“Before Him Went Pestilence” (Hab 3:5): Biblical Lexis and Semantic Field of Epidemics 

This article examines the various biblical terms for epidemics and their etymologies in order to define their meanings in their literary and theological contexts. It considers the possible divine or demonic background of the lexemes for epidemics, from the triad of Hebrew terms deber , qeteb and rešep, which are used in some of the mythological passages of Bible. Major works on the subject proceed from the assumption that these terms were demons in the ancient Near East or that they were deities who became demonised by the authors of the Hebrew Bible. Close attention is paid to the linguistic and semantic aspects of the texts in their immediate contexts in order to determine the function of each term. The study shows a clear difference in meaning between the terms, although in some cases their semantic contents overlap. However, their function as God’s negative agents prevail regardless of their original meaning and this is a consistent phenomenon with other Hebrew concepts of mythological origins in the Bible.


INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 has caused unprecedented health, economic and societal damage across the world.As follow the news or talk to people about the widespread contagious disease COVID-19, we hear the new coronavirus being referred to as a "plague."Most of us have never lived through pandemics such as the coronavirus before but we have learned about them-from the Spanish flu to, more notoriously, plagues like the Black Death.Historian Walter Scheidel in his book, The Great Leveler, talks about the Black Death in the mid-1300s, in which about 24 million people died in Europe and the population of England fell by half. 1 Already Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian War (II.vii.3-54),mentioned the plague in Athens during the Peloponnesian war and Tacitus, 2 in The Annals (2.47), referred to the plague in Rome during the time of Nero.Most importantly, in numerous places in the Bible, deaths by plagues, pestilence or pandemics are mentioned.According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of the English word pestilence is "a contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating" or "something that is destructive or pernicious."Likewise, the definition of the English word plague is "an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality" or "a disastrous evil or affliction." 3 Under the umbrella term plague, the scope of this article includes the current pandemic, which has killed millions of people all around the world and has reduced the quality of everyone's life, especially of the younger generation. 4ltures of the Ancient Near east (ANE) attributed epidemics, illnesses and all kinds of natural evil to the work of demons.This view seems to be understandable since at that time there was no knowledge of bacteria, viruses, other biological causes of illness or medical theories and concepts that are well known to us today.This ANE view is apparently shared by ancient Israelites.The biblical terms for plague and epidemic share a very close etymology to the ANE terms, but describe a specific context.This article sheds light on the lexis of epidemics and its semantic field in the original biblical texts.The research goal of the present study is to take a closer look at the Hebrew and Greek texts in which the basic terms of the semantic field of epidemics occur and to probe their meaning in their context in the biblical texts.To accomplish this goal, the study will provide exegetical remarks on the relevant biblical passages in which the Hebrew terms for epidemics appear, namely three main terms, deber, qeteb and rešep and cognate terms negep, maggepah and bechor mawet.Attention is paid also to the etymology and usage of terms in the ANE and then to linguistic, semantic, and structural levels of the biblical texts in order to determine the meaning of the terms and their theological contexts.The reading focuses on how the various signals within the text can guide one towards meaning, noting how the biblical author uses theological concepts, the various poetical devices and mythological elements.
Eblaite deity. 10In Mesopotamia as well as among the Hittites, the representation of illnesses as demons is very common and this perception can support the occurrence of dbr in the Ugaritic texts KTU 1.5 vi:6-7 and KTU 1.5 v:17-18 about the death of victorious Baal and his journey to the netherworld. 11Both texts speak in a parallel way of the (ars) dbr//šd sḥlmmt (land of steppe // coast of the realm of death).However, the personification of deber as "demon of pestilence" here can only be assumed, according to Dahood,12 if šḥlmmt is construed as "the lion of Mamettu" but which Del Olmo Lete says is unlikely. 13he empirical meanings of "pestilence" or "steppe" are more suitable. 14More cogent is the parallelism with rešep in Hab 3:14, given the presence of this deity in the Ugaritic text KTU 1.14 i:18-19 as a god of destruction and epidemics. 15he eschatological hymn in Hab 3 presents deber and rešep marching by Yahweh's side as his helpers (Hab 3:5).This follows the ancient Mesopotamian tradition in which "plague" and "pestilence" are present in the entourage of the great god, Marduk. 16Ishtar also appears with her footmen beside, before and behind her. 17 Thus, both suggestions-that dbr is a place name and that it is related to the realm of death-are equally possible.Personification of deber, however, is questionable.
