Ague

Ague is the traditional English rendering of the Hebrew qaddachat in Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:22, denoting a burning fever, likely including the intermittent fevers characteristic of malaria. The Revised Version translates the term simply as fever. In context, ague appears among the catalog of covenant curses that would afflict Israel for disobedience — I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes (Leviticus 26:16).

The identification with malaria is suggested by the prevalence of the disease in the Jordan Valley and coastal lowlands of Canaan, where standing water created ideal breeding conditions. The term belongs to a broader biblical vocabulary of illness and disease that functions within the covenant framework: disease is listed both as curse for disobedience and as something from which God promises healing upon repentance and return. The New Testament references to fevers in the healing accounts of Jesus (Matthew 8:14–15; John 4:52; Acts 28:8) reflect the same physical reality in a different theological register.