Joseph’s bowels were moved at the sight of his brother Benjamin; that
is, he felt himself softened and affected. The true mother of the child
whom Solomon commanded to be divided, felt her bowels move, and
consented that it should be given to the woman who was not its real
mother, 1 Kings, iii, 26. The Hebrews also sometimes place wisdom and
understanding in the bowels, “Who hath put wisdom in the inner parts?”
or bowels, Job xxxviii, 36. The Psalmist says, “Thy law is within my
heart,” literally, in the midst of my bowels,--it is by me strongly and
affectionately regarded, Psalm xl, 8.
BOX TREE, תאשור, Isa. xli, 9; lx, 13; Ezek. xxvii, 6; 2 Esdras xiv, 24,
where the word appears to be used for _tablets_. Most of the ancient,
and several of the modern, translators render this word the _buxus_, or
“box tree;” but from its being mentioned along with trees of the forest,
some more stately tree must be intended, probably the cedar.
BRACELET. A bracelet is commonly worn by the oriental princes, as a
badge of power and authority. When the calif Cayem Bemrillah granted the
investiture of certain dominions to an eastern prince, he sent him
letters patent, a crown, a chain, and bracelets. This was probably the
reason that the Amalekite brought the bracelet which he found on Saul’s
arm, along with his crown, to David, 2 Sam. i, 10. It was a royal
ornament, and belonged to the regalia of the kingdom. The bracelet, it
must be acknowledged, was worn both by men and women of different ranks;
but the original word, in the second book of Samuel, occurs only in two
other places, and is quite different from the term which is employed to
express the more common ornament known by that name. And beside, this
ornament was worn by kings and princes in a different manner from their
subjects. It was fastened above the elbow; and was commonly of great
value.
BRAHMINS, or BRACHMINS, the highest caste of Hindoos, to whom is
confined the priesthood, and, in general, all their ancient learning,
which is locked up in their sacred language, called the Sanscrit. The
Brahmins derive that name from Brahma, the Creator; for they maintain
the doctrine of three embodied energies, the creative, the preserving,
and the destroying; personified under the names of Brahma, Vishnu, and
Shiva, all sprung from Brimh; and to each of them is assigned a kind of
celestial consort, a female deity, which they describe as a passive
energy.
Like the philosophers of Greece, they seem to have had an open and a
secret doctrine: the latter, a species of Spinozism, considering the
great Supreme as “the soul of the world;” endowed with no other quality
than ubiquity; requiring no worship, and exerting no power, but in the
production of the three great energies above mentioned. These are so
ingeniously diversified as to produce three hundred and thirty millions
of gods, or objects of idolatry; so various in character as to suit
every man’s taste or humour, and to furnish examples of every vice and
folly to which humanity is subject.
As it respects a future state, two of the principal doctrines of
Brachminism are transmigration and absorption. After death, the person
is conveyed, by the messengers of Yumu, through the air to the place of
judgment. After receiving his sentence, he wanders about the earth for
twelve months, as an aërial being or ghost; and then takes a body suited
to his future condition, whether he ascend to the gods, or suffer in a
new body, or be hurled into some hell. This is the doctrine of several
“pooranus;” others maintain, that immediately after death and judgment,
the person suffers the pains of hell, and removes his sin by suffering;
and then returns to the earth in some bodily form. The descriptions
which the “pooranus” give of the heavens of the gods are truly in the
eastern style; all things, even the beds of the gods, are made of gold
and precious stones. All the pleasures of these heavens are exactly what
we should expect in a system formed by uninspired and unrenewed men:
like the paradise of Mohammed, they are brothels, rather than places of
rewards for “the pure in heart.” Here all the vicious passions are
personified, or rather, deified: the quarrels and licentious intrigues
of the gods fill these places with perpetual uproar, while their
impurities are described with the same literality and gross detail, as
similar things are talked of among these idolaters on earth.
But the highest degree of happiness is absorption. God, as separated
from matter, the Hindoos contemplate as a being reposing in his own
happiness, destitute of ideas; as infinite placidity; as an unruffled
sea of bliss; as being perfectly abstracted, and void of consciousness.
They therefore deem it the height of perfection to be like this being.
