ple' (2 Chron. xvii. 7-9). Thus, then, about nine centuries before Christ, we find 'the book of the law of Jehovah' not only in existence, but recognised as the legitimate means for instructing the people in their duties, and for doing away with the depravating effects of an inveterate idolatry. By the phrase, the book of the law of Jehovah,' is obviously meant some work containing the requirements and institutions of Moses. It is a matter of less consequence, whether this book was identical with what we at present term the Pentateuch, or any portion of it. The important fact here implied is, that about 912, A.C. the Jewish polity rested on, and was reformed under the direction of a written constitution, which was well known, and universally respected under the title of 'the book of the law of Jehovah.' We are thus taken back to about five hundred years after Moses; and as these five hundred years are well filled with historical events, we can in our retrocession rest nowhere, till we get to the fifteenth century before Christ, as the period for the origination of this book; when certain great organic changes took place, which demanded and—as we read- found a pen, and commenced a history.

The

BENJAMIN (H. son of the right hand) was Jacob's last son by Rachel, who, dying in giving birth to her child, appropriately named him Ben-oni, son of my pain, in allusion to her sufferings. His father, however, not improbably to avoid the bad omen implied in the name, and to indicate the succour which he expected from the child in his declining years, gave him, by something like a play on the word, the appellation of Benjamin, which differed in sound but little from the name chosen by Rachel. This may be taken as a specimen of a custom which prevailed among the Hebrews, of assigning to their children names that were descriptive of circumstances connected with their birth. The term Ben, son, as well as the corresponding Aramaic word Bar, is in these cases to be taken with some latitude. simplest way to designate a person is to describe him as the son of his father-thus, Ben-hadad, son of Hadad. This custom obtains among all primitive nations, and is the source of many of our English proper names; as John-son, Jack-son, Harri (y)-son, Richard-son. The Arabians prefix the name of the person's child: thus they would designate Isaac as Abu-Jagub, Ishhag-ben Ibrahim, father of Jacob, Isaac, son of Abraham. The young one of an animal may, instead of being denominated by a separate name, be called the son of that animal: accordingly' the son of a bull' signified a calf. And as the offspring partakes of the qualities of the sire, the phrase son of mercy' signifies a merciful man. So 'sons of God' (Gen. vi. 2) are men having divine or superior qualities.

Benjamin (A.M. 3447; A.C. 2101; V. 1733) was saved by his unripe years from taking part in the crime which the rest of Jacob's sons committed against their brother Joseph; and when this favourite child had been cruelly sundered from the aged patriarch, Benjamin took his place, and proved a source of comfort and support to his father, the more easily because he, as well as Joseph, was the son of Jacob's old age by the same mother, Rachel (Gen. xlii. 4, seq.). What, then, must have been the grief of the venerable man, when his sons, on their return from Egypt, reported that the lord of the country insisted, as a proof of their being true men, on seeing their youngest brother Benjamin! Me,' exclaimed Jacob, 'ye have bereaved; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not; and ye will take Benjamin.' The pressure of famine, however, and the urgent entreaties of his son Judah, at last prevailed on the patriarch to allow Benjamin to accompany his brothers into Egypt. The sight of the youth deeply affected Joseph, 'who sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there' (Gen. xliii. 30). When his emotion was over, he entertained his visitors at a banquet, and took care that five times as much as any of theirs' was set before Benjamin. And when at last the veil was removed, and Joseph allowed himself to be recognised by his brethren, he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck' (Gen. xlv. 14).

So little does Benjamin take a leading part in the transactions to which we have here referred, that it is difficult to make him the chief figure in however brief a sketch. Others are the actors: Benjamin does but await their will. Yet how essential was he to the happiness of Jacob!-how warm and deep was Joseph's love towards him! In many another family there has been a Benjamin-one whom all its members tenderly regarded, and whose welfare and happiness they would promote at any cost, not on account of eminence of talent, nor greatness of act, but simply of his good heart, his gentle bearing, and his quiet engaging deportment, which, winning all hearts, had far more influence, and did more to decide events, than the character of any similar member of the household.

Benjamin was the ancestral stem of the tribe which bore that name. This tribe, which was not large (Numb. i. 37; xxvi. 41), received a correspondingly small portion of land in Palestine, lying in the midst of the tribes of Ephraim on the north, Judah on the south, Reuben on the east, and Dan on the west. But what the district may have wanted in size was most amply made up in the quality of the land, which comprised some of the finest in Palestine:- the paradise, for instance, of the plain of Jericho; well-watered and therefore most fruitful valleys; eleva

tions and hills which skill and industry could cover with luxuriance, and invest with more than their natural beauty. It had also the honour of containing Jerusalem.

