Land of Prom. p. 1). The larger of the two, which lies to the east, is, according to the careful measurements of Dr. Robinson, 124 feet diam., and at the time of his visit (Apr. 12) was 444 feet to the surface of the water; the masonry which encloses the well reaches downward for 28 feet. The other well is 5 feet diam., and was 42 feet to the water. The curb-stones round the mouth of both wells are worn into deep grooves by the action of the ropes of so many centuries, and "look as if frilled or fluted all round." Round the larger well there are nine, and round the smaller five large stone troughs, some much worn and broken, others nearly entire, lying at a distance of 10 or 12 feet from the edge of the well. There were formerly ten of these troughs at the larger well. The circle around is carpeted with a sward of fine short grass, with crocuses and lilies (Bonar, p. 5, 6, 7). The water is excellent, the best, as Dr. Robinson emphatically records, which he had tasted since leaving Sinai. The five lesser wells, apparently the only ones seen by Van de Velde, are, according to his account and the casual notice of Bonar, in a group in the bed of the wady, not on its north bank, and at a great distance from the other two. No ruins are at first visible; but, on examination, foundations of former dwellings have been traced, dispersed loosely over the low hills, to the north of the wells, and in the hollows between. They seem to have been built chiefly of round stones, although some of the stones are squared and some hewn, suggesting the idea of a small straggling city. There are no trees or shrubs near the spot. The site of the wells is nearly midway between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean at Raphæa, or twenty-seven miles south-east from Gaza, and about the same distance south by west from Hebron (20 Roman miles in the Onomast,; comp. Josephus, Ant. viii, 13, 7). Its present Arabic name, Bir es-Seba, means "well of the seven," which some take to be the signification also of Beersheba, in allusion to the seven ewe-lambs which Abraham gave to Abimelech in token of the oath between them. There is no ground for rendering it by "seren wells," as some have done. See SHEBAII. Beësh'terah (Heb. Beështerah',, prob. house of Astarte; Sept. ✈ Bogopά v. r. Bɛɛ0apά; Vulg. Bosra), one of the two Levitical cities allotted to the sons of Gershom, out of the tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan (Josh. xxi, 27). In the parallel list (1 Chron. vi, 71) it appears to be identical with ASHTAROTH (q. v.). In fact, the name is merely a contracted form of Beth-Ashtaroth, the "temple of Ashtoreth" (Gesenius, Thes. p. 196; comp. 175). Beetle ( chargol, q. d. “leaper”) occurs only in Lev. xi, 22, where it is mentioned as one of four flying creeping things, that go upon all four, which have legs above their feet to leap withal upon the earth, which the Israelites were permitted to eat. The other three are the locust, the bald locust, and the grasshopper, respectively rendered by the Sept. Вpovxoç, úrrákŋ, and up, while they translate chargol by ópioμáxne (q. d. "serpent-fighter"), which Suidas explains as being a wingless locust (vìĉoç áкpidoç, μỷ ¿xоν πτεрá). Pliny (xi, 29) and Aristotle (Hist. Anim. ix, 6) mention locusts that are serpent-destroyers. This Heb. word cannot mean the beetle. No species of scarabæus was ever used as food by the Jews, or perhaps any other nation. Nor does any known species answer to the generic description given in the preceding verse: "This ye may cat of every winged creeper which goeth upon four (feet); that which hath joints at the upper part of its hind legs, to leap with them upon the earth" (comp. Niebuhr, Descrip, de l'Arabie, Copenhague, 1773, p. 33). Hence it is plain that the chargol is some winged creeper, which has at least four feet, which leaps with its two hind jointed legs, and which we might expect, from the permission, to find actually used as food. This deacription agrees exactly with the locust-tribe of insects, which are well known to have been eaten by the common people in the East from the earliest times to the present day. This conclusion is also favored by the derivation of the word, which signines to gallop like the English grasshopper and French sauterelle. Although no known variety of locust answers the above description of Pliny and Aristotle, and, indeed, the existence of any such species is denied by Cuvier (Grandsaque's ed. of Pliny, Par. 1828, p. 451, note), yet a sort of ichneumon locust is found in the genus Truxalis (fierce Truxalis Nasutus or cruel), inhabiting Africa and China, and