This review reveals that the lists focus on prophetic and deuteronomistic passages.They give details about God's judgment, which is brought on by Israel's breaking of the divine covenant.The triad of famine, pestilence and sword is connected with the downfall of the Judean state in 587 B.C. and it describes the war with its most dreadful consequences.When we set this alongside the triad of sword, wild beasts, pestilence of the word of judgment in Ezek 33:27, which came upon those left behind after the fall of Jerusalem and Jeremiah's summation of the prophetic message as "war, calamity, pestilence" in 28:8, we must, of course, come to the conclusion that under the formal pressure of the number "three," these lists arose on the basis of life's experiences.Accordingly, the multipartite lists were not expansions of the tripartite lists; conversely, the tripartite lists (cf.Num 14:12) constituted only a selection from the catalogue represented by the multipartite lists. 19The execration tablets of the ANE boundary stones and vassal treaties, which threaten a fixed consequence (e.g.famine, epidemics) for breaking a treaty, support this supposition.Wiseman notes that no form of the root dbr is used in the list for "pestilence" but the word mutanu. 20These lists of curses were modified to conditions in Israel not only in descriptions of the judgment of Yahweh but also in the story of the Egyptian plagues and then again in the description of a pestilence as punishment for David in 2 Sam 24 :13, 15.Besides this empirical meaning, the term deber appears a number of times in a personified sense as a demon or an evil deity (in Hab 3:5 -"Before him went deber, and rešep followed close behind"; Ps 91:3, 5-6 -"For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly deber … You will not fear … deber that stalks in darkness, nor qeteb that wastes at noonday"; and Hos 13:14 -"O death, where are debarecha?O šeol, where is qotobcha?").These three poetic passages gather together images applied to the Lord which recall mythical associations.However, only Hab 3 has clear mythological elements.According to the ancient Mesopotamian tradition, "plague" and "pestilence" are present in the entourage of the great god, Marduk.
Keel argues that foreign cults of deber and rešep are "demonised" in the Hebrew Bible and became integrated into Yahweh's court, as in Hab 3:5. 21Thus, following his line of argument, it would seem that since terms that are related to foreign cults refer to demons, the other occurrences of deber and rešep would have to be taken as referring to demons.Fabry's view is similar to Keel's in that he argues that demons in the Old Testament are remnants of an earlier polytheism and he sees various groups of individual demons (deber, rešep, qeteb) as well as "demonic animals" (the jackals, ostriches and owls in Isa 13:21-22; 34:13-14;  Jer 50:39 and Job 30:29) in the Old Testament. 22The other recent works (analogous to Keel's and Fabry's) proceed from the assumption that the terms deber and rešep referred to demons in the ANE or later or that they were deities who became "demonised" by the authors of the Hebrew Bible.In our opinion, it is much more objective to talk about the so-called demythologised deities or demons.Taking deber to mean disease is consistent with both the context of Ps 91:3, 6 and its other occurrences.In Ps 91:6, qeteb refers to some sort of destruction.If deber is taken here to refer to infectious disease as elsewhere, then, the idea is that such a force was unstoppable.It is only Yahweh who can warn of the dangers or who can prevent the spread of the disease.
Hebrew examples of some demythologised deities in the Bible abound.For example, jareach (moon) is the etymological equivalent of Jarik, the moongod, known from the Ugaritic texts.Although the moon may have retained faint traces of divinity in the Bible, it has been divested basically of its divine status.The same holds true of the "sun" (šemeš).to the god Šamaš in Akkadian and the goddess Šapšu in Ugaritic. 23The Hebrew Bible frequently uses also mythological motifs such as God's struggle with the chaos monster, variously marked by expressions such as tehom (the deep), rahab, yam (the sea), tannin (the monster, the dragon, etc.); or thunder as the voice of God (Ps 29:3-9); the stars as armies of the Lord; death personified (Isa  28:15; Ps 49:15); and the mountain of the gods (Isa 14:13; Ps 48:3).These mythological motifs are poetic devices that demonstrate that God has dominion over the chaotic forces and nothingness.The function of mythopoetic motifs is more important than the identity of those beings controlled by the Lord.Schökel points out that although there are mythical motifs in it, the Hebrew Bible clearly has not admitted myths in its ideological and literary configuration. 24Caird argues that mythical motif is a specialised kind of metaphor. 25similar personification of deber is suggested also in Jer 21:6, "And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast of a great deber and they will die" (cf.also Ps 78:50).Deber as a personified dangerous force which brings death and destruction, appears as one of Yahweh's agents who carries out his punishment or simply emphasises his awesome power as a member of his retinue.This is also clearly the case in Deut 28:21; Exod 9:3, 15; Ps 78:50 and 2 Sam 24:13, 15.Thus, some passages present the personified deber more clearly than others.However, the personification of deber, as in texts of the ANE, remains questionable also in the Bible.There is lack of evidence to suggest that there are mythological figures behind the personification of deber.Although the deber seems to be one of Yahweh's angels, one of the malache ra'im, there is no evidence to suggest that this was one particular angel and thus that deber would be a proper noun.26 It is rather a function.However, the mythological motifs (e.g. in Hab 3:5 and Hos 13:14) are used merely as a poetic device.It is not possible in many cases to identify the precise disease on the basis of information given in the Bible.27 The term deber was understood by many scholars as a bubonic plague of bacterial origin due to its diffusion in the Middle Ages.The usual meaning given to deber is plague/pestilence and this certainly is possible.Wars in the ancient world were often accompanied by famine and disease.Epidemics, the