In the period of the Judges, an intestine war devastated Benjamin. An atrocious breach of hospitality committed by the men of Gibeaha Benjamite city against a Levite and his concubine (Judg. xx. 4), seems to have beon regarded as an outrage on the priesthood of the land, which was accordingly aroused in all its borders for the punishment of the offending tribe. Having sworn an oath that no one would give a daughter in marriage to a man of the tribe of Benjamin, the army of Israel proceeded, under the direction of the sacerdotal authority, to fall on the Benjamites. They received two repulses of so severe a nature, that they were inclined to desist from their undertaking. Encouraged, however, by the influence which had set them on, they made a third attack, in which stratagem gained them a too complete success. Not long after their devastating slaughter, the victorious parties seem to have thought that they had carried matters too far. One of the twelve tribes was nearly exterminated. The national unity was broken; the national safety, jeopardized. They remembered, too, that Benjamin was their brother. Now, then, they began to think about building up again his fallen estate. But how were women to be obtained? An expedient was resorted to, which calls to mind the rape of the Sabines, in Roman history. The city of Jabesh-Gilead had given offence, in being the only place whose inhabitants assembled not with the other Hebrews in Mizpeh, to take the oath not to give their daughters in marriage to the Benjamites. In consequence, all its population was slain, except four hundred young virgins, who were given to the survivors of the tribe of Benjamin. This number sufficed them not.' Another opportunity was therefore seized. There was a religious feast in Shiloh; and, when its daughters came out to dance, there rushed on them, from an ambush placed in the neighbouring vineyards, young Benjamites, who caught every man his wife. And the children of Benjamin returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them' (Judg. xx. xxi.).

The hatred which these civil wars engendered must, in process of time, have subsided; for the first king of Israel, Saul, was chosen out of the tribe of Benjamin, thongh not improbably its inconsiderable size had an influence in the selection, under feel. ings similar to those which are said to actuate the College of Cardinals, when they take for Pope that one of their body whose power is least, and whose prospect of life is worst. After the death of Saul, the Benjamites, with ten other tribes, remained

faithful to his son Ishbosheth (2 Sam. ii. 9), till at length David, aided by the Judahites, succeeded in acquiring the exclusive sovereignty of the land. In the sundering of the state under Rehoboam into two kingdoms, the tribe of Benjamin. joining that of Judah, remained true to the old constitution, and to the national worship (1 Kings xii. 21). After the exile, these two tribes formed the root of the new Jewish colony, which was founded in Palestine (Ezra iv. 1; x. 9).

BEREA (G. meaning perhaps fruitful), a city in Macedonia, lying south of Thessalonica, at the foot of Mount Bermius, where a body of Jews had settled, who are eulo gised in the Acts of the Apostles, 'in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the (Jewish) Scriptures daily, whether those things (Paul's doctrine) were so (Acts xvii. 10, 11, 13; xx. 4).

BEREAVE (T. to rob, deprive). — The Hebrew heart was not more rich in piety, than it was in domestic affection. Hence, the loss of relatives, especially of children, was keenly felt and bitterly deplored. No literature presents such touching utterances as the Hebrew, of bereaved family tenderness. We cite as an instance the words which David uttered on the loss of his rebellious son:-'O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!' (2 Sam. xviii. 33; see also Gen. xlii. 36; xliii. 14). It has been well remarked (Notes and Comments on Passages of Scripture,' by John Kentish, p. 116) that in the books of the Old Testament we meet with formularies of expressions that were employed by the Jews at seasons of bereavement and grief (1 Kings xiii. 30. Jer. xxii. 18). There is a remarkable instance in Amos v. 16, which shows also that the bewailing of calamities had, in the later period of the Hebrew polity, degenerated into a sort of profession:-'Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.'(Comp. Jer. ix. 18-22.)

BERNICE (G.), the eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I. and, at first, wife of her uncle Herod, prince of Chalcis. After the death of her uncle, she lived in a very sus picious connection with her own brother, Agrippa II. the last king of the Jews.

