Hebrew word · H76
אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת
'ava'bu'ot
boil
Blisters or pustules. The word appears only in Exodus 9:9–10. It is usually linked to a root b'' / bw', 'to bubble up, swell'. The doubled form ('ava'bu-) may suggest many small swellings or bubbling eruptions.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
blisters, boils (from root, to swell up)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Blisters or pustules. The word appears only in Exodus 9:9–10. It is usually linked to a root b'' / bw', 'to bubble up, swell'. The doubled form ('ava'bu-) may suggest many small swellings or bubbling eruptions.
- Against the English
KJV and YLT 'blains' (an archaic word for blisters), WEB 'blisters', ESV and NASB 'sores', NIV, NLT and BSB fold it into 'festering'.
- How it drifted
KJV's 'blains' was ordinary English in 1611 (Old English blegen, 'blister'). Today it is opaque, apart from the phrase 'chilblains'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
No other biblical use. The Septuagint renders it phlyktides anazeousai, 'blisters boiling up', and the Vulgate vesicae turgentes, 'swelling blisters'. Both ancient translators understood it as raised, fluid-filled swellings.
Where it appears
Exodus · 2
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Exodus 9:9 אֲבַעְבֻּעֹ֖ת blisters
It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on man and beast throughout the land.”
Here: Blisters or pustules, swellings that may be filled with fluid. The word appears only here and in verse 10. It is probably what the sore 'breaks out into': the boil erupts in blisters.
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Exodus 9:10 אֲבַעְבֻּעֹ֔ת blisters
So they took soot from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on man and beast.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.