Palestinian Flag flies over the U.N. as Hurricane brews in Atlantic. Leo Hohmann- WND

Palestinian flag flies over U.N. as Hurricane brews in Atlantic
from wnd.com 

Note from this blog´s author: 
Is it not interesting to see that the 2015 season was considered low in the hurricanes total and now this one named Joaquin (in Hebrew meaning "established by YHWH") comes right at the time the world is trying to mess with God´s established eternal covenant with Israel? 
One must be totally blind ignorant or defiant of God´s sovereignty to miss the connection.

  
This is what God says in his Word:

Job 38:22-30
"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, Which I have reserved for the time of distress, For the day of war and battle? "Where is the way that the light is divided, Or the east wind scattered on the earth? read more."Who has cleft a channel for the flood, Or a way for the thunderbolt, To bring rain on a land without people, On a desert without a man in it, To satisfy the waste and desolate land And to make the seeds of grass to sprout? "Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? "From whose womb has come the ice? And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth? "Water becomes hard like stone, And the surface of the deep is imprisoned.

This is the solution provided by God himself: a contrite heart, crying out in repentance for our sins, turning toward and accepting God´s pardon, and in faith trust that God keeps his Word that will prevail in every instance, gratitude and praise will follow.


Psalm 107: 23-32
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
²⁴ These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
²⁵ For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
²⁶ They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
²⁷ They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.
²⁸ Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
²⁹ He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
³⁰ Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
³¹ Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
³² Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

Now from the New Testament:

Jesus Stills the Sea Mark 4:35- 41

³⁵ On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ^36 [a]Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And there *arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. ³⁸ Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ^[b]it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you ^[c]afraid? Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

 The Lord Jesus can bring on a storm and calm it as part of a manifestation of his power for our benefit. 
I hope that this latest warning will cause people to repent, and turn to God who will act in mercy as he has promised in his Word. 

Look at this image and draw your own conclusion!   














Image taken from weather.com 

More reading on storms by this blogger

Poem:
http://lightnseed.blogspot.com.br/2014/03/peace-be-still.html

Essay on Paul´s shipwreck on Malta Acts 27 Part I and Part II
http://thelightseed.blogspot.com.br/search?q=A+ship+named+relations

http://thelightseed.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/ship-named-relations-study-on-human_25.html

Woman who fell to her death eaten by vultures in 45 minutes

Reblogged from Elizabeth Prata  the-end-time.blogspot.com
This week I've posted on several different topics. I posted an academic kind of essay called "What we need around here is some apocalyptic journalism." I posted a sweet essay and a simple one about creation, called "Birds make me laugh." I posted one about discernment and contemplative prayer, and a political one about the Middle East. I think what we are missing to round out the week is something of the weird!

It is reported that a woman who was hiking in France fell 980 feet off a cliff to her death. Before rescue workers could extract her body, vultures had eaten the body within 45 minutes.

"The body of a woman who died after falling off a cliff in France was devoured by vultures in just 45 minutes, before rescue workers were able to reach the body. The 52-year-old woman was hiking with two friends in the French Pyrenees on April 14 when she fell off a cliff and plunged more than 980 feet to her death, according to France's TF1. The woman's body was eaten by vultures in minutes. “There were only bones, clothes and shoes left on the ground,” Major Didier Pericou told The Times of London. "They took 45 to 50 minutes to eat the body." Adding, "When we first went out in the helicopter looking for the body, we saw numerous vultures without realizing what they were doing.""

Spooooky!

Vultures are carrion birds and the bible declared them unclean, in the Old Testament. The Lord will use vultures after the Tribulation to eat the bodies of those who fell at Armageddon.

The Lord organized the world and he made several different avian migration routes. The largest goes over Israel. Three continents funnel their birds over Israel twice a year, as they migrate north to south or south to north, depending on the season. 500 Million birds funnel over that tiny nation, as they avoid the Mediterranean and Caspian seas and fly over Israel. It presents quite a hazard to flight navigation, a problem Israel has recently made advances in solving. I wrote about the bird migration over Israel, here in this essay titled Bird Watching in Israel, and The Great Supper of God

As far as prophecy goes, there is this verse-

"And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, "Come, gather together for the great supper of God, That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great." (Rev 19:17-18).

This moment occurs after Jesus bursts back onto earth on a white horse with His saints following, and He slays all those hundreds of millions assembled at the battle of Armageddon. The angel then calls to the birds "which fly directly overhead" to come eat the dead. I'd often wondered about the hundreds of millions of dead and how or where the birds will come from to be able to match the numbers indicated in the verse of how many dead there will be to eat.But the LORD has that covered, with having set the migratory routes and the great numbers of birds already traveling over that region.

