Plague of Ashdod was an outbreak of disease described in the fifth and sixth chapters of the first Book of Samuel in the Bible . It is also known as the Plague of the Philistines . Medical historians consider this description to be the oldest account of an epidemic (widespread outbreak of disease) in history.
History.
According to the Biblical account, the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant in a battle against the Israelites near a location called Ebenezer. According to the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant was a sacred chest representing God’s presence. The Philistines placed the Ark in the Temple of Dagon in Ashdod, a Philistine city on the coast of what is now Israel. The God of the Israelites struck the people of Ashdod with tumors as punishment. The Philistines moved the Ark from Ashdod to the Philistine city of Gath and then later to Ekron. In each of these cities, the Philistine men were said to have been afflicted with tumors and death.
Philistine rulers decided to return the Ark to the Israelites in order to remove the plague from their lands. They returned the Ark with aguilt (sin) offering of five golden tumors and five golden rats. Greek and Latin translations of the Hebrew Bible, found in the Septuagint and the Vulgate Bible include passages of text not found in the Hebrew account. These passages claim that the plague afflicting the Philistines consisted of tumors and rats. This may explain the curious nature of the Philistines’ guilt offerings.
Cause.
Medical scholars believe the Biblical description of the Plague of Ashdod represents the first written account of an epidemic. Rats are a common vector (carrier) for several epidemic diseases, including plague and tularemia . These diseases can produce tumors and widespread death in a population. Scholars believe the Plague of Ashdod described in Biblical accounts refers to an event that occurred around 1000 B.C. Scholars have found that the rats and fleas that can carry the bacterium that causes plague were present in nearby Egypt as early as 1300 B.C. However, physical evidence necessary to determine the cause of the Plague of the Philistines is lacking and the exact date of the epidemic is unclear.
The rats and tumors described in accounts of the Plague of Ashdod may be part of a larger Biblical narrative that includes the description of the 10 plagues that God brought on Egypt for keeping the Israelites in bondage. Scholars have observed that the God of the Israelites sent plagues to punish their enemies and to demonstrate superiority over foreign gods. Read in this way, a plague of grain-eating rats would demonstrate power over Dagon, the Philistine god associated with agriculture and grain. The Biblical accounts, which describe how a statue of Dagon was found fallen facedown before the Ark, reinforce this interpretation.
