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Bible Encyclopedias
Boil (1)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
(noun) (שׁחין ,
Job's body is said to have been covered with itchy, irritating sores which made his face unrecognizable, Job 2:12 , caused continual burning pain (Job 3:24; Job 6:4 ), and which were infested with maggots (Job 7:5 ) and exhaled a nauseous fetor (Job 19:17 ). His sleep was destroyed and his nervous system enfeebled (Job 3:26 ) so that he required assistance to move, as he sat in the ashes (Job 2:8 ). Various diagnoses have been made of his malady, but it is most probable that it was a form of the disease known as "oriental sore," or "Bagdad boil," called in Algeria "Biskra batton," in which the intensely itchy sores are often multiple, affecting the face, hands, and other exposed parts. The cases which I have seen have been very intractable and disfiguring.
Hezekiah's boil was apparently more localized, and the indefinite description would accord with that of a carbuncle. It seems to have rendered him unclean (Isaiah 38:22 ), though the reference may be to the practice referred to in Leviticus 13:18 f. The "botch" of Egypt ( Deuteronomy 28:27 , Deuteronomy 28:35 the King James Version) is translation of the same word, as is "boil" in the Revised Version (British and American). Botch is an old English name for boil and occurs in Piers Plowman , and the adjective "botchy" is used in Troilus and Cressida (II, 1, 6). The word is cognate to the old French boche or poche , a form of our later word "pock." The sores of Lazarus (Luke 16:20 ) were probably old varicose ulcers, such as are as common on the legs of the old and poor in the East as they are in the West.
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Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Boil (1)'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​isb/​b/boil-1.html. 1915.