Also Ezekiel 39:17 at the end of the Gog-Magog war: "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: 'Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood."

In that previous essay, I'd shown that because of the bird migration routes going over Israel, and how the Lord has already trained them, the numbers of birds available to attend the Great Supper of God are already set. Now with this article about the woman hiker in France, you can see how, once the birds arrive, how efficient the carrion birds are in dispatching corpses.

There will be two great suppers. One will be the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. All those who believe on the name of Jesus as Savior and Lord, having repented of sins and believed in His work on the cross, and in His resurrection, will be attending. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). It is going to be great!!

"Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God. (Revelation 19:7-9).

The other supper will be the Great Supper of God.

"Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave,e both small and great.” (Revelation 19:17-18).

Only two suppers. You will either eat with the Lord in glory, or be eaten as carrion by vultures. The difference is repentance or rebellion, salvation or sin. The difference is eternal. Pray to Jesus now for salvation and be blessed of those invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!

Told you this was a weird essay! Praising the Lord for carrion birds! Yes! He already has everything organized and in His timing, all will be performed excellently- just as the bible says!

You might also be interested in this:
Where the vultures gather

Batten Down the Hatches! Donna Wasson

Posted on March 12, 2013 by shekinah419

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Reblogged from servehiminthewaiting.wordpress.com

 

Batten Down the Hatches!

By Donna Wasson

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Genesis 12:13 “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
Obadiah 1:15 “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.”

I’ve been troubled by the spiritual storm clouds gathering in response to the upcoming world events, scheduled to take place this month, March, 2013. After reading some of the excellent articles on Rapture Ready, it appears I’m not the only one feeling uneasy these days.

These are some freaky days we’re living in! You know how a cat’s tail will wag back and forth when it’s in conflict? For instance, there’s a bird on the windowsill, but kitty’s dinner was just served. The cat wants both at the same time so it seems to freeze, swishing its tail as he weighs his options.

That’s kind of how I feel right now. If I had a tail, it would be swishing because I see danger on the horizon which scares me but then again, that danger brings us so much closer to the rapture. I really want something to break on the world scene to move us closer to being called home, but it’s only natural to be frightened at the same time.
A new Pope is about to be elected, who is widely thought to become the False Prophet, who will help usher in the Antichrist. Will he actually take the name, Petrus Romanus, as predicted centuries ago? Time will shortly tell.

Then, BO will travel to Israel on March 20-21, which on the Hebrew calendar is Nisan 10, the very same day our REAL Messiah rode a donkey into Jerusalem as King. Gee. What a coincidence. You reckon anyone in the White House noticed the hypnotic suggestion THAT would give, when they scheduled the trip? *GAG!* If I see ONE palm branch waving or hear even ONE ‘hosanna’ while he’s there, somebody had better lock me in the house so I can’t get to the airport, because so help me…! What blasphemy.

His trip of intrusive arrogance does NOT portend well for America. There is a long history between the abuse America has shown toward Israel, and subsequent natural disasters that “mysteriously” seem to strike this country. Others have written on this in times past, but I’m just waking up to the correlation now. Hey, I never said I was the sharpest tool in the shed!

In case you don’t know what I’m referring to, I’ll give you a little history lesson on how this whole thing seems to work. Our leaders pressure Israel to give up land for peace, then within days, America is hit with a major storm or earthquake. Don’t believe me? Take a look.

Back in 1938, before America had entered WWII, President Roosevelt formed a German/American alliance called the Bund. Basically, Roosevelt told Hitler America wouldn’t interfere with his plan to invade Czechoslovakia. Hitler was steadily taking over more and more European countries, kind of like the cancerous spread of Islam today.
Although completely aware of what was happening, Roosevelt turned a blind eye as the German Jews were being harassed by SS guards, and did nothing to defend them after Kristallnacht, the ‘Night of Broken Glass’ in which a coordinated Nazi attack against Jewish owned businesses, synagogues and homes left their property in ruins. Thirty thousand Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Again, America did nothing to help God’s Chosen People.

Apparently, God didn’t appreciate our complicity.
During the time the Jews were being persecuted, a massive hurricane nicknamed, The Long Island Express, hit New England. Most hurricanes travel about 20 miles per hour. This one slammed the coast at 70mph! The eye of the storm was 50 miles wide with sustained winds of 121mph, and gusts reaching 185mph. Needless to say, it was an extremely destructive, deadly storm. Hmmm. Must have been a coincidence.