She formed a second marriage tie with Polemon, king of Cilicia, but was soon divorced. She then returned to her brother. After this, she became mistress to Titus, the son of the emperor Vespasian. The first act of Titus, on assuming the purple, was the dismissal of the beautiful Bernice, to whom he was fondly attached, because he saw that his connection with a foreigner was displeasing to the Roman senate and

people. Such was the woman who was with Agrippa, when the latter sat on the judgment-seat, and exclaimed to the prisoner, who pleaded for his life before him, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian' (Acts xxv. 13, 23; xxvi. 30). BERYL is the translation of a Hebrew word, tarsheesh (Exod. xxviii. 20), which appears to mean the chrysolyte, or gold stone (Rev. xxi. 20). Some think that the term shohham, rendered onyx' (Gen. ii. 12), was the beryl. The only passage in which we can be sure that the beryl was meant, is Rev. xxi. 20, where the Greek word beryl puts the matter beyond a doubt. The colours of the beryl are pale greyish green, and blue and yellow, of various shades; it has also been found rose red, and it sometimes occurs perfectly limpid and colourless. 'The topaz we'll stick here and there, And sea-green coloured beryl; And turkesse, which who haps to bear Is often kept from peril.'

Beryls, also, after they had undergone certain ceremonies, were accounted effectual as talis. mans and charms.

BESOM is the rendering of a Hebrew word which denotes to drive, throw, and specifically to brush away with violence rubbish or dirt. Hence, with a force in the original which can be very imperfectly rendered in the English, Jehovah says (Isa. xiv. 23), 'I will sweep it (Babylon) with the besom of destruction: destruction shall so accomplish its terrible office, as to leave Babylon like an empty house, which has been thoroughly cleansed.

BETHABARA is a word found in the common version of John's Gospel, i. 28, as the name of the place where John baptized. Instead of Bethabara, Griesbach, supported by the most ancient manuscripts; and the highest authority among the moderns, has Bethania, Bethany. The former seems to have been preferred to the latter word by Origen, in whose tane Bethany had ceased to be in existence as the name of the place. As Bethany was known to lie near Jerusalem, some critics seem to have been too easily led to acquiesce in Bethabara; but there may have been two places bearing the same appellation, Bethany; which John appears to intimate, by speaking of the place where the Baptist initiated his disciples, as being beyond, that is, on the eastern side of Jordan; while the more celebrated place lay on the west of that stream. Not improbably the original name of the spot was Bethabara (Judg. vii. 24), - the place of passage, in allusion to the transit which the Israelites here effected into the land of promise. In the time of our Lord, however, the ancient name had given place to another, yet one of kindred meaning, -the house or place of a ship or boat (so the word may mean; see another signification under

BETHANY), as denoting the necessity of a ferry-boat for the passage of the river, which has here some depth of water. Names of places may easily change in the lapse of many centuries, according to the varying prominence which local influences or historical associations may happen to obtain. If, for instance, a ferry was established near Bethabara, on the brink of the river, it is easy to see how, in process of time, its rising importance might throw the parent town into the shade, and come to give name to the district; and equally how its decline, at a later period, should cause the old place and name to resume their ancient position.

There is, however, something connected with this spot more important than a name. Here, or in the vicinity, Joshua passed over into Canaan; and here the Saviour of mankind received baptism at the hands of John. These are two events which must throw around the place associations of peculiar interest, making some details as to the features of the spot very desirable.

Tradition has afforded aid in determining the exact locality. Every year do thousands visit what is held to be the ancient Bethabara, for the purpose of bathing in the Jordan, on the anniversary of the Saviour's baptism. It is true that there is some diversity in the tradition: the Greeks and Armenians have one spot, the Latin Christians another, some two miles higher up the river. But a difference of this kind is here of no great importance; for the general features of the country are the same; not to say that the evidence preponderates in favour of the former. The place, then, where the Armenians and Greeks hold that Jesus was baptized by John, lies over against the great and formerly fertile plain of Jericho, three miles from the mountains of Moab, and three miles and a half, by a direct course, from the Dead Sea. On approaching the spot from the western side, the traveller gradually descends from one stage of the plain to another, till he comes to a level covered with sand, clay predominating towards the river, where he soon finds himself involved in a thicket of luxuriant shrubs and low tangled bushes, which render the advance somewhat difficult. The banks of the river are covered with a luxuriant, crowded forest of willows, tamarisks, oleanders, and cane. The highest of these do not attain an elevation of more than thirty or forty feet, and few of them are above five or six inches in diameter. The willow (Agnus castus) is held in great estimation by the pilgrims, who prefer it for staves, which they dip in the river, and preserve as sacred memorials. The reeds, which form in many places an impenetrable miry thicket, are carried away to be used in thatching eottages. This verdant canopy of foliage, and the luxuriant undergrowth of cane and

