A STRIKING-BLOW, plague — from nagaf, to strike or smite, so the picture is of a blow landing rather than of a disease spreading. Distinct from dever, pestilence, which is the word threatened at Numbers 14:12; maggefah is what actually falls, at 14:37 on the ten scouts and at Numbers 17:11-15 on the congregation, where it kills fourteen thousand seven hundred and is stopped by a man standing still with a censer. ⚠ The verb of stopping is atsar, to restrain or hold back — the plague is not cured, it is CHECKED, which is why the same root can be used of shutting up the heavens so it does not rain. → first discussed at Num 17:11