Tumor

TUMOR (עֹ֫פֶל, H6754, KJV EMEROD). A tumor is an abnormal enlargement of some part of the body; or it may be a neoplasm, i.e. a growth of abnormal tissue distinct from the healthy tissue underneath. Such a neoplasm may be as benign as a pimple, or malignant as carcinoma.

In the story of the return of the Ark (1 Sam 5) the golden tumors were prob. emblematic of the buboes characteristic of plague. These buboes were enlarged and defeated lymph glands.

When infective organisms, or their products, reach the lymph glands, the latter make a valiant effort to keep them from entering the systemic circulation. They may swell to a hundred times their normal size endeavoring to lock up the undesirable elements and then destroy them. But sometimes the flow of infective material is so great, as in plague, that even many lymph glands in succession are overwhelmed, and the body succumbs to the disease. See PLAGUES.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

tu’-mer, tu’-mor (`ophel): the Revised Version (British and American) substitutes this word for "emerods" in 1Sa 5:12; 6:4; De 28:27 margin.

See Emerods.