After the exile, the Chaldee pronunciation, substituting at for an s or an sh, changed the name Bashan into Batanæa, though properly the province of Batanæa was only the southern part of the ancient Bashan. cording to Robinson, the ancient name is still substantially retained in Bethenyeh.

The catalogue of unclean birds, as given in the law, begins with the eagle, the highest and noblest of the feathered race, and ends with the bat, which is the lowest, and forms the connecting link between the quadruped and the winged species. The prohibition implies that there were, at the time it was given, those who eat bats; nor is there a doubt that the larger species of bats have supplied nutriment to more than one portion of the human race. It is not easy now to assign a satisfactory reason why the bat was accounted unclean by Moses. Not improbably its peculiar formation and habits may have created against it a prejudice, on which a certain

disgust may have been founded; which disgust may have been the occasion of the legislator's prohibition. That prohibition, however, has confirmed and perpetuated the aversion to the bat, which is, in many countries, so deep as to wear the appearance of being natural. Though, however, bats in Syria inhabit dark, hidden, and ruinous places, they also make their appearance in towns, as well as in frequented and decorated rooms. Nor is there any thing in their make to justify strong feelings of dislike. The bat,' says Dr. Kitto, is a delicate and beautiful creature, covered with a fine fur of very pale yellow; while the fine integuments, forming what are called the wings, are, when expanded, ribbed with the bright red lines of the bony prolongations, by which they are managed and supported.'

BATHSHEBA (H. daughter of an oath), child of Eliam, and wife of Uriah the Hittite, whom David coveted in consequence of her beauty, and of whose person his royal power and will unjustly made him master. Having done this injury to Uriah, the king took his measures to make the fruit of his criminality appear the natural offspring of that warrior; but failing, through the persistence of the latter in not visiting his home, he sent him back to the army then besieging Rabbah under the command of Joab, directing that general to set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and to retire, so that he might be slain. David's orders were but too well executed. Joab suffered a repulse; but he knew his master's guilty wishes, and ordered the messenger that bore the unwelcome tidings to mention, as a cover, the death of the Hittite. This adroitness had its designed effect on David. The husband being thus disposed of, and the days of his wife's mourning decently terminated, David took to his house Bathsheba, who became his wife, and bare him a son. There is, however, a power higher and stronger than princes. This wickedness displeased the Almighty, who sent Nathan to David with a terrible reproof, which was the more overpowering in its delivery, because conveyed in one of those parables for which the Hebrew literature is celebrated, and which in all their excellence have no equals in any language. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.' The guilty man prayed, fasted, and mourned:in vain; the child died.

After this, Bathsheba bore Solomon, who was regarded with divine favour. She herself appears to have long retained influence with her husband; for, when he had grown old, and Adonijah his son had taken measures to usurp the royal authority, she was chosen by Nathan to make the king acquainted with the attempt, for which she was the ra

ther fitted as being the mother of Solomon, the promised successor; in consequence of which the latter was immediately proclaimed. Indeed, she appears to have enjoyed in the court much of the influence of a queenmother; for, not long after the commencement of the new reign, this same Adonijah successfully entreats her good offices to procure for him a wife of his choice, namely, Abishag, the Shunamite.

This short history is quite oriental:- the resistless passions of the monarch; the passiveness of Bathsheba; the king's entire command over the life of Uriah; the ready obedience of Joab; the boldness and religious elevation of Nathan; and the power at court of the mother of the heir apparent, may have resemblances, but not parallels, in western countries. These qualities authenticate the history in which they are found, and may suggest that we shall misjudge events, if we apply to the conduct of the king and his paramour rules and tests which the gospel enforces in modern times, and in these lands. The guilt of David with Bathsheba was very great. It was also severely punished and bitterly deplored. Sin, in all climes and all countries, is, before God, equally sin. But let us not be harsh, still less unjust, in our condemnation; remembering that the license to do such wickedness is one of the heavy disadvantages under which monarchs, and especially oriental monarchs, are placed by their position; — a position which is owing as much to the weakness of their fellow-men as to their own ambition.

BATTLEMENT is the rendering of a Hebrew word, Mahgakeh (Deut. xxii. 8), the root of which in the Arabic still signifies to surround. Battlement denotes an elevation or parapet wall, which, with a becoming regard to human life, the law expressly required to be put round a house when built; the necessity of which resulted from the roofs of houses being, for the most part, flat, and from their being used for recreation and pleasure. When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.'

