<strong>BOIL</strong>. <em>See</em> <em>DISEASE, DISEASES</em>.<br /><br />

<h2>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)</h2>

(noun) (shechin; helkos): A localized inflamed swelling. The Hebrew word is derived from a root probably meaning "to burn," and is used as a generic term for the sores in the sixth plague of Egypt (<bibleref ref="Exod.9.9-Exod.9.11">Ex 9:9-11</bibleref>); for a sore which might be confounded with leprosy (<bibleref ref="Lev.13.18-Lev.13.23">Le 13:18-23</bibleref>); for Job’s malady (<bibleref ref="Job.2.7">Job 2:7</bibleref>) and Hezekiah’s disease (<bibleref ref="2Kgs.20.1">2Ki 20:1</bibleref>; <bibleref ref="Isa.38.21">Isa 38:21</bibleref>). Our English word is derived from the verb "to beal," i.e. to suppurate, now obsolete except as a dialect word in Scotland and Ireland. Wyclif uses the name f or Lazarus’ sores (<bibleref ref="Luke.16.20">Lu 16:20</bibleref>), "houndis lickeden his bylis." <span class="auto-link">[[The Egyptian]]</span> word schn is the name of an abscess, and occurs in the reduplicated form chnchnt in Papyr. Ebers, CV. The plague of boils in Egypt came without warning immediately after the insect plagues of kinnim (sandflies) and that of `arobh or flies, and followed the epizootic murrain, which is suggestive in the light of the transmission of toxic germs by insects. It has been supposed by some to be elephantiasis, as Pliny says that this di sease was peculiar to Egypt (xxvi.5). A stronger case has been made out for its identity with confluent smallpox; but as it is not described as being a fatal disease, it may more probably have been an aggravated form of the ordinary gregarious furuncles or boils, due to the microbe streptococcus pyogenes.<br /><br />

Job’s body is said to have been covered with itchy, irritating sores which made his face unrecognizable, <bibleref ref="Job.2.12">Job 2:12</bibleref>, caused continual burning pain (<bibleref ref="Job.3.24">Job 3:24</bibleref>; <bibleref ref="Job.6.4">6:4</bibleref>), and which were infested with maggots (<bibleref ref="Job.7.5">Job 7:5</bibleref>) and exhaled a nauseous fetor (<bibleref ref="Job.19.17">Job 19:17</bibleref>). His sleep was destroyed and his nervous system enfeebled (<bibleref ref="Job.3.26">Job 3:26</bibleref>) so that he required assistance to move, as he sat in the ashes (<bibleref ref="Job.2.8">Job 2:8</bibleref>). Various diagnoses have been made of his malady, but it is most probable that it was a form of the disease known as "oriental sore," or "Bagdad boil," called in Algeria "Biskra batton," in which the intensely itchy sores are often multiple, affecting the face, hands, and other exposed parts. The cases which I have seen have been very intractable and disfiguring.<br /><br />

Hezekiah’s boil was apparently more localized, and the indefinite description would accord with that of a carbuncle. It seems to have rendered him unclean (<bibleref ref="Isa.38.22">Isa 38:22</bibleref>), though the reference may be to the practice referred to in <bibleref ref="Lev.13.18">Le 13:18</bibleref> f. The "botch" of Egypt (<bibleref ref="Deut.28.27">De 28:27</bibleref>,<bibleref ref="Deut.28.35">35</bibleref> the <span class="auto-link">[[King James Version]]</span>) is translation of the same word, as is "boil" in the <span class="auto-link">[[Revised Version]]</span> (British and American). Botch is an old English name for boil and occurs in Piers Plowman, and the adjective "botchy" is used in Troilus and Cressida (II, 1, 6). The word is cognate to the old French boche or poche, a form of our later word "pock." The sores of Lazarus (<bibleref ref="Luke.16.20">Lu 16:20</bibleref>) were probably old varicose ulcers, such as are as common on the legs of the old and poor in the East as they are in the West.<br /><br />

Alex. Macalister<br /><br />
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"Boiling-places," occurs in <bibleref ref="Ezek.46.23">Eze 46:23</bibleref> as the translation of mebhashsheloth, "hearths," "boiling-places." The American Standard Revised Version has "boiling-houses" for "places of them that boil" (<bibleref ref="Ezek.46.24">Eze 46:24</bibleref>), "boil well" for "consume" (<bibleref ref="Ezek.24.10">Eze 24:10</bibleref>). the American Standard Revised Version has "boiling over" for "unstable" (<bibleref ref="Gen.49.4">Ge 49:4</bibleref>; the English Revised Version, margin "bubbling over").<br /><br />

<li>[[Diseases]]</li>