outbreak of infectious diseases, were amongst the greatest killers of the ancient as well as the medieval world.However, Meyers points out that there is a difference between pestilence and plague.28 Whereas one is an "endemic parasitic disease that is infections which occur in a community more or less all the time without much alteration in their effects from year to year or even century to century'," the other is an "abnormal occurrence of acute infectious disease."She suggests that deber is used to refer to the former, that is, pestilence and that maggepah is used to describe plague (e.g. in Numbers and Exodus).However, none of the passages discussed in Jeremiah specifies what kind of disease is meant by deber.The emphasis is on it being a deadly force that together with sword (i.e.war) and famine brings total destruction to the people and only occasionally is there a hope of survival.Thus, a more general translation such as suggested by Bright, "disease," seems preferable to pestilence or plague.29

Greek Version of deber
As indicated by the change from deber to mawet (death) in Jer 15:2 and the consistent Septuagint (=LXX) rendering with the Greek term θάνατοςthanatos, "death" -(except in Hab 3:5, where logos reverts to the reading dabar and in passages which omit the word), deber denotes a fatal pestilence (Jer 27:13; Ezek 33:27, etc.) that comes upon humans and domestic animals as infectious disease (Exod 5:3; 9:3, 15).Deber should be translated as the Greek term λοιμός (loimos, pestilence) in the Old Greek LXX translation but deber is exclusively rendered as thanatos (death) because pestilence was the cause of death on a wide scale.In the LXX, there are other occurrences of the term loimos that are without an equivalent Hebrew term.The literal meaning of loimos is pestilence or plague and in the LXX occurs five more times in Ezek 7:21, pests of the earth; 28:7, strange plagues; 30:11, plagues sent forth from the nations; 31:12, strange plagues; 32:12, plagues from the nations.In the deuterocanonical book of Sirach (39:29), there is a word pair, limos kai thanatos (famine and death) in the catalogue of nine evil things (vv.28-30) for sinners.However, the Hebrew text of Sirach contains a word pair, raʽab wedeber.32:24; 1 Chr 7:25; Hab 3:5; Pss 76:4; 78:48; Job 5:7; Cant 8:6bis).It appears to be a personal name of uncertain etymology.Indeed, in 1 Chr 7:25, Rešep is a proper noun, the name of one of Ephraim's descendants.The other six occurrences are taken to be references to the West Semitic deity, Rešep, and because of this deity's association with the plague in the ANE, the term in the Old Testament is regarded either as a demon or as appearing completely demythologised. 31

Etymology
The etymology of the word rešep is unclear.The term probably contains a primary noun used as a reference to the deity of which the Samaritan verb ršp, "inflame," is then a denominative. 32In other Semitic languages, rešep is the designation for a widely worshipped deity whose name possibly was pronounced rasapu and possibly derived from an original Raspu that would then mean "one who burns" hence the reference to fire, lightning, flame, burning and pestilence. 33At the same time, there is a proposal that the term is linked to the Akkadian verb rasabu(m) (to be awe-inspiring) and rasbu(m) (demanding reverence), 34 which some consider as misguided and essentially linked to the nature of the deity Rešep itself. 35

Rešep in the Ancient Near East
The worship of the god Rešep was extremely widespread throughout the Mediterranean regionfrom the Anatolia and Cyprus to Egypt. 36Rešep is attested at Syriac Tell Mardikh-Ebla in the third millennium B.C. where it seems he was a very popular deity.He was probably related to the royal necropolis as a chthonic god. 37The name of the god d ra-sa-ap even occurs frequently in 31 Blair, "De-Demonising the Old Testament," 56.Ugaritic texts. 38Like Hebrew, Ugaritic also attests the plural form ršpm that may reflect the various manifestations of the deity. 39The worship of Rešep became especially widespread in Egypt, particularly from the period of Amenophis II. 40t was Amenophis II who adopted Rešep as a deity.Mulder mentions rešep as a theophoric element in Semitic personal names from Mari and Ugarit, in Phoenician and Punic names and in names from Cyprus. 41In Ugaritic texts, Rašap often can be read in reference to Nergal or even be identified with him; 42 he serves as the gatekeeper of the sun goddess, the guardian of the netherworld.
In the Aramaic linguistic evidences, one of the first inscriptions to mention rešep is on the Hadad statue of king Panammuwa I of Sam´al from the mid-eighth century B.C. (KAI 2:214). 43Rešep occupied an extremely high position; he was after Hadad and El, the third deity in the pantheon. 44šep appears in the Egyptian texts and iconography as a god warrior with a short kilt and tassels and with the crown of Upper Egypt on his head, often bearing an emblem in the form of the head of a gazelle (cf.side picture from www.isthatinthebible.wordpress.com).Sometimes other (Asiatic) gods accompany him such as Anat, Astarte, Sulman or Horon, who appears in a triad with Min and Qudsu. 45According to a text composed in the Sumerian-Akkadian language, in Ugarit, he was identified with the Mesopotamian god of pestilence and the underworld, Nergal. 46Like Nergal, Rešep also sends sickness and death, as we read in the difficult beginning to the Keret text KTU 1.14, i 18-19: "One-fifth Rešep gathered unto himself." 47Although Rešep sends pestilence and plague, for example, through the heat of the sun, he was considered to be a helper and deliverer from the very disasters that he sent, something that emerges, for instance, in the mention of this god in Ugaritic lists of gods and sacrifices.These characteristics make him on the one hand a salvific "highest god" and on the other hand a chthonic god, i.e. of the underworld and god of disaster. 48Thus rešep appears in two forms, as both a benevolent and generous deity (in later Egyptian magical texts, Rešep is a god of healing) and as a dangerous one.In contrast, Blair insists that there is no evidence in the ANE that Rešep was regarded as a demon or an 'evil' deity. 49His association with plague and disease was only one of his traits; he was worshipped mainly as a god of war and protector of kings.