comprehending many species, which hunts and preys upon insects. It is also called the Truxalis nasutus, or longnosed. May not, then, this winged, leaping, insectiv orous locust, and its various species, be "the chargol, after its kind," and the opioμáxns of the Septuagint? or might the name have arisen from the similarity of sh pe and color, which is striking, between the Truxalis nasutus and the ichneumon; just as the locust generally is, at this time, called cavalette by the Italians, on account of its resemblance in shape to the horse? We know that the ancients indulged in tracing the many resemblances of the several parts of locusts to those of other animals (Bochart, Hieroz. pt. ii, lib. iv, c. 5, p. 475). It may be observed that it is no objection to the former and more probable supposition, that a creature which lives upon other insects should be allowed as food to the Jews, contrary to the general principle of the Mosaic law in regard to birds and quadrupeds, this havspecies of fishes coming within the regulation of having been unquestionably the case with regard to many ing "fins and scales," and known to exist in Palestine at the present time-as the perch, carp, barbel, etc. (Kitto's Physical History of Palestine, article Fishes). The fact that the chargol is never made the means of the divine chastisements (for which purpose a locust preying upon insects could scarcely be used), concurs with this speculation. See LOCUST. The beetle, however, was very common in Egypt, and is the species called by Linnæus Blatta Egyptiacus, thought by many to be mentioned in Exod. viii, 21, etc., under the name, arob', where the A. V. renders it "swarms of flies." See FLY. Beetles are, by naturalists, styled coleopterous insects, from their horny upper wings, or shard; the species are exceedingly numerous, differing greatly in size and color, and being found in almost every country. The order of Coleoptera is divided into many families, of which the scarabæidæ and blattæ, or common beetles and cock-chaffers, are known to every one. These creatures, like many others in the insect world, deposit their eggs in the ground, where they are hatched, and the appearance of their progeny rising from the earth is by some writers supposed to have suggested to the Egyptian priesthood the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Certain it is that beetles were very common in Egypt, and one of them, thence styled by naturalists Scarabaus sacer, was an object of worship; and this fact gives strength to the conjecture that this creature is meant in Exod. viii, as the sacred charac, ter of the object would naturally render its employ, ment as a plague doubly terrible. Besides its being worshipped as a divinity, stones cut in the form of the beetle served as talismans among the Egyptians. The under surface was filled with figures cut in intaglio of solar, lunar, and astral symbols and characters. They were held, according to Pliny, to inspire the soldier with courage, and to protect his person in the day of battle, and also to defend children from the malign influence of the evil eye. There is little reason to doubt that the Hebrews learned the use of these Ancient Egyptian Talismanic Beetle. things in Egypt, but they were prohibited by the Mosaic law. The Gnostics, among other Egyptian superstitions, adopted this notion regarding the beetle, and gems of gnostic origin are extant in this form, especially symbolical of Isis (q. v.). Beeve (, bakar', horned animals, Lev. xxii, 19, 21; Num. xxxi, 28, 30, 33, 38, 44; elsewhere rendered "ox," "bullock," "herd," etc.; in Arabic, albkar), cattle, herds, applicable to all Ruminantia, the camels alone excepted; but more particularly to the Bovidae and the genera of the larger antelopes. See Ox; BULL; DEER; GOAT; ANTELOPE, etc. Beg (, bakash', so rendered Psa. xxxvii, 25, elsewhere "seek," etc.; b, shaal', Psa. cix, 10; Prov. xx, 4; elsewhere "ask," etc.; airéw, Luke xvi, 3; πpooαréw, Mark x, 46; Luke xviii, 35; John Modern Oriental Santon, or Religious Beggar. which is worthy of being mentioned; they do not appeal to the pity or to the almsgiving spirit, but to the justice of their benefactors, (Job xxii, 7; xxxi, 16; Prov. iii, 27, 28). Roberts, in his Orient. Illustrations, P. 564, says on Luke xvi, 3 ("I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed"), "How often are we reminded of this passage by beggars when we tell them to work. They can scarcely believe their ears; and the religious mendicants, who swarm in every part of the East, look upon you with the most sovereign contempt when you give them such advice. 