Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
EM'ERODS. 1 Sam 5:6, 1 Sam 5:9. The name of a painful disease sent upon the Philistines: probably it resembled the modern disease of the piles. It was customary with the heathens to offer to their gods figures of wax or metal representing the parts which had been cured of disease, whence it is inferred, in connection with 1 Sam 6:5, that the priests and diviners of the Philistines recommended a similar course.
✦ Scripture References 3 references