Meaning of rešep in the Bible
The Hebrew term rešep is a segolate form, a fact which confirms the original triliteral structure of the name.The tradition of rešep as a god of pestilence is attested in Deut 32:24 and Ps 78:48.In the first text, the Song of Moses, rešep also appears alongside other destructive forces, such as famine and qeteb meriri (Deut 32:24).Those who provoked God to anger and were unfaithful.They are punished with hunger and destroyed by rešep and qeteb: "I will heap disasters upon them, spend my arrows against them: wasting hunger, burning rešep, bitter qeteb" (Deut 32:23-24a).There is no doubt that we have to deal here with the echo of two ancient Canaanite gods-rešep and qeteb (perhaps conceived as flying demons), personifications of the scourges that they spread.Rešep is usually translated in English versions as "consumption/heat" and qeteb as "pestilence/plague."Rešep metamorphoses from the god who shoots arrows into an arrow in the hands of the Lord, who then uses this arrow to punish human beings.The specific phrase leḥume rešep can be understood as "consumed by fiery sparks" or "by the deity rešep."The root lḥm in the sense of "eat" occurs in Prov 4:17.It is implausible however that this is a reference to the god Resheph, even though qeteb, which follows immediately, is also the name of a deity because nowhere in the Bible is rešep ever considered to be a divine being.Rashi (1040-1105) explains both rešep and qeteb in this verse as the names of demons, not deities.A similar 48 Stadelmann, Syrisch-palästinensische Gottheiten, 55. 49 Blair, "De-Demonising the Old Testament," 58. 50Mulder, ‫ף"‬ ‫שֶּ‬ ‫רֶּ‬ rešep," 14.
approach was taken by Caquot, who maintained that qeteb and rešep should be rendered as proper names and taken to be a reference to demons. 51 the second text Ps 78:48, we have an allusion to the seventh plague of Egypt (Exod 9:25): God has given up the cattle to barad ("hail") and the herds to the rešeps (plur.).Many interpreters citing the Greek translation of Symmachus view the word barad in this context as a scribal error from verse 47 for deber.In this case, there would be a word pair of deber and rešep as in Hab 3:5.In contrast, Xella notes that the poet deals with decayed deities, Barad // Rešep(s), depicted as malevolent spirits which accompany God in his destructive action. 52bakkuk 3 offers in his eschatological poetry a fascinating example of divine council, describing a scene in which Yahweh comes up from the south to engage in conflict with the waters of chaos thus recalling the Canaanite myth of Baal's struggle with the sea.What is interesting here is Yahweh's military retinue in verse 5, deber and rešep.Deber went before him, and rešep followed close behind.This verse has two stichoi, with three words in each.Though these names are typically translated as "pestilence" and "plague" in English, they are actually the names of two West Semitic deities. 53Day recalls the Ugaritic text that mentions Baal's victory over the dragon and in which Rešep plays the role of an assistant to the deity. 54The word rešep evokes not only the demonic character of such plagues but also the personified form of epidemics (Heb.jaṣa leraglawfollowed at his feet).
Psalm 76:4 (There he broke the flashing arrows /rišpe-qašet/, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war) mentions the rišpe-qašet, which could be interpreted as rešeps (plur.) of the bow that Yahweh breaks in his dwelling place on Zion, followed by the "shield, the sword, and the weapons of war."The Hebrew term, rišpe-qašet, could be related to the imagery of the god armed with a bow (Heb.qešet) and arrows especially in Egypt and in Cyprus as late as the fourth century.It cannot be ruled out that the Israelites understood Rešep as a deity associated with the atmosphere or lightning, similar to Baal or Hadad.Dahood points out that the "arrow that flies by day" (chec jaʽup jomam) in Ps 91:5, alongside deber and qeteb in verse 6, may refer to rešep, possibly recalling one of the epithets of the god Rešep and emphasising the "fiery" aspect of the word in Hebrew. 55In Cant 8:6b we have another echo of the "fiery" character of 51 André Caquot, "Sur quelques démons de l'Ancien Testament," Semitica 6 (1956): 55. 52  Rešep, whose flashing arrows ignite an irresistible fire.No one can resist the power of love.The ardour of passion is like rešep's "fieriness"; its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame (Heb.text rešapeha rišpe ʼeš šalhebetjah).Rešep's (twice in plur.)fire parallels a raging or Yahweh's own flame in that love is like a divine or demonic fate one cannot escape.Rešep functions as a mythological metonymy. 56We might therefore consider the mythological backdrop of the verse, which invokes the deities Šeol (cf.Cant 8:6a) and Rešep.The former is a mythical figure who swallows up the dead and is never satisfied (Isa 5:14), whereas Rešep is the god of plague and pestilence.
Job 5:7 is a very difficult text, inserted in Eliphaz's first speech ("but human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward").It stresses the need for humans to have absolute trust in God.Here, "sparks" refer to "the sons of fire/of Rešep" (Heb.bene rešep).They seem to be winged demons, particularly if we think of Ps 91:5, where the expression "the arrow that flies" (mentioned already above) could be an allusion to god Rešep. 57Even though the meaning "fire, lightning" is preferable in most translations, the meaning "winged demons that fly in the heavens" also fits.In these OT passages, the word rešep still resonates with characteristics of the deity who causes plagues, conducts relentless wars with his fiery arrows and was perhaps understood as being a winged figure.Scholars have linked the development of rešep with the more "secular" meaning, "bird (of prey)" and in Hebrew Sir 43:17c (the mention in v. 14 was already disputed because of the Greek and Latin translations), where one can translate rešep as "bird."The Septuagint has neossoi de gypos ("the vulture's young") and the Peshitta has the generic, "sons of birds."This may be an echo of an ancient tradition, reflected in a bilingual Hittite-Phoenician inscription from Karatepe that mentions "Rešep of the birds." 58In Ben Sirach, resheph has the sense of bird of prey and the Old Greek LXX translation (presumably) translates rešep with the word peteina.
