Many times, when the Scripture has been translated from the original Aramaic, through the Greek and into Latin, (as well as other languages) there are no equivalent words in the receiving language forcing the translator to either find what he/she believes to be a word of similar meaning or to just create a word to fill in the blank space. Such is the case, I believe in the Book of Samuel.
1 Samuel 5 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
1 Samuel 5-6 But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
1 Samuel 5-7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
1 Samuel 5-8 … What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.
1 Samuel 5-9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
1 Samuel 5-10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
1 Samuel 5-11 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
1 Samuel 5-12 And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
1 Samuel 6-1 And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
1 Samuel 6-2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.
1 Samuel 6-3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.
1 Samuel 6-4 Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.
1 Samuel 6-5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.
It is obvious that the story is relating a serious plague upon the Philistines causing great pain and death, but, what, exactly are “emerods”? The word is most commonly encountered, however, in the King James Bible, where it appears in the First Book of Samuel as a plague that afflicted the Philistines who had captured the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites.
Chapter 5 of I Samuel describes a “plague of emerods” that smote the people of Ashdod in their “secret parts”, causing many to die. According to chapter 6, the plague was not relieved until the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites, along with a trespass offering of “five golden emerods and five golden mice” (the plague of emerods occurred simultaneously with a plague of mice).
Emerods is an archaic term for hemorrhoids. Derived from the Old French word emoroyde, it was used as the common English term until the nineteenth century, after which it was replaced in medicine by a direct transliteration of the original Greek term haimorrhoides.
So, to take the King James translation literally, the Philistines were plagued by a deadly outbreak of HEMORRHOIDS AND MICE as a punishment by Yahweh for their absconding with the Ark of the Covenant. Further, to relieve the plague and death, the Philistines were to return the Ark to the Hebrews with a trespass offering of 5 golden hemorrhoids and 5 golden mice!
Some scholars have pointed out that the Hebrew term Apholim, translated “emerods” in the King James Version, could also be translated as “tumors”, as is done in the Revised Version of the Bible. In the fourth century A.D., the early Christian scholar Jerome translated it as “swellings of the secret parts”. It has often been speculated that the “plague of emerods” was actually an outbreak of bubonic plague, and that the “plague of mice” was actually a plague of rats, which are not distinguished from mice in ancient Hebrew.
While the Bubonic plague theory is possible, there is no corroborating evidence that bubonic plague was present in the Levant or anywhere else in the near east prior to its introduction during the Middle Ages after the church ordered extermination of cats believing that they were used as familiars of witches and sorcerers and therefore unholy animals.
As the late Paul Harvey used to say, “Now, you know the rest of the story”.