BAY-TREE (a green bay-tree) is a phrase which is found only once in the Scriptures: 'I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree' (P's. xxxvii. 35). Authorities, however, are not agreed as to whether the Psalmist speaks of some species of tree, or of the flourishing condition of a tree in general. lators had the laurel in their minds; yet the marginal rendering is a green tree, that groweth in his own soil;' that is, indigenous, or not transplanted, continuing to grow where it sprang up. The Greek Septuagint

Our trans

day of atonement, from its decided tendency to bring on sleep.

BEAR (T. baer, meaning hairy). — Of the existence of this animal in Palestine there is no longer any doubt. Bears are still found, though they are rare, in the mountains of Lebanon. In the time of the Crusades, they were numerous. The Syrian bear is of the brown species, which is very ferocious. There is therefore nothing but what is probable in David having to defend his flock from a bear, as well as a lion (1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35), though it is clear that the bravery he displayed was something uncommon. Nor was it extraordinary that two she-bears should come out of the wood, and tear forty-two of the children who mocked Elisha; while the Christian must confess that the curses which the prophet employed on the occasion were not likely to be specially carried into effect by the power of Him whose Son came expressly into the world to teach men to bless, and not curse (2 Kings ii. 23, 24). A bear robbed of her whelps became, in consequence of the ferocity natural to the beast, a proverbial description of ungovernable fury, not merely in Judea (2 Sam. xvii. 8. Prov. xvii. 12), but, according to Jerome, generally: "Those'. -we translate his words -'who have written on the nature of animals say, that among all wild beasts there is none so fierce as a bear when she has lost her young.' Without any unusual provocation, the temper of the animal is surly and quarrelsome; whence a bear became the figure of a capricious tyrant (Prov. xxviii. 15).

'A roaring lion and a prowling bear;

A wicked ruler over a poor people.' BEARD.. The beard, which may be regarded as a token of manhood, though some tribes are, from local causes, destitute of it, was worn either dressed or in its natural state by most ancient nations, yet appears to have either disappeared, or to have become less, among every people, with their approach to a higher degree of civilisation. With the Hebrews, as with Orientals generally, the beard was held in high respect. Perkins mentions the case of a Persian soldier who begged his good offices with the emir in behalf of his long beard, which was in danger of being clipped. The Arabs swear by their beard, and invoke blessings on it:-'God send his blessing on your beard' is an oriental wish of kind

ness.

Friends express their good will by wishing on behalf of a father, that he may have a son with a fine beard. Hence the loss of the beard was a sign of weakness, disgrace, or mourning (Isa. vii. 20). With the Israelites, it was as customary to trim the beard among the duties of the toilette, as it was to wash and dress; without which

it was not thought becoming to enter the presence of a great man (Gen. xli. 14. 2 Sam. xix. 24). The beard was shorn, plucked, or neglected in time of trouble, as a token of disregard to personal appearance, or as a part of self-modification (Isa. xv. 2. Jer. xli. 5. Ezra ix. 3). As kissing was a customary mode of salutation among the Jews (Matt. xxvi. 49), so it was usual to take hold of the beard respectfully with the right hand when the salutation was given (2 Sam. xx. 9). From the respect in which the beard was held, and the fact that slaves were not allowed to wear a beard, which was the sign of civil freedom, the degree of insult may be estimated that Hanun king of Ammon showed to David when he sent back the messengers of the Hebrew monarch with one half of their beards shaved off. Feeling themselves disgraced, these men did not venture into David's presence; but the king sent to them this message, 1 Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return' (2 Sam. x. 1, seq.). This insult led to a war. In a similar manner, it is related that the Tartars, whose beards form a part of their religion, carried on against the Persians, whom they declared infidels, for differing from them in regard to this ambiguous ornament of man, a long, bloody, and destructive war. As the beard was held in so much respect among the Hebrews, the priests, who were to have every human quality in perfection, wore their beards, and were especially interdicted from marring the corners of their beards by shaving them off (Lev. xix. 27; xxi. 5). This prohibition, from the connection in which it stands, seems to have been occasioned also by a wish on the part of the legislator to discountenance idolatrous usages. The Persians at present usually clip the beard with shears, for a few years, until it acquires a heavy body. When they allow it to grow long, they are very particular in relation to the colour, and, if need be, paint it black every week or oftener, as Persian ladies paint their eyebrows. They follow this practice until age so wrinkles their faces, that even a black beard can no longer conceal its inroads; when suddenly they are equally partial to white beards, these being regarded as such invariable emblems of dignity and wisdom, that, in Persian and Turkish, the term white beard is a title which is applied to venerated personages, often to magistrates, and carries with it great weight and authority, somewhat equivalent to sage in English; and, in the Nestorian language, the same term corresponds with elder or presbyter, in the New Testament.

The cuts, which are here given, serve to show oriental features and head-dress, as well as the manner of wearing the beard, now prevalent in the East. In the upper