In sum, with Blair, we remind ourselves of a crucial theological feature of the above-mentioned biblical passages-that in none of the poetic passages does rešep(s) appear alone; it is always accompanied by other destructive forces, which are agents or enemies of Yahweh but always inferior to him. 59Even though there is a possible connection with the Semitic deity Rešep, the mythological motifs in the Old Testament are used merely as a poetic device.Similar to deber also rešep is best regarded as one of Yahweh's angels of evil (Deut 32:24; Ps 78:48) or Holy Ones (Job 5:7; Hab 3:5).There is no evidence to 56 Mulder, ‫ף"‬ ‫שֶּ‬ ‫רֶּ‬ rešep," 15. 57 61 The Peshitta more or less follows the translation of the LXX but then in Cant 8:6, it thinks of the "rays" of a fire.In Hab 3:5, it translates rešep as "birds of prey" and in Deut 32:24, it offers the translation, "I will deliver them to the evil spirits."

Etymology
The connection of the term with Syr.qurteba ("sting, thorn") is possible though Blau considers it questionable. 63The link is more probable with Arabic qutb (kind of plant) with yellow flowered creeping thorn or qutub (sting, thorn). 64ewish Aramaic renders the term qitbaʼ as the name of a demondisaster. 65auer and Leander derive qeteb from ‫ב‬ ‫טֶּ‬ ‫קֹ‬ (qoteb) in Hos 13:14. 66The basic meaning of qeteb is "pruning" from which are derived other meanings. 67

Qeteb in the Ancient Near East
The term qzb occurs once in the broken Ugaritic text (KTU 1.5 ii: 24) and may be a kinsman of Mot. 68This parallel of both terms is similar to Hos 13:14 (qeteb // mawet).Del Olmo Lete links this word with Canaanite word qṣb (cut). 69In the treaty between Esarhaddon and Baal of Tyre, Dussaud detects a deity Qatiba without a specific reference. 70

Meaning of qeteb in the Bible
Of the four occurrences in Deut 32:24, qeteb appears in parallel with rešep in Ps 91:6 and in Hos 13:14 in parallel with deber (in company with šeol and mawet); only in Isa 28:2 does it appear on its own.All of these texts are poetic.
The most useful information about qeteb comes from Deut 32:24, where the following tricolon occurs in Yahweh's curse of apostate Jacob/Israel: "wasting hunger, burning consumption (lehume rešep), bitter pestilence (weqeteb meriri)."We have already analysed the term rešep, where pestilence is personified as Rešep, the plague-god, who in Ugaritic poetry is represented as an archer (KTU 1.82:3).However, other words here are also ambiguous, giving rise to rich nuances.Wyatt notes that "wasting hunger" is probably an epithet of Mot (Hebrew mawet), god of death. 71Moreover, qeteb appears to be a divine name like the other two, while the Hebrew word meriri, "bitter," may also have the sense of "strong" or "eclipse." 72Gordis points out the clearly mythological sense of this passage, which mentions a triad of demonic figures (mot, rešep, qeteb), all associated with death and its motifs of "destruction." 73alm 91:5-6 lists enemies from whom Yahweh will rescue the faithful.They appear, following verse 3, with its reference to the pestilence (deber) as an element of death. 74The tetracolon of verses 5-6 is complex and needs to be analysed as a whole: "You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence (deber) that stalks in darkness, or the destruction (qeteb) that wastes at noonday."Qeteb occurs in verse 6 in parallel to deber.In some sense therefore, it complements it.However, deber and qeteb are not mere names for illnesses; they according to some scholars are actually a sort of demonic representative of plague and can be considered to be demon-induced illnesses in Ps 91. 75The complementation of word pair deber and qeteb precedes the parallel of the diurnal arrow and the terror by night in verse 5.The immediate causes of the illness are in visual poetry depicted as physical objects-arrows that smite people and transfer illness into the body.This may correspond to the prayers offered at the solstices to the Mesopotamian deity Nergal, who was represented by arrows and was a god of the burning heat of the sun, the netherworld and pestilence. 76The arrow provides the clue, being also a metaphor for the fevers sent by Rešef the plague-god.Since deber seems here to be his double, the two agents operating by day and by night, respectively, we can arrive at the following equation: the terror is deber, while the arrow (of rešep) is qeteb, the personification of the "destruction" wreaked by the divine. 77This seems to corroborate the conclusions in Deut 32:24 above.However, there may also be a chiasmus over the whole tetracolon, giving rise to the equations: terror > qeteb (a and d) and arrow > deber (b and c).These powers seem to be of extremely variable form and character.However, caution is required here in interpreting the terms in relation to demons.Furthermore, in Hos 13:14, "Shall I ransom them from the power of šeol?Shall I redeem them from death?O death, where are debarecha?O šeol, where is qotobcha?," the two bicola of the verse, šeol and death, are found twice in parallel, indicating that šeol is metonymy here and another name for the god of death.This meaning affirms Paul's rhetoric in 1 Cor 15:55 with the double term, thanatos.In the second bicolon, the word pair, deber and qoteb, are in pluraldebarecha "plagues" and qotobcha "destructions".Both are parallel terms and are clearly the agents of death. 78The LXX translates both terms in a demythologised way and in singular, diké (punishment/penalty) and kentron (sting).