After the war, the world settled back down and in 1948, the nation of Israel was born. They were immediately attacked by their Arab neighbors, and endured armed conflict in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1968-1970, 1973, 1982, 1991, 2006 and on until today. Despite overwhelming odds, Israel has never been defeated.

Much to the consternation of the surrounding Arab nations, they are STILL on the map! However, you’ll notice most Arabs live in abject poverty and ignorance, and most haven’t even mastered indoor plumbing yet. So much for fighting Israel.

When terrorist Yasser Arafat fabricated the Palestinians, a previously nonexistent nation, the incessant whining began. Israel considered placating them by giving up some of their land to these people, so they could live side by side in peace. Because America was Israel’s most powerful Western ally, our leaders began a long campaign of strong-arming Israel to make more ridiculous concessions to the Arab crybabies, who had never lived in that territory anyway.

Ezekiel 36: 33-36 “Thus saith the Lord God; in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.”

Before Israel moved into the land, it was a barren, worthless desert. Nothing would grow on it, and very, very few people settled there. However, once Israel arrived, God miraculously caused that desert to bloom and flourish under their hands, and all of a sudden, the “Palestinians” wanted that land. Of course, their Arab brothers had thousands of square miles in which they could have settled, but NOOOOO. They had to have THAT land! *Whaah, boo-hoo! sniff, sniff*

So, on October 30, 1991, the USA and USSR held the Madrid Conference, which was hosted by Spain. It was an attempt by the international community to start a peace process through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as other Arab countries. During this conference, President George H.W. Bush pushed for a territory-for-peace treaty, recognizing the Palestinian’s ‘right’ to Jewish land, which included giving up Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.

During Bush’s trip, a cold nor’easter joined up with Hurricane Grace, resulting in what is now know as ‘The Perfect Storm,’ which created the largest waves ever recorded in that region. The storm sent 30-foot ocean waves smashing into Bush’s Kennebunkport vacation home, causing major damage to the estate as well as the surrounding area. It was such an unusually strong, massive storm, Hollyweird made a movie about it using the same name. Hmm. Probably just a coincidence.

August 23, 1992, the Madrid Conference was held in Washington D.C., which naturally included American pressure on Israel to give up land and other concessions to the Palestinians. That same day, Hurricane Andrew, the worst natural disaster to ever hit the U.S., slammed into South Florida, causing over 30 billion dollars in damage. But, one had nothing to do with the other. Right?

January 16, 1994, President Clinton met with the Syrian President in Geneva. They discussed a peace agreement with Israel which included giving up the Golan Heights. Less than 24 hours later, an earthquake measuring 6.9 hit southern California, and was the second most destructive natural disaster to hit the U.S. Uh, I’m sensing a pattern here.

March 1, 1997, PLO leader, Yasser Arafat toured America. On the very day he set foot on U.S. soil, tornadoes devastated large sections of Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi as well as parts of North and South Dakota. OK, this isn’t looking good.

September 28, 1998, as President Clinton meets with Netanyahu and Arafat at the White House to finalize an agreement in which Israel would relinquish 13% of Judah and Samaria, Hurricane George hits the Gulf Coast the same day, and stalls. As soon as Arafat leaves U.S. soil, the storm begins to break up, but not before causing 1 billion dollars in damage. Oh boy.

I guess Arafat backed out of that agreement because between October 15-22, 1998, Netanyahu and Arafat met again at a plantation in Maryland, to discuss the same agreement negotiated on September 28th. In the middle of the talks, October 17th, tornadoes and heavy rains hit southern Texas, causing widespread flooding. The rain began to subside on the last day of the talks, the 22nd, but left another billion dollars in damage. President Clinton had to declare that section of Texas a major disaster area.
OK, let’s stop pretending. There is a DIRECT correlation between America’s meddling in Israel’s affairs, pressuring them to bow to Arab demands for land, and disaster striking. Moving on…

May 3, 1999 was the date Arafat was supposed to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The same day, one of the most powerful tornado systems to ever hit America, swept across Oklahoma and Kansas.

October 1999, as Jewish families were being evicted off of their God given land, the Dow Jones lost 266 points and a hurricane hit North Carolina on October 15th. The next morning, the 16th, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook the South Western United States in the 5th most powerful earthquake of the 20th century.

August 22, 2005, President George W. Bush pressured Israel to evacuate the Gaza Strip. Eight thousand Jewish families were forcibly removed from their rightful homes. Exactly one week later, on August 29th, category 3 Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. As we all know, the levee system in New Orleans failed, leaving 80% of the city under water. The city has never fully recovered; much of it stands empty and ruined to this day, 8 years later.

