Several quite different things travel under this name. Moses warns Israel that if they turn from the LORD, he “shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” Saul, after the Spirit of the LORD left him, was troubled by an evil spirit, and David’s music gave him relief. Matthew lists the lunatick among the many sick whom Jesus healed, and in Mark his own family, fearing for him, say he is beside himself. The picture is of real suffering in the text, met by mercy more than by judgment. See 1 Samuel 16:14-23.
4 verses
The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
This word is used in its proper sense in Deut. 28:34, John 10:20, 1 Cor. 14:23. It also denotes a reckless state of mind arising from various causes, as over-study (Eccl. 1:17; 2:12), blind rage (Luke 6:11), or a depraved temper (Eccl. 7:25; 9:3; 2 Pet. 2:16). David feigned madness (1 Sam. 21:13) at Gath because he “was sore afraid of Achish.”
William Smith, 1884
In Scripture "madness" is recognized as a derangement proceeding either from weakness and misdirection of intellect or from ungovernable violence of passion. In one passage alone, (John 10:20) is madness expressly connected with demoniacal possession by the Jews in their cavil against our Lord; in none is it referred to any physical causes.