Blains are mentioned in the King James Bible only two times; both times in the passage describing the sixth plague against Egypt—the plague of boils (Exodus 9:9, 10). Both verses refer to “a boil breaking forth with blains.” The word blain comes from an old form of the word blister. It is an inflammatory swelling or sore on the surface of the body. An interesting use of the word is found in the Wycliffe Bible of 1382 in Job 2:7 – “He smot Job with the werste stinkende bleyne.”