The text of Isa 28:2 with qeteb disparages Ephraim, alluding to the agent of Yahweh's destructive visitation which is imminent: "See, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail (barad), a destroying tempest (ṣaʽar qateb)…" Vorländer pictures a whirlwind which comes from qeteb. 79The word pair barad and qeteb used here suggest a mythological interpretation and of some climate features.Qeteb appears to operate here through the tempest and disaster.According to Wyatt, there is deliberate ambiguity where ṣaʽar (tempest) suggests the arch-demonic form of a satyr (Heb.ṣaʽir). 80The tempest metaphor, following that of barad -(hail), probably combines the two figures of overwhelming floodwaters, and the dart-like effects of hail and heavy rain, evoking the arrows of the plague god.Both are metaphors for death and its powers.
All four passages are allusive rather than informative but suggest that qeteb is more than a literary figure, living as a spiritual and highly dangerous reality in the minds of poets.We can conclude that in all four passages, qeteb is used in an almost personified sense.
However, there is nothing to support a demonological interpretation in any of the passages. 81Furthermore, as in the case of deber, there is no evidence to suggest that qeteb was the name of one particular angel of Yahweh that is an agent of 'scourge' or 'bringer of destruction.'There is no literary evidence in the passages in question that a mythological figure would lie behind the qeteb of the texts in the Hebrew Bible.Nonetheless, demonic or divine names of diseases (e.g.qeteb, deber, rešef) do not necessarily determine the demonic identity of the diseases themselves in the Hebrew Bible. 78Bauer and Leander, Historische Grammatik, 582. 79Hermann Vorländer, Mein Gott: Die Vorstellungen vom persönlichen Gott im Alten Orient und im Alten Testament (AOAT 23; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag,  1975), 263. 80Wyatt, "Qeteb," 674. 81Blair, "De-Demonising the Old Testament," 206.

E COGNATE TERMS AND SYNONYMS OF EPIDEMICS 1
Negep, maggepah -Plague, Torment The most important synonyms of pestilence in Bible are negep ‫ף(‬ ‫גֶּ‬ ‫)נֶּ‬ and maggepah ‫ה(‬ ‫פָ‬ ‫גֵּ‬ ‫,)מַ‬ meaning "plague, torment."Both substantives derive from the verb ‫ף‬ ‫גַ‬ ‫נָ‬ (nagap, i.e. "strike, smite").The root ngp is also found in other Semitic languages including Samaritan, Jewish Aramaic, Middle Hebrew as well as Ethiopic, Arabic and Akkadian.To date, the root has not been identified in Canaanite, Punic or Ugaritic. 82The verb nagap occurs 49 times in the Hebrew Bible with the meanings "to strike, smite, plague."Yahweh is usually the subject of the verb.Smiting is principally part of a punitive act.If it affects Israel's enemies, then, salvation for Yahweh's people is implicit (e.g.The derivative negep occurs seven times.Once (Isa 8:14), it means "stumbling (block), offense."Elsewhere it means "plague" or "(divine) punishment."It translates as pestilence in 17 :11, 12 and in Josh 22:17.The more used derivative is maggepah, meaning "plague, slaughter, pestilence, torment."It occurs 26 times and indicates a pestilence against the Israelites in Num 14:37; 17 :13-15; 25:8, 9, 18, 19; 31:16 and a pestilence against Philistines in 1 Sam 6:4.In other cases, it means slaughter or plague (e.g. 2 Sam 17:9; 24:21, 25; Ezek  24:16; Zech 14:12, 15 [twice], 18; Ps 106:29, 30; 1 Chr 21:17, 22; 2 Chr 21:14).These nouns often appear in the same context as the verb and can therefore be discussed with the verb, which often has an indefinite meaning.According to the cult aetiology in 2 Sam 24: 21, 25 (cf. 1 Chr 21:17, 22), by building an altar, David averted a plague (maggepah) in term of pestilence sent as punishment for his census.Considering this an act of atonement, Preuss recognises here a precursor of the thought later found in Priestly tradition (P) in the Pentateuch. 83xodus 30:12 speaks of a similar act of atonement to avert a plague (negep) that is associated with a census.Similarly but with a more explicit theological concern, Num 8:19 (P) speaks of averting such a plague (negep) through an act of atonement when approaching the sanctuary (cf.Exod 30:12 [P]; Josh 22 :17).Numbers 17 (vv.11-12 negep; vv.13-15 maggepah) likewise establish a connection with atonement.Yahweh's "smiting" with a plague and the possibility of averting it become elements of priestly theological reflection. 84 the Ark narrative (1 Sam 4-6), the Ark of Yahweh had brought maggepah (infectious plague) on the Philistines (1 Sam 6:4).The text relates to the events of the 11th century B.C. We are dealing here with the first identifiable epidemic due to its symptoms.The infection was related to tumours caused by mice (or rats) in cities of Philistine Pentapolis.The original Hebrew text uses two words to describe the plague's pathology, namely the plural 'opalím ("boils), which is replaced every time in 1 Sam 5 :6, 9, 12; 6:4, 5 (cf.Deut 28:27) by techorim (tumors) in 1 Sam 6:11-17.The current English Bibles translate the terms as "umours."The Septuagint translation and Vulgate expand the original Hebrew to show that the tumours were in the "groin" (bubo is derived from the Greek word for groin).A fairly detailed description of the symptoms lead some scholars to diagnose this infection as bubonic plague, 85 dysentery 86 or tularemia. 87