Hence Krishnu, in his discourse to Urjoonu, praises the man “who
forsaketh every desire that entereth into his heart; who is happy of
himself; who is without affection; who rejoiceth not either in good or
evil; who, like the tortoise, can restrain his members from their wonted
purpose; to whom pleasure and pain, gold, iron, and stones are the
same.” “The learned,” adds Krushnu, “behold Brumhu alike in the reverend
‘branhun,’ perfected in knowledge; in the ox, and in the elephant; in
the dog, and in him who eateth of the flesh of dogs.” The person whose
very nature, say they, is absorbed in divine meditation; whose life is
like a sweet sleep, unconscious and undisturbed; who does not even
desire God, and who is thus changed into the image of the ever blessed;
obtains absorption into Brumhu. The ceremonies leading to absorption are
called by the name of “tupushya” and the persons performing them, a
“tupushwee.” Forsaking the world; retiring to a forest; fasting, living
on roots, fruits, &c;--remaining in certain postures; exposure to all
the inclemencies of the weather, &c; these, and many other austere
practices are prescribed, to subdue the passions, to fix the mind,
habituate it to meditation, and fill it with that serenity and
indifference to the world which is to prepare it for absorption, and
place it beyond the reach of future birth.
BRAMBLE, אטד, a prickly shrub, Judges ix, 14, 15; Psalm lviii, 9. In the
latter place it is translated “thorn.” Hiller supposes _atad_ to be the
_cynobastus_, or sweetbrier. The author of “Scripture Illustrated” says,
that the bramble seems to be well chosen as the representative of the
original; which should be a plant bearing fruit of some kind, being
associated, Judges ix, 14, though by opposition, with the vine. The
apologue or fable of Jotham has always been admired for its spirit and
application. It has also been considered as the oldest fable extant.
BRANCH, a title of Messiah: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the
stem of Jesse, and a BRANCH shall grow out of his roots,” Isaiah xi, 1.
See also Zech. iii, 8; vi, 12; Jer. xxiii, 5; xxxiii, 15. When Christ is
represented as a slender twig, shooting out from the trunk of an old
tree lopped to the very root and decayed, and becoming itself a mighty
tree, reference is made, 1. To the kingly dignity of Christ, springing
up from the decayed house of David; 2. To the exaltation which was to
succeed his humbled condition on earth, and to the glory and vigour of
his mediatorial reign.
BRASS. נחשת. The word _brass_ occurs very often in our translation of
the Bible; but that is a mixed metal, for the making of which we are
indebted to the German metallurgists of the thirteenth century. That the
ancients knew not the art of making it, is almost certain. None of their
writings even hint at the process. There can be no doubt that copper is
the original metal intended. This is spoken of as known prior to the
flood; and to have been discovered, or at least wrought, as was also
iron, in the seventh generation from Adam, by Tubal-cain: whence the
name _Vulcan_. The knowledge of these two metals must have been carried
over the world afterward with the spreading colonies of the Noachidæ.
Agreeably to this, the ancient histories of the Greeks and Romans speak
of Cadmus as the inventor of the metal which by the former is called
χαλκὸς, and by the latter _æs_; and from him had the denomination
_cadmea_. According to others, Cadmus discovered a mine, of which he
taught the use. The name of the person here spoken of was undoubtedly
the same with Ham, or Cam, the son of Noah, who probably learned the art
of assaying metals from the family of Tubal-cain, and communicated that
knowledge to the people of the colony which he settled.
BRASEN SERPENT, the, was an image of polished brass, in the form of one
of those fiery serpents which were sent to chastise the murmuring
Israelites in the wilderness, and whose bite caused violent heat,
thirst, and inflammation. By divine command “Moses made a serpent of
brass,” or copper, and “put it upon a pole; and it came to pass, that if
a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he
lived,” Num. xxi, 6–9. This brasen serpent was preserved as a monument
of the divine mercy, but in process of time became an instrument of
idolatry. When this superstition began, it is difficult to determine;
but the best account is given by the Jewish rabbi, David Kimchi, in the
following manner: From the time that the kings of Israel did evil, and
the children of Israel followed idolatry, till the reign of Hezekiah,
they offered incense to it; for it being written in the law of Moses,
“Whoever looketh upon it shall live,” they fancied they might obtain
blessings by its mediation, and therefore thought it worthy to be
worshipped. It had been kept from the days of Moses, in memory of a
miracle, in the same manner as the pot of manna was: and Asa and
Jehoshaphat did not extirpate it when they rooted out idolatry, because
in their reign they did not observe that the people worshipped this
serpent, or burnt incense to it; and therefore they left it as a
memorial. But Hezekiah thought fit to take it quite away, when he
abolished other idolatry, because in the time of his father they adored
it as an idol; and though pious people among them accounted it only as a
memorial of a wonderful work, yet he judged it better to abolish it,
though the memory of the miracle should happen to be lost, than suffer
it to remain, and leave the Israelites in danger to commit idolatry
hereafter with it. On the subject of the serpent-bitten Israelites being
healed by looking at the brasen serpent, there is a good comment in the
book of Wisdom, chap. xvi, 4–12, in which are these remarkable
words:--“They were admonished, having a sign of salvation,” that is, the
brasen serpent, “to put them in remembrance of the commandments of thy
law. For he that turned himself toward it, was not saved by the THING
that he saw, but by THEE, that art the Saviour of all,” verses 6, 7. To
the circumstance of looking at the brasen serpent in order to be healed,
our Lord refers, John iii, 14, 15: “As Moses lifted up the (brasen)
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life.”