May 19, 2011, Obama agreed with the PLO that Israel must return to the 1967 borders, despite Israel’s objections that doing so would be tantamount to committing national suicide. Three days later, on May 22nd, the deadliest string of tornadoes to hit this country since 1953, tore up Joplin, Missouri. That town was pretty much destroyed.
Since then, America has suffered unusual weather events. Devastating droughts in one area; massive flooding in other states. Temperatures soaring into the triple digits. Blizzard after blizzard pounding the Midwest and Northeast, piling up record amounts of snow. I think we can safely assume that Almighty God isn’t too pleased with the U.S. in general.

OK. It’s obvious that messing with Israel, the apple of God’s eye, is NOT a bright idea. Has America learned her lesson? Oh, heck no! Our beloved leader is headed over to the Holy Land, hell-bent on achieving what no one has been able to do in over 4000 years; getting the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael to live peacefully, side by side.

Once again, Israel is being strong-armed by the international community to relinquish more land for peace, and is even seriously considering dividing Jerusalem! Jerusalem. The City of David. The place where Jesus was crucified. The Holy City where Jesus will sit on His long awaited throne. They might actually agree to divide Jerusalem with godless heathens!

NOW do you understand why I’m a mite bit concerned about what the liar-in-chief has up his duplicitous sleeve? What kind of judgment will he be responsible for bringing down on America?

Joel 3: 3 “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”
Joel 3: 16-17 “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God swelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her anymore.”

I will mention one big concern. In my internet travels over the last couple of weeks, I keep running into the same subject over and over, from numerous sources all over the country. People are having visions or dreams about America being split in half. I don’t mean figuratively. I mean literally; the earth opening up and causing a large gash right up the middle of the country from north to south.

But could this actually happen?? Yep, it could if an earthquake causes the New Madrid Fault to split open. Never heard of it? Well, it doesn’t possess the notoriety of the San Andreas Fault in California, but it’s 20 times bigger and could potentially cause catastrophic devastation.

The New Madrid Fault Line is a 150 mile long, major seismic zone with frequent earthquakes that occur within one tectonic plate. It threatens seven states; Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Back in December1811, a major earthquake measuring up to 8.2 shook the area of Memphis, Tennessee.

According to Wikipedia, trees were knocked down and riverbanks in the area collapsed. It shook windows and furniture in Washington D.C., rang bells in Richmond, VA, sloshed well-water and spooked horses in Charleston, SC and knocked plaster off of homes in Columbia, SC. In Jefferson, IN, furniture moved and in Lebanon, OH, residents fled their homes. Folks in Herculaneum, MO claimed it was severe and lasted 10-12 minutes! This quake was nicknamed the Daylight Shock due to its timing and the 27 aftershocks felt throughout that day.

On February 7, 1812, a New Madrid quake measuring up to 8.6, severely damaged homes in St. Louis, MO. It disturbed another segment called the Reelfoot Fault, creating an uplift that caused waterfalls on the Mississippi River and disrupted the river at Kentucky Bend. Eyewitnesses state this caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for approximately 24 hours resulting in the formation of Reelfoot Lake, in NW Tennessee.

Since 1974, when seismic monitors were put into place, there have been about 4000 tremors recorded, but on average only one quake per year is strong enough to be felt by the residents. All things considered, it sounds pretty stable, doesn’t it?

I can’t help but wonder what all the chatter on the web concerning the New Madrid Fault is about. If America succeeds in getting Israel to divide Jerusalem, will a very angry God feel justified in dividing America? I don’t know. However, I think it’s safe to assume history will repeat itself.

You can bet that some form of severe judgment will strike this country before long. Not only has our wickedness become a stench in the nostrils of God, but our leaders have an extremely foolish habit of trying to manipulate God’s chosen into relinquishing the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants forever. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

Time is quickly running out for those of you who have still not made a decision to accept the pardon Jesus paid with His life to provide to you. Hear me? Time is running out! The Bible warns us that the wrath of God will be poured out on this entire earth by way of economic collapse, catastrophic natural disasters, numerous nuclear wars, radiation poisoning of the water and food systems, not to mention the tyrannical world-wide rule of the most heinous, cruel dictator mankind has ever known.

You do NOT have to be here to experience this. You still have a tiny window of time to get right with God. Jesus will shortly call His own up to be with Him in heaven while all hell breaks out on earth. Why would anyone CHOOSE to stay here?? DUH!

Isaiah 26:20 “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.”