'I work! why, I never have done such a thing; I am not able."" See ALMS. by Charles IV (1367) and Pope Urban V (1369). In 1467 they became, by taking the usual solemn vows, a monastic association, which gradually united with several congregations of the Franciscan order. Their last convents and the name itself were abolished by Pope Innocent X in 1650. Beghards or Beguards, a religious association in ix, 8), Beggar (1, elym', 1 Sam. ii, 8; Twxóc, the Roman Church, which formed itself, in the 13th Luke xvi, 20, 22; Gal. iv, 9; both terms elsewhere after the example of the Beguines (q. v.), whom they century, in the Netherlands, Germany, and France, "poor," etc.). The laws of Moses furnish abundant evidence that great inequality of condition existed in closely imitated in their mode of life and the arrangehis time among the Hebrews, for recommendations to ment of their establishments. They supported themthe rich to be liberal to their poorer brethren are fre- selves mostly by weaving, but became neither so nuquently met with (Exod. xxiii, 11; Deut. xv, 11), but merous nor so popular as the Beguines. More generno mention is made of persons who lived as mendi-ical Fraticelli (q. v.), and the "Brethren and Sisters ally than the Beguines they associated with the heretcants. The poor were allowed to glean in the fields, of the Free Spirit." They were suppressed by the and to gather whatever the land produced in the year council of Vienna in 1311. Most of them joined the in which it was not tilled (Lev. xix, 10; xxv, 5, 6; third orders of St. Francis or St. Dominic, but yet reDeut. xxiv, 19). They were also invited to feasts tained for a long time their name and their mode of (Deut. xii, 12; xiv, 29; xxvi, 12). The Hebrew life. For a time they found a protector in the Emcould not be an absolute pauper. His land was inalienable, except for a certain term, when it reverted peror Louis, but new decrees were issued against them to him or his posterity. And if this resource was insufficient, he could pledge the services of himself or his family for a valuable sum. Those who were indigent through bodily infirmity were usually taken care of by their kindred. See POOR. In the song of Hannah (1 Sam. ii, 8), however, beggars are spoken of, and such a fate is predicted to the posterity of the wicked, while it shall never befall the seed of the righteous, in the Psalms (xxxvii, 35; cix, 10); so that the practice was probably then not uncommon. In the New Testament, also, we read of beggars that were blind, diseased, and maimed, who lay at the doors of the rich, by the waysides, and also before the gate of the Tem- der, Ch. II'st. iv, 303; Mosheim, De Beghard, et Beguin, ple (Mark x, 46; Luke xvi, 20, 21; Acts iii, 2). But (Lips. 1790); Mosheim, Ch. Hist, cent. xiii, pt. ii, ch. we have no reason to suppose that there existed in the written by Beier (Jen. 1710), Bruhns (Lub, 1719), ii, § 40. Other treatises on these orders have been time of Christ that class of persons called vagrant beg- Götze (ib, 1719), Houston (Antw. 1628). See BEgars, who present their supplications for alms from door to door, and who are found at the present day in the East, although less frequently than in the countries of Europe. That the custom of seeking alms by sounding a trumpet or horn, which prevails among a class of Mohammedan monastics, called kalendar or karendal, prevailed also in the time of Christ, has been by some inferred from the peculiar construction of the original in Matt. vi, 2. There is one thing characteristic of those Orientals who follow the vocation of mendicants 13th and 14th centuries (just as "Pietist" and "MethThe name Beghards was commonly given in the odist" were afterward used) to persons who opposed or revolted from the worldly tendencies of the Roman in France and England, were so named. See NeanChurch. The Waldenses, Wickliffites, and Lollards, GUINES; BÈGUE. Beginning (N7, "in the beginning," literally at the head, Gen, i, 1; Sept, and New Test. ir doxy), besides its ordinary import, was with the He brews an idiomatic form of expression for eternity, q. d. originally. In this sense it is employed alike by Moses and (in its Greek form) by the evangelist John (i, 1). See CREATION. Our Lord is also emphatically styled the Beginning CAox) both by Paul and John (Col. i, 18; Rev. i, 8; iii, 14), and it is worthy of remark that the Greek philosophers expressed the First Cause of all things by the same word. See LOGOS. Beguards. See BEGHARDS. Bègue, LAMBERT, a French heretic, lived toward the close of the 12th century. Man, he said, is able to attain to the highest degree of perfection, and may then accord to his body all he wants. He also denied the adoration of the consecrated wafer. He is also said to have preached against the corrupt life of the clergy. See BEGHARDS and BEGUINES.