Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
[Plague, The, THE]
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
PES'TILENCE expresses all sorts of distempers and calamities. Jer 21:6. The Hebrew word, which properly signifies the "plague," is applied to all epidemical and contagious diseases. Pestilences are still very common in Asia and Africa. It is supposed to have been by a species of pestilence that the first-born of Egypt were cut off. Ps 78:60, Jer 25:51. A pestilent fellow is one who is mischievous and disposed to corrupt and ruin a multitude. Acts
24:5. See Plague.