BOWL

BOWL . — It is impossible to distinguish with certainty between the numerous words rendered, somewhat indiscriminately, 'cup,' 'bason,' and 'bowl.' The wandering Bedouin of to-day make little use, for obvious reasons, of the fragile products of the potter's art, preferring vessels of skin, wood, and copper. The ' lordly dish ' with which Sisera was served ( Jg 5^) was a bowl, doubtless of wood ; so too, perhaps, Gideon's bowl (6*8) which bears the same name. For ordinary domestic purposes bowls of glazed or unglazed earthenware were preferred, of which specimens in endless variety have been unearthed (see Potteky), Among the wealthier classes silver and even gold (1 K 10^') were employed. Of one or other of these were doubtless the large bowls — the word elsewhere used tor the sacri-ficial basons (wh. see) — from which the nobles of Samaria quaffed their wine (Am 6^). Similar, probably, were the large wine-bowls, distinguished from the smaller cups, to which Jeremiah refers (Jer 35' RV and AV 'pots').

From the above are to be distinguished the bowl or reservoir for the oil of the 'candlestick' (Zee i^'), the golden cup-like ornaments of the Tabernacle larapstand (Ex 25" AV 'bowls,' RV 'cups'), and the 'bowls of the chapiters' (2 Oh 4>"- RV and AV 'pommels'). See, further, Cdp, Bason, Vial.

For an important ritual use of bowls and lamps, recently discovered, see House, § 3.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

BOX. — 1. The nature of the prophet's 'box of oil' (2 K 91- 3 RV vial, as 1 S 10' AV) is unknown. Was it another name for 'the horn of oil' of 1 K l^s? 2. For the 'alabaster box' (Mt26'||, RV cruse) see Jewels and Precious Stones, ad fin. 3. For Judas' money-box (Jnl2si329 AV'bag,'RVm'box')seeBAQ. 4. Nothing is known of the perfume boxes (Ut. 'houses, i.e. re-ceptacles of perfume [or perhaps ointment]') of the Jerusalem ladies (Is 3^' RV and AV 'tablets').

A. R. S. Kennedy.

BOX-TREE (teashslMr, Is 41" BO's, Ezk 27«).— Whether the teashsh'B/r was the box-tree (Buxus longi-/o;ia)orthesfter6in, mod. Arab, for the cypress (CMpress«s semvervtrens), as RV adopts, or, as others propose, a kind of juniper, is quite unsettled. So good an authority as Post rejects the first as improbable.

E. W. G. Masteeman.

BOY.— See Child, Family.

BOZEZ (1 S 14<). — A steep cliff on one side of the Michmash gorge opposite Seneh. It seems to be the northern cliff, a remarkable bastion of rock E. of Mich-mash.

BOZKATH.— A town of Judah (Jos 15*', 2 K 22'), in the plain near Lachish and Eglon. Unknown.

BOZRAH ('fortification'). — 1. An Edomite city known only as the place of origin of Jobab, son of Zerah, one of the Edomite kings (Gn 36^, 1 Ch 1"). It was, however, of such importance in the kingdom of Edom that it is coupled with the name of the latter in poetic parallelisms {e.g. the denunciation in Is 346; cf. Jer 49^2). The reference in Is 63' to •'dyed garments' of Bozrah, and in Mic 2'* to 'sheep of Bozrah,' may indicate the Industries for which it was noted. The guesses that have been made at its identification are of no importance. 2. A Moabite city denounced by Jeremiah (iS"), and also unknown. R. A. S. Macalisteh.

BRACELETS.— See Ornaments, § 4.

BRAMBLE. — See Thorns.

BRAN. — The burning of bran for incense is mentioned in Bar 6" as an accompaniment of the idolatrous wor-ship of the women of Babylon.