-Hoefer, Biographie Générale, v, 157. Beguinage (Beguinarum domus), the residence of a society of BEGUINES (q. v.). (1318) and Italy (1326). The Reformation put an end to nearly all the beguinages in Germany and Switzerland; but all the larger towns of Belgium except Brussels have still beguina es, the largest of which is that at Ghent, which in 1857 counted about 700 inmates.Mosheim, De Beghardis et Beguinabus (Lipsia, 1790); Hallmann, Geschichte des Ursprunges der Belgischen Be guinen (Berlin, 1843). See BEGHARDS. Behead (, araph', applied to an animal, te break the neck, Deut. xxi, 6; like TeλeKiLw, Rev, xx, 4; but properly, amore paliw, to take off the head, 2 Sam. iv, 7; Matt. xiv, 10; Mark vi, 16, 27; Luke ix, 9), a method of taking away life, known and practised among the Egyptians (Gen. xl. Beguines, a female association in the Roman have been known to the Hebrews, and there occur in17-19). This mode of punishment, therefore, must Church. The origin of both the name and the associ- dubitable instances of it in the time of the early Heation is doubtful. A Belgian writer in the beginning brew kings (2 Sam. iv, 8; xx, 21, 22; 2 Kings x, 6of the 13th century derives it from a priest of Liege, 8). It appears, in the later periods of the Jewish hisLambert le Bègue. Later some beguinages traced their origin to St. Begga, daughter of Pipin of Landen, tory, that Herod and his descendants, in a number of though without historical grounds. instances, ordered decapitation (Matt. xiv, 8-12; Acts have derived the name from beggen, to beg, though the xii, 2). The apostle Paul is said to have suffered Beguines have never been mendicants. A document martyrdom by beheading, as it was not lawful to put found in the 17th century at Vilvorde dates the estab- a Roman citizen to death by scourging or crucifixion. lishment of a beguinage at 1056, and seems to overthrow the hypothesis of priest Lambert being their founder; but more thorough investigations have proved it to be spurious. The pretended higher age of some German beguinages rests on their being confounded with similar institutions. Other writers See PUNISHMENT. Behem. See BÖHEIM. Be'hemōth (Heb. behemoth, in, Job xl, 15; Sept. 2noia; in Coptic, according to Jablonski, Pehemout) is regarded as the plural of, behemah The Beguines, whose number at the beginning of (usually rendered "beast" or "cattle"); but commenthe thirteenth century amounted to about 1500, spread tators are by no means agreed as to its true meaning. rapidly over the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Among those who adopt elephant are Drusius, Grotius, There were often as many as 2000 sisters in their Schultens, Michaelis, etc., while among the advocates beguinages (beguinagie, beguinaria), occupying in of hippopotamus are Bochart (Hieroz. ii, 754 sq.), Lucouples a small separate house. A hospital and church dolf (Hist. Ethiop. i, 11), and Gesenius (Thes. Heb. p. form the central points of the beguinage. The Be- 183). The arguments of the last in favor of his own guines support themselves, and also furnish the chest view may be summed up thus: (1.) The general purof the community, and the support of the priests, the pose and plan of Jehovah's two discourses with Job reofficers, and the hospitals, by their own industry. The quire that the animal which in this second discourse is president of a beguinage is called magistra, and is as- classed with the crocodile should be an amphibious, sisted by curators or tutors, usually mendicant friars. not a terrestrial animal, the first discourse (xxxviii, The vows are simple, viz., chastity and obedience to xxxix) having been limited to land-animals and birds. the statutes; and any beguine can be freed by leav- (2.) The crocodile and hippopotamus, being both naing the community, after which she is at liberty to tives of Egypt and Ethiopia, are constantly mentioned marry. As to dress, each beguinage chooses its par- together by the ancient writers (see Herod. ii, 69-71; ticular color, brown, gray, or blue, with a white veil Diod. i, 35; Plin. xxviii, 8). (3.) It seems certain over the head. Black has become their general color, that an amphibious animal is meant from the contrast and to their former habit is added a cap in the shape between ver. 15, 20, 21, 22, and ver. 23, 24, in which of an inverted shell, with a long black tassel. The the argument seems to be, Though he feedeth upon association made itself