The word “pestilence” appears over 50 times in the Bible, primarily in the Old Testament. It refers to deadly plagues and widespread diseases that can decimate populations. In the Bible, pestilence is most often represented as a punishment from God in response to sin and disobedience. However, pestilence is also used symbolically to represent destruction and judgment.
The Hebrew word often translated as “pestilence” is dever. It literally means “plague” or “disease.” The Greek word used in the New Testament is loimos, which also means “pestilence” and “disease.” Biblical pestilence could refer to outbreaks of contagious diseases like the plague, but also drought, famine, and other disasters that destroyed people groups.
Here are some key things the Bible teaches about pestilence:
Pestilence as Judgment from God
Pestilence in the Bible often represents God’s active judgment against sin. When God’s people rejected Him and followed idols, pestilence was one tool God used to get their attention and call them back to Himself. For example:
- Deuteronomy 32:24 – “They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.”
- Jeremiah 21:6 – “And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.”
- Ezekiel 14:19 – “Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast.”
However, God also shows mercy when people repent. In 1 Chronicles 21, God sent a pestilence on Israel as punishment for David’s sin of numbering the people. But when David repented, God relented:
And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.” (1 Chronicles 21:16-17)
So while pestilence can represent God’s judgment, the prophets also made it clear God takes no pleasure in bringing disaster (Ezekiel 18:32). His desire is always restoration.
Pestilence in the End Times
The Old Testament prophets and Revelation describe increased pestilence at the end of the age as God’s judgment is poured out on the earth. These passages depict pestilence as one element of the intense distress that will occur before Jesus returns:
- Ezekiel 14:21 – “For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?”
- Matthew 24:7 – “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”
- Revelation 6:8 – “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
Some scholars associate current pandemics and disease outbreaks with these end times prophecies about pestilence. However, the true fulfillment will happen during the coming Tribulation period when God’s wrath is poured out on a rebellious world.
Protection from Pestilence
While pestilence is depicted as an act of God’s judgment, the Bible also shows how He can protect people from widespread plagues and diseases. For example, Exodus 9 describes how God protected his people Israel from the plagues he sent on Egypt:
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, “Let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:13-16)
God also promised protection from pestilence for His obedient followers:
- Exodus 15:26 – “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”
- Psalm 91:3 – “For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.”
- Psalm 91:10 – “no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.”
However, verses like these were promises specifically for Israel under the Mosaic Covenant. Today, followers of Christ have eternal security in their salvation. But there is no guarantee of miraculous protection from all harm.
A Call to Repentance
One key theme throughout the Bible is how God uses difficult circumstances to get people’s attention and call them to repentance. In Amos 4, God says He sent pestilence, along with famine, drought, and war, to turn Israel back to Him:
“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. (Amos 4:6-10)
Pestilence, though grievous, had a redemptive purpose. It aimed to humble and soften people’s hearts so they would repent and return to the Lord.
Symbol of God’s Wrath
In passages throughout the Old Testament prophets, pestilence and disease symbolize God’s wrath poured out on corrupt nations and cities:
- Jeremiah 49:17 – “Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.”
- Ezekiel 7:14-15 – “They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but none goes to battle, for my wrath is upon all their multitude. The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour.”
- Habakkuk 3:5 – “Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels.”
The prophets use pestilence as a vivid symbol of God’s anger over injustice, violence, and immorality in cities and nations. It pictures His righteous wrath bringing catastrophic destruction.
A Sign of the Curse
In the law God gave Israel, obedience brought blessings, while disobedience brought curses. Pestilence was listed among the curses God warned would come for covenant unfaithfulness:
“But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you…The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 21)
The inclusion of pestilence as part of the covenant curses shows it is a sign of the curse of sin and death on the world. The Bible traces all sickness, disease and disaster back to the curse that entered the human race through Adam and Eve’s disobedience (Genesis 3).
A Foreshadow of Eternal Judgment
Revelation depicts a scene where angels pour out bowls of wrath that bring grievous sores on those who worshipped the beast. This pestilence foreshadows the eternal judgment coming on the wicked:
“The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.” (Revelation 16:2)
The Bible shows how temporal plagues and pestilence on earth should point people toward repentance. Otherwise, there is an eternal judgment when Christ returns. This judgment is pictured in the symbols of pestilence throughout Scripture.
God’s Comfort and Healing
Though pestilence is depicted as God’s means of judgment, the Bible also promises comfort and healing from every disease for those who trust in Him. Isaiah prophesied of a time when Messiah would come to bring everlasting healing:
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:8-9 KJV)
Revelation 21 describes the glorious culmination when God will dwell with His people and “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” As believers live with the hope of eternity, they can take comfort that pestilence will one day be swallowed up in victory forever.