BRANCH. — 1. The great variety of Heb. words rendered by our 'branch' may be gathered from the following list of passages, in each of which a different term is used: Gn 40'», Ex 25", Nu 1323, Is 168 2V,

BREAD

Jer 11", Zee 4", Ps 104'2, Job 1582 IS". In the following verses RV or RVm adds or substitutes another word: Is IS* ('spreading branches') 25» ('song'), Ezk 178- 22 ('top,' 'lofty top'), Ps 80« ('Heb. son': RVm of Gn 4922, in like manner has ' Heb. daughters'), Pr 1128 ('leaf) Job 8" ('shoot'). In the NT four Greek words are translated 'branch,' but RVm points out that 'layers of leaves' are meant at Mk lis, and at Jn 1218 poim-branches are in question. 2. 'Branch' is used figuratively for human offspring (Job 1582), especially for the scion of a royal house (Dn 11'); also tor persons in lofty station (Is 9"). The Heb. netser, properly signifying 'sprout' or 'shoot,' but rendered 'branch' (Is 11'), is a designation of the Messianic king; not improbably this was in the Evan-gelist's mind when he wrote Mt 228. iffQ have the same EngUsh term at Jer 23' 33'^, where another word, tsemach, is a title of the Messiah, intimating that this 'shoot' should arise out of 'the low estate' of the restored remnant. Zee 3' 6'2, following Jeremiah, actually makes Tsemach a proper name. The Targ. on Jer. and Zeoh. unhesitatingly substitutes for it ' the Messiah.' J. Taylor.

BRA8IER.— See Coal and Firepan.

BRASS is an alloy of copper and zinc, the general use of which is comparatively modern. In ancient times its place was supplied by bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Where 'brass' occurs in EV, we must understand either bronze or copper itself. In some of the references, such as those to mining (Dt 8' 'out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass') and smelt-ing (Job 282 ' Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone'), it is clear that only copper can be meant, and RVm adopts this rendering every-where (see on Gn 42^). Copper is not found in Palestine proper, but in the Lebanon and Hermon (possibly the 'mountains of brass' of Zee 6'). Weapons of copper have been found at Tell el-Hesy (dating from c. b.c. 1600) . From very early times copper was largely worked by the Egyptians in the Sinaitic peninsula, where traces of the mining and smelting are still to be seen. A full account of these operations and their remains is given in Flinders Petrie's Researches in Sinai.

James Patrick.

BRAVERY.- In Is 3" ' the bravery of their tinkling ornaments,' bravery means splendour, ostentation. The word is connected with ' brag."

BRAZEN SEA.— See Temple.

BRAZEN SERPENT. — See Serpent Prazen].

BREACH. — ^' Breach' is a literal trans, of the Heb. in 2 S 68 and 1 Ch 13" 'the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah,' and in Job 16" 'He breaketh me with breach upon breach.' The word in both places is used figuratively of an outburst of wrath.

BREAD, — The pre-eminence of bread in the dietary of the Hebrews is shown by the frequent use in OT, from Gn 3" onwards, of ' bread ' for food in general. It was made chiefiy from wheat and barley, occasionally mixed, more especially in times of scarcity, with other ingredients (Ezk 4*; see Food). Barley was in earlier times the main breadstuff of the peasantry (Jg 7") and poorer classes generally (Jn 6", cf. Jos BJ v. x. 2).

The first step in bread-making, after thoroughly sifting and cleaning the grain, was to reduce it to fiour by rubbing, pounding, or grinding (cf. Nu 118). In the first process, not yet extinct in Egypt for certain grains, the grain was rubbed between two stones, the 'corn-rubbers' or 'corn-grinders,' of which numerous specimens have been found at Lachish and Gezer (PEFSi, 1902, 326; 1903, 118; cf. Erman, Egypt, 180 for illust. of actual use) . For the other two processes see Mortar and Mill respectively. Three qualities of flour are distinguished — a coarser sort got by the use of the pestle and mortar, the 'beaten (RV 'bruised'

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