useful by receiving wretched grass," etc., like other animals, yet he liveth and defemales, by nursing the sick, lighteth in the waters, and nets are set for him there and by educating poor chil- as for fish, which by his great strength he pierces dren. In Germany they were through. (4.) The mention of his tail in ver. 17 does therefore called soul-women. not agree with the elephant, nor can, as some have Like all the monastic orders, thought, signify the trunk of that animal; and (5.), their community was invaded though i may be the plural "majestatis" of by great disorders, and then, beast, yet it is probably an Egyptian word sigsynod of Fritzlar in 1244 fornifying sea-or, put into a Semitic form, and used as a bade to receive any sister besingular. fore her fortieth year of age. Many were also drawn into the heresies of the Fraticelli, and the whole community had to atone for it by continued persecution. Clement V, on the council of Vienna, in 1311, decreed by two bulls the suppression of the Beguines and Beghards infected with hercsy; but John XXII explained these bulls as referring merely to the heretical Beghards and Beguines, and interfered in favor of the ortho Beguine of Amsterdam. dox Beguines in Germany The following is a close translation of the poetical passage in Job (x1, 15-24) describing the animal in question: Lo, now, Behemoth that I have made [alike] with thee! Lo! now, his strength [is] in his loins, Ile [is the] master-piece of God: His Maker [only] can supply his sword [i. c. tushes]. In [the] covert of [the] reedy marsh; Osiers of [the] brook shall enclose him, [there. Lo! [the] river may swell-he will not start; surrounding seas and deserts, it conveys a more sub. He will be bold, although a Jordan should rush to his mouth. lime conception than if limited to the crocodile, an anIn his [very] eyes should [one] take him, Through [the] snares would [his] nose pierce. imal familiar to every Egyptian, and well known even in Palestine." See HIPPOPOTAMUS. "But in some respects this description is more Behistún or Bisutun (Lat. Bagistanus; Persian, applicable to the elephant, while in others it is equally Baghistan, Place of Gardens), a ruined town of the so to both animals. Hence the term behemoth, taken Persian province of Irak-Ajemi, 21 miles east of Kirintensively (for in some places it is admitted to desig- manshah, lat. 34° 18' N., long. 47° 30' E. Behistun is nate cattle in general), may be assumed to be a poeti- chiefly celebrated for a remarkable mountain, which on cal personification of the great Pachydermata, or even one side rises almost perpendicularly to the height of Herbivora, wherein the idea of hippopotamus is pre- 1700 feet, and which was in ancient times sacred to dominant. This view accounts for the ascription to it Jupiter or to Ormuzd. According to Diodorus, Semof characters not truly applicable to one species; for iramis, on her march from Babylon to Ecbatana, in instance, the tail is likened to a cedar (provided Media Magna, encamped near this rock, and, having really denotes the tail, which the context makes very cut away and polished the lower part of it, had her doubtful; see Zeddel, Beitr. z. Bibl. Zoologie), which own likeness and those of a hundred of her guards enis only admissible in the case of the elephant; again, graved on it. She further, according to the same his"the mountains bring him forth food;" "he trusteth torian, caused the following inscription in Assyrian that he can draw up Jordan," a river which elephants letters to be cut in the rock: "Semiramis having piled alone could reach; "his nose pierceth through snares," up one upon the other the trappings of the beasts of certainly more indicative of that animal's proboscis, burden which accompanied her, ascended by these with its extraordinary delicacy of scent and touch, ever means from the plain to the top of the rock." No trace cautiously applied, than of the obtuse perceptions of of these inscriptions is now to be found, and Sir Henry the river-horse. Finally, the elephant is far more dan- Rawlinson accounts for their absence by the supposi gerous as an enemy than the hippopotamus, which nu- tion that they were destroyed "by Khusraú Parvis merous pictorial sculptures on the monuments of Egypt when he was preparing to form of this long scarped represent as fearlessly speared by a single hunter stand- surface the back wall of his palace." Diodorus also ing on his float of log and reeds. Yet, although the mentions that Alexander the Great, on his way to elephant is scarcely less fond of water, the description Ecbatana from Susa, visited Behistun. But the