), and several paragraphs in the Shulhan Aruch (Jére De'ah 3351t.) are devoted to this subject. Several cases are excepted, such as ophthalmic or abdominal diseases, and headache, as these may be aggravated by disturbance. Rabbi Johanan says, ‘He who visits the sick lengthens his life, and he who refrains shortens it’ (Nedarim 39). Our Lord’s enforcement of this duty in Mt 25% 45 is noteworthy.
Of the general terms referring to disease in the Bible the word in commonest use is sick. This occurs 38 times in OT and 50 in NT. In the former it is usually the tr. of bp halah, but in Ly 15% (cf. 9018) it represents 7 davah, in the sense of temporary periodic sickness: a cognate word (32) in Is 1° is tr. ‘faint,’ and another (11) in Ps 41° ‘languishing’ (subst.). In 2S 12 the word is vx ‘anash (in imperf. Niph.). The ptep. pass. Qal is used in Job 34° of an arrow wound, but tr. ‘desperate’ in Is 174, ‘incurable’ in Jer 30", and ‘desperately wicked’ in Jer 173, ‘Sick’ in Is 1° is ‘bn doholi, the word %p being usually tr. ‘disease.’ In Jer 148 (‘sick with famine’) it is oxiqs tahal@ im, lit. ‘sicknesses’ (ef. RVm). This word is tr. ‘diseases’ in Ps 103° and 2Ch 21 ‘Sickness’ in OT is in 12 cases the rendering of Holi, and thrice of abnp mahdlah, Ex 23%, 1 K 8%, 2 Ch 6%. ‘Sicknesses’ in the plural occurs in the OT only in Dt 28°? (dp) 29% (orxdna).
Disease occurs 10 times in OT, 8 times as the rendering of Ad? ; once in Ps 418 in the phrase ‘an evil disease’ (AV, RV; Heb. Sx:ba 123, RVm ‘some wicked thing’), and once as tr. of mahdlah in 2Ch 215, ‘Diseased’ represents nahléth (Niph. ptep. of bn) in Ezk 3421, and halah (Qal) in 1 K 15% and 2 Ch 1012, ‘ Diseases’ in the plural is the tr. of ἑαλαϊ ἴηι in 2 Ch 218 and Ps 1085, of mahdlah in Ex 15%, of 7172 madveh in Dt 715 and 28", and of mahdliyim in 2 Ch 9455,
Infirmity is used thrice in the OT, each time in a different sense, and representing a different word, davah in Ly 12? (in infin. con. with Βα ιν mpi), referring to periodic sickness ; hala (in infin. Piel) in Ps 77°, in the sense of infirmity from sick- ness; and mahdleh in Pr 18%, in the sense of weakness in general. Plague is used sometimes as the name of a specific epidemic and sometimes in the sense of sickness in general, and is the tr. of maggephah, makkah, nega. In other places it refers to other forms~of affliction or to the judg- ments of God (1 K 881, Rv 16”). See PLAGUE.
The RV _ has changed ‘sick’ in Pr 23* into ‘hurt,’ and in Mic 6% ‘will I make thee sick in smiting thee’ has been altered to ‘I have smitten thee with a grievous wound.’ ‘ Loathsome disease’ in Ps 387 has been properly altered into ‘ burning,’ as the reference is to the heat of fever. ‘Pining
MEDICINE
sickness’ 752 in Hezekiah’s prayer, Is 38”, has been also altered into ‘from the oom.’ Literally it means ‘from the thrums’ whereby the web is fastened to the weaver’s beam, the idea being that as the web is cut off from the loom, so his life was separated from its surroundings. The ‘evil disease’ of Ps 418 is rendered in RVm ‘some wicked thing’ (see above).
The words for ‘ sickness’ are often qualified by some expression or phrase. ‘Sickness unto death’ of 2 Ch 32%, 1 Καὶ 14), and Is 38! is contrasted with ‘sickness and recovery,’ Is 391, R. Hanina ben Dosa used to say of his patients, ‘This one is sick unto death, this will recover’ (Berachoth 5. 5). ‘Sore [sickness]’ is the tr. of hazak, ‘violent,’ in 1 Καὶ 17!7._ The prefix in ‘sore diseases’ of 2 Ch 21° is the tr. of ra’. An ‘evil disease’ in Ps 418 is literally a ‘thing (727) of Belial.’ The diseases of Egypt are caine to as especially severe in Ex 15%, Dt 716 2877 28 ‘Incurable disease’ used literally in 2 Ch 2118 is a phrase used figuratively in Job 34°, Jer 1618, Mic 19. ‘Sickness of long continuance’ is mentioned in Dt 28",
Figurative expressions referring to disease are not uncommon. It is a ‘scourge’ in Job 9%; a ‘pestilence walking in darkness,’ Ps 91° The Jewish idea of disease and death being inflicted b a special angel is referred to in 28 2416 1C 21)*18.7, 2 Καὶ 195, Rey 68. In the second of these say a he appears with a sword in his hand.
iseases are also spoken of as God’s arrows, Dt 32%- 42, Job 64, Ps 647 915 1445, La 313, Zec 9% ete. The Arabian proverb says that the pestilence is
God’s arrow which always hits its mark.
In the NT ‘sick’ and ‘sickness’ occur 58 times, ‘ diseases’ and ‘ diseased’ 15 times, and ‘infirmities’ 19 times. meaning primarily weakness and usually
These are tr. of various words: ἀσθένεια, tr. ‘in- firmities,’ sometimes ‘sick’ as in Ac 2389 (ἔχοντες ἀσθενείας) ; μαλακία, meaning softness or effeminacy, as well as sickness, is used in Mt 455 986 10}, prob- ably referring to wasting chronic diseases, and contrasted in some ages with νόσος, which indicates more acute violent seizures. Homer (Od. xv. 408) comers the hateful sickness (νούσος) fall- ing on wretched mortals with the visitation of the gentle shafts of Artemis and Apollo, whereby the old are slain; and Hesiod assigns the origin of diseases of this kind to the box of Pandora (Op. et Di.i. 101). νόσημα occurs in Jn δ΄. The unfaith- ful use of ordinances is said to cause those who transgruss to become weak and ἄρρωστοι (1 Co 11%), Jerome on this passage says, ‘There are three causes from which infirmities arise, either from temptation as Job and Tobiah, from sin as Asaph the king and those referred to here by the apostle, or from some intemperance as Timothy,’ etc. Chrysostom interprets this as referring to bodily ailments, great diseases, and premature deaths. The reference is, however, possibly to mental and spiritual weakness, as in Xenophon (@conom. iv. 17: καὶ αἱ ψυχαὶ πολὺ ἀρρωστότεραι γίγνονται). Hippo- crates uses the word for disease either of mind or