Bible Dictionary
Murrain
Murrain was a severe and widespread disease that killed the Egyptians’ livestock during the fifth plague. The plague was a judgment from God and did not affect Israel’s cattle in the same way.
Definition
Murrain was a fatal and widespread disease affecting livestock. In the account of the Egyptian plagues it caused the sudden death of cattle and other animals, including camels, horses, and asses.
Biblical Usage
Murrain was the fifth plague upon Egypt. It was an act of divine judgment and affected the Egyptians’ animals in the field, while the supplied account distinguishes Israel’s cattle from the disaster.
Historical Background
The disease may have been an epizootic, possibly spread by insects after the plague of flies. The term was also used historically for epidemic sickness among animals and, in earlier usage, among people.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Heb. deber, “destruction,” a “great mortality”, the fifth plague that fell upon the Egyptians (Ex. 9:3). It was some distemper that resulted in the sudden and widespread death of the cattle. It was confined to the cattle of the Egyptians that were in the field (9:6).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>mur'-in, mur'-en, mur'-an] (debher): This name is given to a fatal cattle-disease, which was the fifth of the plagues of Egypt (Ex 9:3), and which affected not only the flocks and herds, but also the camels, horses and asses. The record of its onset immediately after the plague of flies makes it probable that it was an epizootic, whose germs were carried by these insects as those of rinderpest or splenic fever may be. Cattle plagues have in recent years been very destructive in Egypt; many writers have given descriptions of the great devastation wrought by the outbreak in 1842. In this case Wittmann noted that contact with the putrid carcasses caused severe boils, a condition also recorded in Exodus as following the murrain. The very extensive spread of rinderpest within the last few years in many districts of Egypt has not yet been completely stamped out, even in spite of the use of antitoxic serum and the most rigid isolation. The word "murrain" is probably a variant of the Old French morine. It is used as an imprecation by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers, and is still applied by herdsmen to several forms of epidemic cattle sickness. Among early writers it was used as well for fatal plagues affecting men; thus, Lydgate (1494) speaks of the people "slain by that moreyne."nt that at least two witnesses must concur in any capital question (Nu 35:19-30; De 17:6-12; 19:12,17). Under the monarchy the duty of executing justice on a murderer seems to have been assumed to some extent by the sovereign, who also had power to grant pardon (2Sa 13:39; 14:7,11; 1Ki 2:34).</p><p>Alexander Macalister</p>