rock is referring to manners, such as lying under the shade of especially interesting for its cuneiform inscriptions (q. willows, among reeds, in fens, etc., is more directly v.), which within recent years have been successfully characteristic of the hippopotamus. The book of Job deciphered by Sir H. Rawlinson. The principal inappears, from many internal indications, to have been scription of Behistun, executed by the command of written in Asia, and is full of knowledge, although that Darius, is on the north extremity of the rock, at an knowledge is not expressed according to the precise elevation of 300 feet from the ground, where it could technicalities of modern science; it offers pictures in not have been engraved without the aid of scaffolding, magnificent outline, without condescending to minute and can now only be reached by the adventurous anand labored details. Considered in this light, the ex- tiquary at considerable risk to his life. The labor of pression in Psa. 1, 10, "For every beast of the forest polishing the face of the rock, so as to fit it to receive is mine, and the cattle (behemoth) upon a thousand the inscriptions, must have been very great. In places hills," acquires a grandeur and force far surpassing where the stone was defective, pieces were fitted in those furnished by the mere idea of cattle of various and fastened with molten lead with such extreme kinds. If, then, we take this plural noun in the sense nicety that only a careful scrutiny can detect the artihere briefly indicated, we may, in like manner, con- fice. "But the real wonder of the work," says Sir H. sider the LEVIATHAN (q. v.) its counterpart, a similar- Rawlinson, "consists in the inscriptions. For extent, ly generalized term, with the idea of crocodile most for beauty of execution, for uniformity and correctness, prominent; and as this name indicates a twisting ani- they are perhaps unequalled in the world. After the mal, and, as appears from various texts, evidently in-engraving of the rock had been accomplished, a costcludes the great pythons, cetacea, and sharks of the ing of silicious varnish had been laid on, to give a clearness of outline to each individual letter, and to protect the surface against the action of the elements. This varnish is of infinitely greater hardness than the limestone rock beneath it." Washed down in some places by the rain of twenty-three centuries, it lies in consistent flakes like thin layers of lava on the footledge; in others, where time has honey-combed the rock beneath, it adheres to the broken surface, still showing with sufficient distinctness the forms of the characters. The inscriptions-which are in the three forms of cuneiform writing, Persian, Babylonian, and Median-set forth the hereditary right of Darius to the throne of Persia, tracing his genealogy, through eight generations, up to the Achæmenes; they then enumerate the provinces of his empire, and recount his triumphs over the various rebels who rose against him during the first four years of his reign. The monarch himself is represented on the tablet with a bow in hand, and his foot upon the prostrate figure of a man, while nine rebels, chained together by the neck, stand humbly before him; behind him are two of his own warriors, and above him, another figure [see cut] The Persian inscriptions which Sir H. Rawlinson has translated are contained in the five main columns numbered in cut 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The first column contains 19 paragraphs, and 96 lines. Each paragraph after the first, which commences, "I am Darius the Great King," begins with, "Says Darius the King." The second column has the same number of lines in 16 paragraphs; the third, 92 lines and 14 paragraphs; the fourth has also 92 lines and 18 paragraphs; and the fifth, which appears to be a supplementary column, 35 lines. A transcription, in Roman characters, of the Persian part, with a translation in English, is given in Rawlinson's Herodotus, ii, 490 sq. The second, fourth, and fifth columns are much injured. Sir H. Rawlinson fixes the epoch of the sculpture at 515 B.C. See Jour. of Asiatic Society, vol. x; Norris, Lehistun Inscription. Behmen. See BOEHME. Beirut. See BERYTUS. more justly observes that Hera is the female counterpart to Zeus-Bel, that she is called so solely because it was the name of the chief Greek goddess, and that she and Bel are the moon and sun. He refers for confirmation to Berosus (p. 50, ed. Richter), who states that the wife of Bel was called Omorca, which means moon; and to Ammian. Marcell, xxiii, 3, for a statement that the moon was, in later