BREAD, a term which in Scripture is used, as by us, frequently for food
in general; but is also often found in its proper sense. Sparing in the
use of flesh, like all the nations of the east, the chosen people
usually satisfied their hunger with bread, and quenched their thirst in
the running stream. Their bread was generally made of wheat or barley,
or lentiles and beans. Bread of wheat flour, as being the most
excellent, was preferred: barley bread was used only in times of
scarcity and distress. So mean and contemptible, in the estimation of
the numerous and well-appointed armies of Midian, was Gideon, with his
handful of undisciplined militia, that he seems to have been compared to
bread of this inferior quality, which may account for the ready
interpretation of the dream of the Midianite respecting him: “And when
Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his
fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley
bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent and smote it
that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow
answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the
son of Joash, a man of Israel; for into his hand hath God delivered
Midian, and all the host.” In the cities and villages of Barbary, where
public ovens are established, the bread is usually leavened; but among
the Bedoweens and Kabyles, as soon as the dough is kneaded, it is made
into thin cakes, either to be baked immediately upon the coals, or else
in a shallow earthen vessel like a frying-pan, called Tajen. Such were
the unleavened cakes which we so frequently read of in Scripture; and
those also which Sarah made quickly upon the hearth. These last are
about an inch thick; and, being commonly prepared in woody countries,
are used all along the shores of the Black Sea, from the Palus Mæotis to
the Caspian, in Chaldea and Mesopotamia, except in towns. A fire is made
in the middle of the room: and when the bread is ready for baking, a
corner of the hearth is swept, the bread is laid upon it, and covered
with ashes and embers; in a quarter of an hour, they turn it. Sometimes
they use small convex plates of iron, which are most common in Persia,
and among the nomadic tribes, as being the easiest way of baking, and
done with the least expense; for the bread is extremely thin, and soon
prepared. The oven is also used in every part of Asia: it is made in the
ground, four or five feet deep, and three in diameter, well plastered
with mortar. When it is hot, they place the bread (which is commonly
long, and not thicker than a finger) against the sides: it is baked in a
moment. Ovens, Chardin apprehends, were not used in Canaan in the
patriarchal age: all the bread of that time was baked upon a plate, or
under the ashes; and he supposes, what is nearly self-evident, that the
cakes which Sarah baked on the hearth were of the last sort, and that
the shew bread was of the same kind. The Arabs about Mount Carmel use a
great strong pitcher, in which they kindle a fire; and when it is
heated, they mix meal and water, which they apply with the hollow of
their hands to the outside of the pitcher; and this extremely soft
paste, spreading itself, is baked in an instant. The heat of the pitcher
having dried up all the moisture, the bread comes off as thin as our
wafers; and the operation is so speedily performed, that in a very
little time a sufficient quantity is made. But their best sort of bread
they bake, either by heating an oven, or a large pitcher full of little
smooth shining flints, upon which they lay the dough, spread out in the
form of a thin broad cake. Sometimes they use a shallow earthen vessel,
resembling a frying pan, which seems to be the pan mentioned by Moses,
in which the meat-offering was baked. This vessel, Dr. Shaw informs us,
serves both for baking and frying; for the bagreah of the people of
Barbary differs not much from our pancakes; only, instead of rubbing the
pan in which they fry them with butter, they rub it with soap, to make
them like a honey-comb. If these accounts of the Arab stone pitcher, the
pan, and the iron hearth or copper plate, be attended to, it will not be
difficult to understand the laws of Moses in the second chapter of
Leviticus: they will be found to answer perfectly well to the
description which he gives us of the different ways of preparing the
meat-offerings. As the Hebrews made their bread thin, in the form of
little flat cakes, they did not cut it with a knife, but broke it; which
gave rise to the expression, _breaking bread_, so frequent in Scripture.