brushwood, entirely conceal the river from the view, until you reach the water's edge. In the spring of the year, the banks are quite full, and are occasionally overflowed. The river, at the spot where Bethany may have stood, is then from thirty-five to forty yards broad. It sweeps along with a rapid turbid current; the water being discoloured, and of a clayey hue, not unlike that of the Nile; and, though muddy, yet agreeable to the taste. It is far from being shallow. Persons bathing find themselves beyond their depth, soon after leaving the shore, and are carried rapidly down the stream by the strength of the current. Though fordable at other points and at other seasons of the year, a miracle would be no less necessary now than in the days of Joshua, to enable an immense multitude of men, women, and children, together with flocks and herds, to cross unprovided with boats. Some spots covered with sand afford facilities as for bathing, so for baptizing; in others, the prevalence of soft deep clay yields under the tread.

BETHANY is a Hebrew compound, de noting, according to Winer, house of dates,' that is, a spot where palm-trees grew. The place, which is of peculiar interest to the Scriptural student from having been the residence of Lazarus and his sisters, and the last earthly spot touched by the feet of the risen Jesus, lay a little less than two miles and fifteen furlongs (John xi. 18), eastsouth-east from Jerusalem, in a shallow Wady, or vale, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, and on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. In this village, our Lord found the solace and endearments of friendship in the bosom of the family of Lazarus, which was obviously possessed of considerable substance (Matt. xxi. 17; xxvi. 6. Mark xi. 1, 12. Luke xix. 29). No place was more appropriate than Bethany to be the spot whence the Redeemer should ascend to his Father (Luke xxiv. 50); for here his person was well known, and here were friends who would naturally wish to see with their own eyes the last traces of their Lord.

Bethany has been smitten with that general appearance of desolation which now characterises much of Palestine. It is a poor village, of some twenty or thirty families, having its precincts adorned by fig and olive trees. In the walls of a few of the houses there are marks of antiquity. The most conspicuous object is a ruined tower, built of large square stones, which the Mohammedan villagers declare to have been the abode of Lazarus. His tomb is also shown at some distance north of the town, on the edge of the village. Of this which is most probably a natural cave, remodelled by human labour, Dr. Robinson rather abruptly declares, that there is not the slightest probability of its ever having been

the tomb of Lazarus.' Dr. Olin, with more caution, if not with more judgment, is strongly inclined to give credit to the tradition which fixes the tomb of Lazarus in this spot. The entrance to the cave is about three feet and a half high, and two feet wide in limestone rock; from which a descent is made, by twenty-seven stone steps, into a dark room about nine feet square. sides are four niches for the reception of bodies, and there is one fractured sarcophagus. Three more steps lead through an excavated passage into an arched chamber, eight feet square by nine in height. This resembles an ancient Jewish tomb in form and construction.

BETHANY.

In its

Arundale

The

There is no doubt that this is the ancient Bethany, though the name is no longer used; that which it now bears, el-Aziriyeh, being the Arabic form of Lazarus. crypt of Lazarus in Bethany was still shown in A.D. 333. A church was built over it in the fourth century. In the twelfth century it became the site of a very important monastic establishment. In 1484, A.D. the church over the sepulchre was still in existence. Since then, Bethany has continually and invariably gone to decay. In John i. 28, Bethany, according to the best authorities, should be read, instead of Bethabara. This Bethany was a second place of the name, and lay on the east of Jordan.

BETH-AVEN (H. city of idols), a town which was anciently well known, as it served as a point for distinguishing other places (1 Sam. xiii. 5) lying between Ai and Michmash, in the teritory of Benjamin (Josh. vii. 2; xviii. 12. 1 Sam. xiii. 5). Jerome and the Talmud held it to be the same as Bethel, from which, however, it is distinguished in Josh. vii. 2. The high waste land which lay between Beth-aven and Jericho was termed the wilderness of Beth-aven' (Josh. xviii. 12). To this place the battle extended when the Lord rescued Israel by the hand of the heroic Jonathan (1 Sam. xiv. 23). The

place became, at a later period, notorious for shameful idolatry (Hos. iv. 15; x. 5); on which account it may have received the name by which we have spoken of it.