2
Bekor mawet -Firstborn of Death The Hebrew phrase bekor mawet ‫ת(‬ ‫וֶּ‬ ‫מָ‬ ‫כֹור‬ ‫)בְּ‬ means "firstborn of death."In Job 18:13, we find a likely metaphor for pestilence: "By disease their skin is consumed, the firstborn of death consumes their limbs."We already noted that the cult of the Canaanite god Rešep is well attested throughout and far beyond Syria-Palestine (Egypt, Ugarit, Phoenicia, Cyprus and Mesopotamia) usually in syncretism with other deities. 88Here, it is relevant to note that Rešep in Northwest Semitic mythology was a god of pestilence and, contrary to Mot, was thought to have children (cf.bene rešep in Job 5:7).A pantheon list from Ugarit identifies Rešep with Nergal, the Mesopotamian deity of pestilence and the underworld.It is associated with "arrows" at Ugarit (KTU 1.82:3) and in Cyprus (KAI 32:3-4), which to some refer to his role of bringing plagues. 89Rešep's connection with plagues and pestilence is also found in Hab 3:5 (cf.Deut 32:24) where he forms part of Yahweh's chthonian entourage along with deber (pestilence).For the present discussion, most noteworthy about the meaning of the firstborn of death is the reference to bene-rešep (sons of rešep) in Job 5:7.Historians of Israelite religion use Job 5:7 and bekor mawet material to form one of two conclusions: (a) the children of Rešep (= minor deities) who, like their father, bring disease or (b) a transformed biblical idiom for various forms of illness. 90However, these are not mutually exclusive positions.A vivid mythology can still underlie figurative language.Pope admits that because Mot had no children, any death dealing force like disease or pestilence could be regarded as his offspring. 91Other scholars suggest that Rešep would be a more likely candidate for a Canaanite god of pestilence who has children. 92The other view looks to the mythological cognate material, particularly the Ugaritic sources.Bekor mawet is here viewed as an attributive genitive in which the two words stand in apposition to each other. 93Thus, they translate "firstborn Death" as a title of Mot who, they postulate, was the firstborn of god El.Wyatt remarks that by seeing Mot behind the term ben mawet, we can identify a plausible offspring of a death deity.Furthermore, he argues, death-like plagues are often personified by Rešep who is described as a child of Mot in the sense of pestilence. 94

Baradhail
First, it must be said that the term barad ‫ד(‬ ָ ‫ר‬ ‫)בָ‬ is not a synonym of plague. 95We could see it as a very marginal term in the semantic field of epidemics.Only in two biblical passages, Ps 78:47-48 and Isa 28:2, is barad used as if it were a demonic name close to the term deber and qeteb for pestilence.According to HALOT, barad has a possible etymological connection with the terms [b]rd in old Aramaic; bardaʼ in Jewish Aramaic and Syriac and barad/baradun in Arabic denoting "hail."Xella interprets barad as the name of an ancient deity of the Canaanite pantheon. 96In some texts from Tell Mardikh-Ebla of the third 90 Lewis, "First Born of Death," 333.However, this phrase in the superlative could mean fatal disease, possibly the worst and deadliest form of disease (cf.Isa 14:30the firstborn of the poor = the poorest of the poor). 91  12, 15; Isa 28:17; 30:30; Hag 2:17; Ps 18:13-14; 105:31; 148:8; Job 38:22; Josh 10:11). 96Xella, "Barad," 160.millennium B.C., Baradu (or Madu) occurs as a divine name. 97Etymologically, both the biblical barad and Eblaitic Baradu (or madu) are related to the Semitic root brd and translated as "(big) chill."It is very likely that baradu was a personification of the hail, a minor deity of the local pantheon or a specific manifestation of the storm-god Adda/Hadad.Xella notes that the same god occurs perhaps as a theophoric element in the Ugaritic personal name bbrd, "Haddu is Hail." 98In Ps 78:47-48, barad occurs twice in a poetic passage which mentions the seventh plague of Egypt.Barad occurs in verse 47 and in parallel with rešep (plur.) in verse 48: He (=Yahweh) gave up their cattle to barad, and their herds to the rešeps.Caquot argues that barad should be changed here to deber thus restoring the word pair deber and rešep as in Hab 3:5. 99He regards both terms as "demons" but further suggests that barad in verse 47 is probably a "demon" too.In Isa 28:2, barad is parallel with a power in the service of Yahweh, qeteb (destruction) and presents a very interesting antithesis between the chill and the stifling heat caused by the hot wind: "Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, like a tempest of barad, like a storm of qeteb."In the Hebrew text of Sir 32:10, barad is used also in the phrase, "the lightning that flashes before a hailstorm (barad)" instead of the Greek bronté (thunder  7:21; 28:7; 30:11; 31:12; 32:12).