Go ahead, keep your head buried in the sand, pretending life will just continue as it always has, but don’t expect that to prevent these events from happening. You cannot ‘prep’ enough to survive. Don’t bother moving to another country; the entire world will be affected, so there’s no place you can run to escape. You’ll live your worst nightmare on steroids.

Government isn’t going to take care of you—they’ll be the ones to hunt you down. Buddha can’t save you. Allah can’t, neither can Ganesha. The Roman Catholic Church can’t. Even the Emergent church can’t save you. Jesus plainly told us in John 14:16, “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

Those of us who belong to Christ will be leaving this miserable world very, very soon. Oh, and FYI, I don’t care how insistent the authorities are we will NOT have been abducted by aliens! Our Lord and Savior will have snatched us out of harm’s way as He promised.
Look, you can stay here if you want to, but I’d much rather you come with me. Please repent, turn from your sinful ways, receive salvation and make Jesus the Lord of your life. Hurry!

To contact the author: bensmomi99@gmail.com

Tehran Infested With Rats As Big As Cats - Bubonic plague in the Book of Samuel

 


Bubonic plague in the Book of Samuel
Reblogged from:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1199652/

Frank R Freemon

Author information ► Copyright and License information ►

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

In 2000 the pages of the JRSM saw an intriguing exchange concerning an illness described in the Hebrew Bible. The story in 1 Samuel is that the Philistines, having captured the Ark of the Lord from the Israelites, experienced an outbreak of ‘tumours’ (Hebrew ophal), and the affliction followed them as they moved the Ark from city to city. Concluding that the Ark was responsible for this disaster, the leaders decided to return it to the Israelites along with a guilt offering of five golden tumours and five golden rodents (akbar). But soon after the arrival of these ‘statues’ (probably small wooden models covered with gold) in Beth-shemesh seventy Israelites died in that city. 

Evaluating this epidemic, JP Griffin¹ concluded that the outbreak was plague, with its associated buboes. But WMS Russell² responded that Griffin was ‘certainly erroneous’ because of a mistranslation (the tumours being haemorrhoids due to dysentery) and because the rat carrier of plague was not in the region at the time of the described events. Since then, advances in archaeology have shifted the weight of evidence towards Griffin; moreover, the ‘emerods’ of the King James Bible appear in all modern translations as tumours.

Bubonic plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, is transmitted by the bite of the flea Xenopsylla cheopsis. This flea lives off the blood of many species besides man but its most notorious relationship is with the black rat (Rattus rattus). Recent archaeological evidence has caused a rethinking of plague in the ancient Near East. Fossilized remains of the plague flea have been found in large numbers in Amarna, Egypt;³ and, since Amarna was occupied for only a few years, we can date this contact between human beings and plague fleas accurately to about 1350 BC—which is before the events described in the Book of Samuel. Moreover, archaeological studies in the Nile Valley indicate that R. rattus was introduced at this time, probably via ships from India. Evidence of bubonic plague has not been seen in Egyptian mummies but all the vectors were in place.⁴ These vectors could have spread a few miles north to Philistia.

From the story, it seems that the most characteristic features of the epidemic were rats and tumours. Dead rats, killed by the same bacillus that kills human beings, are seen in the streets of plague towns; and enlarged lymph nodes in the groin and axillae are the most obvious features of the illness.

Why did the Philistines send statues of rodents and tumours to their neighbours? One interpretation is that the Philistines were offering a friendly warning: ‘We have experienced an epidemic and these are the things you should look out for’. Another is that the statues represented the essence of the judgment that had descended upon the Philistines, who hoped that the affliction would be passed on.

The above analysis assumes that the story of the epidemic, as told in 1 Samuel, is based on an actual occurrence. A widespread view is that biblical stories of this sort are the product of a religious reform movement that flourished hundreds of years after Samuel, in the late Iron Age; but it is acknowledged, nonetheless, that they may have historical kernels.⁵ The kernel here is large enough to indicate that, even if the account is fictitious, it is based on a personal knowledge of plague.

Go to:

References

1. Griffin JP. Bubonic plague in biblical times. J R Soc Med 2000;93: 449.

2. Russell WMS. Plague, rats and the Bible. J R Soc Med 2000;93: 553.

3. Panagiotakopulu E. Fleas from Pharaonic Egypt. Antiquity 2001;75: 499-55.

4. Panagiotakopulu E. Pharaonic Egypt and the origin of plague. J Biogeogr 2004;31: 269-76.

5. Finkelstein I, Silberman NA. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Text. New York: Free Press, 2001:23.