Blains

Blains is an archaic English term for blisters, boils, or pustules, used in the Authorized Version to describe the sixth plague of Egypt in Exodus 9:9-10. Moses and Aaron took handfuls of ashes from a kiln and threw them into the air before Pharaoh, and they became fine dust over all the land of Egypt and caused boils breaking out in blisters—blains—on both humans and animals throughout Egypt. The magicians themselves were so afflicted they could not stand before Moses.

In Deuteronomy 28:27 and 28:35, a similar affliction—the botch of Egypt—is listed among the curses that would fall on Israel if they disobeyed the covenant, explicitly recalling the Egyptian plague as a reference point for divine judgment. The sixth plague is notable for being the first Egyptian plague from which the magicians could not even pretend to replicate the sign; their own bodies bore the evidence of divine power. The medical nature of the affliction has been variously identified as anthrax, smallpox, or another pustular disease, though exact diagnosis across millennia is speculative.