In the case of thanatos, the translation of the Hebrew deber (pestilence) into Greek as thanatos, as already been noted.This phenomenon clearly suggests the polysemous meaning of thanatos, as death was an immediate consequence of pestilence in ancient times.The same occurrence of thanatos is noted in the book of Revelation.The risen Christ says to the seer that he has "the keys of Death and of Hades" (Rev 1:18).The key moment is Rev 6:8, where the seer sees in a vision a pale green horse and notes that "its rider's name was Thanatos, and Hades followed with him."In Rev 20:13-4, he sees that "Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them" and they "were thrown into the lake of fire."The mythological imagery of Revelation allows the author to develop the personification of death especially in Rev 6:8.Here is thanatos, on account of chromatic symbolism, untaken as pestilence.Following Peerbolte, we affirm that although infectious diseases and other sicknesses do not play a major role in the book of Revelation, the interpretation of the four horsemen (Rev 6) and the bowls of wrath (Rev 15; 16), especially when combined with Jesus' prediction in Luke 21:11, has given rise to a tradition in which epidemics and pandemics have been and are still being interpreted as part of the ongoing eschatological human condition. 102Epidemics are presented as inflicted on humanity, ultimately by an angry God, whose wrath will lead to a final judgment.

F CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
Snowden presents two popular models for categorising diseases (e.g.pestilence, plague) and their origins.The first is to see a disease as sent by a deity and therefore of divine origin, as we see in many biblical traditions. 103The second way of accounting for the origin of a disease is to regard the ailment in question as demonic in origin. 104The examples of this starting point are numerous in ANE.In some biblical books (Exodus, Numbers, Revelation), it seems a third theological approach to human suffering is offered.Here, suffering and afflictions are caused either by God himself or by his agents as if spontaneously in the scenario described in the books.
We have discussed the semantic field of pestilence including the occurrences in the Bible and etymology, as well as its occurrences and cult of deity in the various ancient civilisations around Israel and Judah.The discussion of the extrabiblical references also focused on the function of the deities or demons associated with pestilence and epidemics.A survey of the biblical evidence and the general indications of the contexts in which the terms occur were presented The article also examined the functions of the terms used for pestilence in the Bible in relation to the judicial context and as well as their translations in ancient versions.In the Bible, deber, rešep and qeteb and cognate terms are the so-called demythologised deities and their synonyms demonstrate their rather immanent and subordinate association with death. 105Through them, Yahweh's power is manifested and at the same time a clear call to repentance in the sense of returning to God is made.The phraseology of many biblical verses containing deber, rešep and qeteb however is so closely connected to the divine decision that this hardly mitigates his involvement.The use of the similar terms in ANE texts does not in any way rule out the possibility that their meaning has changed drastically.In all instances, mythological terms are translated and contextualised in new theological and cultural settings.In most cases, those concepts were translated as 'plague' in the sense of a destructive force; this fits all the contexts.Their function is to bring destruction which comes as a punishment from Yahweh.There is nothing to support a demonological interpretation of deber, rešep and qeteb in Bible.Even in the untranslated cases of the terms, there is nothing to support a demonological interpretation.Any opposing arguments should have literary support in the text.
26:16ff); pestilence, disease, damage to crops, lack of rain, enemies (Deut The Hebrew word šemeš corresponds Apart from 1 Chr 7:25 where Rešep is a personal name of one of Ephraim's sons often substituted with the alternative reading wešutelach (instead of names werešep wetelach), the other seven occurrences of rešep are in poetical texts (Deut 32:24; Hab 3:5; Pss 78:48 [plur.];76:4[plur.];Job5:7;Cant 8:6 [bis plur.].In addition, rešep is also in the original Hebrew text of Sir 43:17c.The plurals of rešep in four cases (out of a total of eight occurrences) remind us of the rspm attested both in Ugaritic and in Phoenician texts.It is difficult to translate the term appropriately in every instance.Mulder considers the idea that rešep evokes in the Bible the old Semitic god, a form that over the course of Hebrew linguistic history passes through certain stages even though the original, personal character of the god can still play a role in these nuanced meanings.50 Xella, "Resheph," 703.  5rk S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 149. 54John Day, "New Light on the Mythological Background of the Allusion to Resheph in Habakkuk III 5," Vetus Testamentum 29 (1979): 353-354.

). 100 4 Greek Terms loimos and thanatos
Loimos occurs 25 times in the Old Greek text of the LXX and in New Testament.In New Testament, it is used only by Luke in Luke 21:11 (cf.also later manuscripts of Matt 24:7) and in Acts 24:5.Luke in the Jesus eschatological discourse in chap.21 had added loimoi (plagues), probably under the influence of Greek literary pair, loimoi kai limoi (plagues and famines), as in Hesiod, Op. 243; Thucydides Hist.II.54; apocryphal Testament of Judah 23:3 and Sibylline Oracles 8.175.101Eventhough political and cosmic cataclysms are mentioned, these two natural catastrophes, plagues and famines, need not to be understood as referring to anything else than the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple.They are permanent portents of ongoing human history.In Acts 24:5 and in most of the public menace is Paul, Apostle of Christ.Five additional occurrences of loimos as "pestilence" are found in the expanded Greek texts of the LXX (Ezek In the Greek Bible, these two terms λοιμός (loimos; pestilence) and θάνατος (thanatos; death) are used to indicate plague or pestilence.99Caquot,"Surquelquesdémons,"62.Some translations therefore include this correction of barad to deber in verse 48 (e.g.: He exposed their cattle to plague /NAB/; Ihr Vieh überließ er der Pest /EIN/).100Cf.Beentjes, The Book of Ben Sira in Hebrew.101Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV (AB 28a; Garden City: Doubleday, 1985), 1337.the