BETHEL (H. house of God) received its name from the solemn impressions made on the mind of the patriarch Jacob, who, on his journey from Beer-sheba to Haran, had by night a dream, in which he is related to have been favoured with such special marks of the divine favour, that, when he awoke, he exclaimed, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not:how dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.' The place was originally called Luz (Gen. xxviii. 10, seq.). Before Jacob had his vision here, Abraham first pitched his tent in Palestine, on the high ground eastward of this spot (Gen. xii. 8), which is still one of the finest tracts for pasturage in the whole land. The narrative regarding Abraham terms the place Bethel, long before that name was given; which shows that that narrative was composed at a period which, in relation to the date of its events, must be denominated late, and that a strict regard to chronology is not universally observed by the sacred writers.

Bethel was distinguished as the centre of one of those petty Canaanite kingdoms, which occupied the country prior to the Hebrew conquest (Josh. xii. 16). On the invasion of the Israelites, it was captured, through a fraud, by the house of Joseph' (Judg. i. 22), after it had been given by Joshua to the Benjamites (Josh. xviii. 22; xii. 9). As Bethel had around it the venerable associations of a religious antiquity, so the ark remained there for a long period (Judg. xx. 18, 20, seq. 1 Sam. x. 3); and for the same reasons Samuel repaired thither once a year to administer justice (1 Sam. vii. 16). At a later period, Bethel formed a part of the kingdom of Israel, when Jeroboam, wisely for his own evil purposes, chose this sacred place wherein to set up one of his golden calves (1 Kings xii. 28, 29). Thus a spot which even Abraham had consecrated to monotheism, became degraded to the vile and ruinous purposes of idolatry. On this account the prophets speak in terms of great reproach against the city (Amos iii. 14, 15; vii. 10); and Hosea, with a play of words, designates Beth-el, Beth-aven; that is, in allusion to its idol-worship, 'house of vanity,' or nothingness (Hos. x. 5; comp. iv. 15). Its idolatrous altar and grove were destroyed by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 15, seq.). The place was inhabited by the Jews on their return from captivity, and belonged to the descendants of Benjamin (Ezra ii. 28. Neh. vii. 32).

Robinson finds Bethel in the modern Beitin, stating that the Arabic in for the

Hebrew el is not an unusual change. The ruins, which he was the first to identify, are extensive, covering a space of three or four acres. They consist of very many foundations, and half-standing walls of houses, and other buildings. He found here two living springs of good water in a grass-plat. Beitin, or Bethel, lies three hours forty-five minutes almost due north from Jerusalem. The name has been preserved solely among the common people. The monks appear for centuries not to have been aware of its existence, and have assigned to Bethel a location much farther to the north. In the New Testament, Bethel is not mentioned; but it still existed, as we learn from Josephus. It was captured by Vespasian (Antiq. xiii. 1, 3. Jewish War, iv. 9. 9). Eusebius and Jerome describe it as a small village in their day. This is the last notice of Bethel, as an inhabited place, till its name and site were, some twenty-six years since, discovered among the natives by Protestant missionaries resident in Jerusalem; after which it was visited by Dr. Robinson and some fellow-travellers.

BETHESDA (H. house of mercy), the name being given in allusion to the alleged healing power of the place; a pool which is described, in the Gospel of John, as being near the sheep (gate), and as having five porches. In these porches lay a great number of diseased persons, waiting for the moving of the water, under the impression that whoever was so happy as to be the first to step in after its troubling was made whole, whatsoever disease he had. Here it was that Jesus bade the paralytic take up his couch and walk (John v. 2, seq.). The water, which is described by Eusebius as being exceedingly red, may have been somewhat of a mineral kind, and, if it possessed any thing of a curative power, may, in conjunction with the workings of the imagination, excited by the popular notion, have sufficed to cause the wonders which it was believed to produce. These effects were, after the Jewish manner of thinking, ascribed to some special agency by the popular mind. As, however, there does not now appear to be any medicinal virtue in the water itself, and as its efficacy appears to have been restricted to the first person who stepped in, the chief influence is probably to be ascribed to the forthputting of a beneficent supernatural power.

A difference of opinion exists in regard to the place which is now to be considered as being the ancient Bethesda. Some have identified it with a deep pool north of the Temple, which Robinson disapproves, and is inclined to prefer what is called 'the Foun tain of the Virgin,' that lies on the west side of the valley of Jehoshaphat. The cavity of this fountain is deep, and is wholly excavated in the solid rock. To enter it, descends first, sixteen steps; then

one