Pestilence

Pestilence (Hebrew deber; Greek loimos) denotes epidemic disease sent as divine judgment throughout the Bible. It forms part of the standard biblical triad of divine punishments: sword, famine, and pestilence (Jer. 14:12; Ezek. 6:11; Rev. 6:8). The tenth plague on Egypt was a pestilence on livestock (Ex. 9:3–6), and God threatened covenant-breaking Israel with it in Leviticus 26:25 and Deuteronomy 28:21.

David's census brought a three-day pestilence that killed 70,000 Israelites (2 Sam. 24:13–15), stopped only when God relented at the threshing floor of Araunah. The prophets use pestilence as a sign of covenant judgment alongside military defeat and famine. In the NT, Jesus predicts pestilences (plagues) among the birth pangs of the end age (Luke 21:11), and the four horsemen of Revelation include Death on a pale horse followed by Hades, given power over a quarter of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and pestilence (Rev. 6:8).