ABSTRACT
This article investigates the interplay between plagues and (im)mobility in texts of the Hebrew Bible, which depict plagues as both prompting and inhibiting movement. While plagues are imagined to cause moments of disruption, thus creating anxiety and horror, the texts also attest to practical management strategies and resilience. The analysis falls into two parts. First, she explores the plague motif in two narratives in which plagues cause welcome disruptions, enabling the release of Hebrews who find themselves stuck in oppressive or otherwise undesirable situations. The narratives are shown to focus on how YHWH, the puppet master, uses plagues to control things. Second, she analyzes the evidence of legal, narrative, and liturgical texts on detachment from other people. Priestly laws, as well as two narratives on kings, suggest that a person hit by a plague should withdraw and isolate. In these texts, the focus is on how to handle a threatening plague. Liturgical poetry adds to this picture by elaborating on experiences of loneliness and longing caused by illness-related seclusion, thus drawing attention to how it feels to be hit by a plague.