The Arabians and other eastern people, among whom wood is scarce, often
bake their bread between two fires made of cow dung, which burns slowly,
and bakes the bread very leisurely. The crumb of it is very good, if it
be eaten the same day; but the crust is black and burnt, and retains a
smell of the materials that were used in baking it. This may serve to
explain a passage in Ezekiel, iv, 9–13. The straits of a siege and the
scarcity of fuel were thus intimated to the Prophet. During the whole
octave of the passover, the Hebrews use only unleavened bread, as a
memorial that at the time of their departure out of Egypt they wanted
leisure to bake leavened bread; and, having left the country with
precipitation, they were content to bake bread which was not leavened,
Exod. xii, 8. The practice of the Jews at this day, with relation to the
use of unleavened bread, is as follows: They forbid to eat, or have in
their houses, or in any place belonging to them, either leavened bread
or any thing else that is leavened. That they may the better observe
this rule, they search into all the corners of the house with scrupulous
exactness for all bread or paste, or any thing that is leavened. After
they have thus well cleansed their houses, they whiten them, and furnish
them with kitchen and table utensils, all new, and with others which are
to be used only on that day. If they are movables, which have served
only for something else, and are made of metal, they have them polished,
and put into the fire, to take away all the impurity which they may have
contracted by touching any thing leavened. All this is done on the
thirteenth day of Nisan, or on the vigil of the feast of the passover,
which begins with the fifteenth of the same month, or the fourteenth day
in the evening; for the Hebrews reckon their days from one evening to
another. On the fourteenth of Nisan, at eleven o’clock, they burn the
common bread, to show that the prohibition of eating leavened bread is
then commenced; and this action is attended with words, whereby the
master of the house declares that he has no longer any thing leavened in
his keeping; that, at least, he believes so. In allusion to this
practice, we are commanded to “purge out the old leaven;” by which
“malice and wickedness” are intended; and to feed only on the
“unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
2. SHEW BREAD, or, according to the Hebrews, _the bread of faces_, was
bread offered every Sabbath day upon the golden table in the holy place,
Exod. xxv, 30. The Hebrews affirm that these loaves were square, and had
four sides, and were covered with leaves of gold. They were twelve in
number, according to the number of the twelve tribes, in whose names
they were offered. Every loaf was composed of two assarons of flour,
which make about five pints and one-tenth. These loaves were unleavened.
They were presented hot every Sabbath day, the old ones being taken away
and eaten by the priests only. This offering was accompanied with salt
and frankincense, and even with wine, according to some commentators.
The Scripture mentions only salt and incense; but it is presumed that
wine was added, because it was not wanting in other sacrifices and
offerings. It is believed that these loaves were placed one upon
another, in two piles of six each; and that between every loaf were two
thin plates of gold, folded back in a semicircle the whole length of
them, to admit air, and to prevent the loaves from growing mouldy. These
golden plates, thus turned in, were supported at their extremities by
two golden forks, which rested on the ground. The twelve loaves, because
they stood before the Lord, were called לחם הפנים, ἄρτοι ϖροθέσεως, or
ἐνωπίοι, the bread of faces, or of the presence; and are therefore
denominated in our English translation _the shew bread_.
Since part of the frankincense put upon the bread was to be burnt on the
altar for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord; and
since Aaron and his sons were to eat it in the holy place, Lev. xxiv,
5–9, it is probable that this bread typified Christ, first presented as
a sacrifice to Jehovah, and then becoming spiritual food to such as in
and through him are spiritual priests to God, even his Father, Rev. i,
6; v, 10; xx, 6; 1 Peter ii, 5. It appears, from some places in
Scripture, (see Exodus xxix, 32, and Numbers vi, 15,) that there was
always near the altar a basket full of bread, in order to be offered
together with the ordinary sacrifices.
BREASTPLATE, or PECTORAL, one part of the priestly vestments, belonging
to the Jewish high priests. It was about ten inches square, Exod.
xxviii, 13–31; and consisted of a folded piece of the same rich
embroidered stuff of which the ephod was made. It was worn on the breast
of the high priest, and was set with twelve precious stones, on each of
which was engraven the name of one of the tribes. They were set in four
rows, three in each row, and were divided from each other by the little
golden squares or partitions in which they were set. The names of these
stones, and that of the tribe engraven on them, as also their
disposition on the breastplate, are usually given as follows; but what
stones really answer to the Hebrew name, is for the most part very
uncertain:--
_Sardine_, _Topaz_, _Carbuncle_,
REUBEN. SIMEON. LEVI.
_Emerald_, _Sapphire_, _Diamond_,
JUDAH. DAN. NAPHTALI.
_Ligure_, _Agate_, _Amethyst_,
GAD. ASHER. ISSACHAR.
_Beryl_, _Onyx_, _Jasper_,
ZEBULUN. JOSEPH. BENJAMIN.