Blains
Blains
(אֲבִעבֻּעֹת, ababuoth'; Sept. φλυκτίδες; Vulg. vesicce) occurs only in the account of the sixth plague of Egypt (Ex 9:9-10), where it is described as "a boil breaking forth into blains," i.e. violent ulcerous inflammations (from בּוּעִ, to boil up). The ashes from the furnaces or brick-kilns were taken by Moses, a handful at a time, and scattered to the winds; and wherever a particle fell, on man or beast, it caused this troublesome and painful disease to appear. It is called in De 28:27,35, "the botch of Egypt" (comp. Job 2:7). It seems to have been the ψωρά ἀγρία, or black leprosy, a fearful kind of elephantiasis (comp. Plin. 26:5). It must have come with dreadful intensity on the magicians whose art it baffled, and whose scrupulous cleanliness (Herod. ii, 36) it rendered nugatory, so that they were unable to stand in the presence of Moses because of the boils. SEE BOIL.
Other names for purulent and leprous eruptions are בִּהֶרֶת שׂאֵת (Mophea alba), סִפִּחִת (Morphea nigra) and the more harmless מַספִּחִת, Leviticus 13, passim (Jahn, Bibl. Arch. § 189). SEE LEPROSY.
