Emerods is an archaic term for hemorrhoids. Derived from the Old French word French, Old (842-ca.1400);: emoroyde, it was used as the common English term until the nineteenth century, after which it was replaced in medicine by a direct transliteration of the Ancient Greek etymon, grc|[[wikt:αἱμορροΐς#Ancient Greek|αἱμορροΐς]]|haimorrhoḯs|label=none.[1]
The word is most commonly encountered in the King James Bible, where it appears in the First Book of Samuel describing a plague that afflicted the Philistines who had captured the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites. Chapter 5 of 1 Samuel describes a "plague of emerods" that smote the people of Ashdod in their "secret parts", causing many to die.[2] According to chapter 6, the plague was not relieved until the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites, along with a trespass offering of "five golden emerods and five golden mice" (the plague of emerods occurred simultaneously with a plague of mice).[3] The concept of "golden hemorrhoids" has on occasion given rise to puzzlement or humor.[4]
Modern scholars have pointed out that the Hebrew term he|עפלים|apholim|label=none, translated "emerods" in the KJV, could also be translated as "tumors", as is done in the Revised Version of the Bible.[5] In the fourth century A.D., Jerome in the Vulgate translated it as "swellings of the secret parts".[6] It has often been speculated that the "plague of emerods" was actually an outbreak of bubonic plague, and that the "plague of mice" was actually a plague of rats, which are not distinguished from mice in Ancient Hebrew.[7] Other scholars have identified the "plague of emerods" with other medical conditions, such as bilharziasis,[8] or the bites of camel spiders.[9]