times, zealously worshipped in Mesopotamia. The classical writers generally call this Babylonian deity by their names, Zeus and Jupiter (Herod. and Diod. 1. c.; Plin. Hist. Nat. vi, 30), by which they assuredly did not mean the planet of that name, but merely the chief god of their religious system. Cicero, however (De Nat. Deor. iii. 16), recognises Hercules in the Belus of India, which is a loose term for Babylonia. This favors the identity of Bel and Melkart. See BAAL. The following engraving, taken from a Babylonian cylinder, represents, according to Münter, the sun-god and one of his priests. The triangle on the top of one of the pillars, the star with eight rays, and the half moon, are all significant symbols. See CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. Bel AND THE DRAGON, HISTORY OF, an apocryphal and uncanonical book of Scripture. See APOCRYPHA. It was always rejected by the Jewish Church, and is extant neither in the Hebrew nor the Chaldee language. Jerome gives it no better title than that of "the fable" of Bel and the Dragon; nor has it obtain Be'kah (, be'ka, cleft, i. e. part), a Jewish weight of early use (Exod. xxxviii, 26), being half aed more credit with posterity, except with the divines SHEKEL (q. v.), the unit of value (Gen. xxiv, 22, “halfshekel). See METROLOGY. Every Israelite paid one bekah (about 31 cents) yearly for the support and repairs of the Temple (Exod. xxx, 13). See DIDRACHMA. Bekaïm. See MULBERRY. Bekker, BALTHASAR. See BECKER. Bel (Heb. id. a, contracted from, the Aramaic form of; Sept. Bijλ and Biλoç) is the name under which the national god of the Babylonians is cursorily mentioned in Isa. xlvi, 1; Jer. 1, 2; li, 44. The only passages in the (apocryphal) Bible which contain any farther notice of this deity are Bar. vi, 40, and the addition to the book of Daniel, in the Sept., xiv, 1, sq., where we read of meat and drink being daily offered to him, according to a usage occurring in classical idolatry, and termed Lectisternia (Jer. li, 44?). But a particular account of the pyramidal temple of Bel, at Babylon, is given by Herodotus, i, 181-183. See BABEL. It is there also stated that the sacrifices of this god consisted of adult cattle (rpóẞara), of their young, when sucking (which last class were the only victims offered up on the golden altar), and of incense. The custom of providing him with Lectisternia may be inferred from the table placed before the statue, but it is not expressly mentioned. Diodorus (ii, 9) gives a similar account of this temple; but adds that there were large golden statues of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea on its summit, with a table, common to them all, before them. Gesenius, in order to support his own theory, endeavors to show that this statue of Zeus must have been that of Saturn, while that of Rhea represented the sun. Hitzig, however, in his note to Isa. xvii, 8, of the Council of Trent, who determined that it should form part of the canonical Scriptures. The design of this fiction is to render idolatry ridiculous, and to exalt the true God; but the author has destroyed the illusion of his fiction by transporting to Babylon the worship of animals, which was never practised in that country. This book forms the fourteenth chapter of Daniel in the Latin Vulgate; in the Greek it was called the proph ecy of Habakkuk, the son of Jesus, of the tribe of Levi; but this is evidently erroneous, for that prophet lived before the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and the events pretended to have taken place in this fable are assigned to the time of Cyrus. There are two Greek texts of this fragment; that of the Septuagint, and that found in Theodotion's Greek version of Daniel. The former is the most ancient, and has been translated into Syriac. The Latin and Arabic versions, together with another Syriac translation, have been made from the text of Theodotion.-Davidson, in Horne's Introd. new ed. i, 639. Sce DANIEL (APOCRYPHAL ADDITIONS TO). Be'la (Heb. id. a, a thing swallowed), the name of one place and three men. 1. (Sept. Baλák.) A small city on the shore of the Dead Sea, not far from Sodom, afterward called Zoar, to which Lot retreated from the destruction of the cities of the plain, it being the only one of the five that was spared at his intercession (Gen. xix, 20, 30). It lay at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, on the frontier of Moab and Palestine (Jerome on Isa. xv), and on the route to Egypt, the connection in which it is found (Isa. xv, 5; Jer. xlviii, 34; Gen. xiii, 10). We first read of Bela in Gen. xiv, 2, 8, where it is |