Bible Dictionary
SORE
A sore is a painful or diseased wound or ulcer. In Scripture, the term may describe bodily affliction, including leprous plagues, festering wounds, Lazarus’s ulcers, and the grievous sores associated with divine judgment.
Definition
A sore is a painful wound, ulcer, diseased spot, or bodily affliction. The term may describe a skin plague, a festering wound, or an ulcer resulting from poverty and hardship. It can also refer to grievous afflictions associated with divine judgment.
Biblical Usage
The word describes Lazarus’s ulcers and the noisome, grievous sores produced by the first bowl of divine wrath. In older translations it may render a term meaning a stroke, blow, disease, or infliction from God; later translations sometimes use “plague” or “festering sores.”
Historical Background
Several Hebrew and Greek terms lie behind the English word. In one Old Testament passage, “sore” represents the outstretched hand and is revised as “my hand was stretched out,” showing that the English usage is not uniform.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>sor (substantive) (negha`; helkos, verb helkoomai): In the account of the appearance of leprosy (Le 13:42 f) the spot on the skin is called by this name, which in the King James Version is translated "sore," but in the Revised Version (British and American) "plague"; similarly in the Dedication Prayer (2Ch 6:28 f) the Revised Version (British and American) has altered the rendering of negha` for "sore" to "plague" as it has done also in Ps 38:11. The word literally means a "stroke" or "blow," and so is applied to a disease or infliction from God. makkah Teriyah, in the King James Version is rendered "putrifying sores," the English Revised Version "festering sores," the American Standard Revised Version and the English Revised Version margin "fresh stripes." See STRIPES. In the only other text in the Old Testament in which "sore" is used as a substantive in the King James Version (Ps 77:2), the word used is yadh, which literally means the "outstretched hand," hence, the Revised Version (British and American) renders the text: "My hand was stretched out in the night and slacked not." In the New Testament the ulcers on the limbs of Lazarus which were the result of poverty and hardship (Lu 16:20), and were licked by the pariah dogs (Lu 16:21), are called "sores." Sores also which are called noisome and grievous, were the result of the outpouring of the first of the seven bowls of the wrath of God (Re 16:2-11).</p><p>Alex. Macalister</p>