-
BaruchAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
message of Jerusalem’s doom, dictated by Jeremiah. In the late fall of the following year, 624, Baruch read the scroll aloud “in the ears of all the people” at the entrance of Jehovah’s house. He was then summoned to read it to an assembly of the princes, who, moved by what they heard and fearing the consequences when the word got to the king’s ears, urged Baruch and Jeremiah to hide. Jehoiakim, upon hearing the denunciation, burned the scroll piece by piece, and commanded that Baruch and Jeremiah be brought before him, “but Jehovah kept them concealed.” At Jeremiah’s dictation, Baruch then wrote another scroll like the first, but containing “many more words” from the mouth of Jehovah.—Jer. 36:1-32.
Sixteen years later, in the tenth year of Zedekiah, only months before Jerusalem was sacked, Baruch took the deeds for the property Jeremiah purchased from a cousin and put them in an earthenware vessel for preservation and safekeeping.—Jer. 32:9-16.
At one point during the writing of the first scroll, when Baruch complained of his weariness, Jehovah warned him: ‘Do not keep on seeking great things for yourself.’ Nevertheless, because of his faithfulness he was promised preservation and safety “in all the places to which you may go,” not only during the terrible siege of Jerusalem, but afterwards when the rebellious populace compelled him and Jeremiah to go down to Egypt with them.—Jer. 45:1-5; 43:4-7.
There is a large amount of contradictory tradition concerning Baruch’s later life, and his name has been erroneously attached to apocryphal writings, all of which are of little or no account. (See APOCRYPHA.) However, it is quite certain that Baruch was a man of ability and a very capable assistant to Jeremiah. This conclusion is supported by the fact that on one occasion Azariah and others accused him of being the real instigator that engineered Jeremiah’s warning messages from behind the scenes.—Jer. 43:1-3.
2. Son of Zabbai; Baruch “worked with fervor” assisting Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. (Neh. 3:20) Possibly the same as No. 3 below.
3. A priest whose descendant, if not himself, attested to Nehemiah’s “trustworthy arrangement.” (Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 6, 8) If Baruch himself was the one sealing this agreement, he may have been the same as No. 2 above.
4. Father or forefather of Maaseiah, who lived in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s time. A descendant of Judah.—Neh. 11:4-6.
-
-
BarzillaiAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
BARZILLAI
(Bar·zilʹlai) [man of iron].
1. A Meholathite whose son Adriel married Saul’s daughter Merab.—1 Sam. 18:19; 2 Sam. 21:8.
2. A wealthy Gileadite, “a very great man,” of the town of Rogelim. Barzillai was one of three who assisted David and his army with supplies of food and bedding during Absalom’s rebellion. (2 Sam. 17:27-29) When David returned to Jerusalem, Barzillai escorted the party to the Jordan, but due to his age (“I am eighty years old today”), he declined David’s offer to become part of the royal court, sending Chimham in his place. In saying farewell, David kissed and blessed him. (2 Sam. 19:31-40) Shortly before dying, David remembered Barzillai and requested Solomon to show kindness toward his sons, and that they “be among those eating at your table.”—1 Ki. 2:7.
3. A priest who married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite (most likely No. 2 above) and adopted his father-in-law’s name. His descendants, on return from Babylonian exile, were unable to find their registration in the genealogical records, and so were disqualified from the priesthood.—Ezra 2:61, 62; Neh. 7:63, 64.
-
-
BasemathAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
BASEMATH
(Basʹe·math) [fragrant].
1. A wife of Esau. She was a daughter of Elon the Hittite, therefore either the same person as Adah or her sister. Basemath was “a source of bitterness” to Isaac and Rebekah.—Gen. 26:34, 35; 27:46; 28:8; 36:2.
2. Another wife of Esau, possibly the same as Mahalath. She was a daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, sister of Nebaioth, and therefore Esau’s first cousin. Esau took her as wife after seeing his father’s great displeasure over his Canaanite wives. She bore his son Reuel.—Gen. 28:8, 9; 36:3, 4, 10.
3. A daughter of Solomon and wife of Ahimaaz, one of Solomon’s food deputies.—1 Ki. 4:7, 15.
-
-
BashanAid to Bible Understanding
-
-
BASHAN
(Baʹshan) [fruitful country; even and smooth land].
A large region in northern Transjordan. Bashan was N of Gilead and was bounded on the E by the mountainous region of Jebel Hauran and on the W by the hills bordering the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee.—Deut. 3:3-14; Josh. 12:4, 5.
Bashan was located mainly on a high plateau, with an average height of about 2,000 feet (610 meters). The land is generally flat, though containing some mountain ridges, and is of volcanic origin with much hard black basalt rock, which provides good retention of moisture. The soil is a mixture of tufa and red-brown earth. Water and melted snow flowing down from Mount Hermon helped to turn the entire region into an excellent agricultural area. The great fertility of this plain, stretching roughly some fifty miles (80 kilometers) N and S and about twenty miles (32 kilometers) in width, made the area a rich granary and provided fine pasture lands. This, in turn, contributed to the production of splendid strains of cattle and sheep. The bulls of Bashan and its male sheep were the subjects of song and poetry and symbols of richness, strength and prosperity.—Deut. 32:14; Ezek. 39:18; Ps. 22:12.
The plain of Bashan appears to have been, in the main, treeless, but the mountain ridges were well wooded and contained massive trees, probably oaks (which are still to be found in that area today). In prophecy, these trees are used as symbols of great loftiness. (Isa. 2:13; Zech. 11:1, 2) Ezekiel 27:5, 6 indicates that the Phoenician boat builders of Tyre used the juniper trees of Senir for their planks, the tall cedars of Lebanon for their masts, but fashioned their powerful oars from the sturdy trees of Bashan.
Bashan’s fertility and productivity are doubtless the reason for its being associated with other productive areas such as Carmel and Lebanon. (Jer. 50:19; Isa. 33:9) Jeremiah links the heights of Bashan with Lebanon as a vantage point from which to view the calamity due to come upon the land of the Israelites because of their forsaking Jehovah. (Jer. 22:20) The reference to the “mountain of God” and the “mountain of peaks” of Bashan, at Psalm 68:15, 16, may refer to the triple summits of Mount Hermon or may describe the many broken cones of extinct volcanoes that break the level plains of Bashan.
The region of Bashan apparently first enters the Bible record at Genesis 14:5 in the reference to the Rephaim (giants) in Ashteroth-karnaim, who were defeated by the invading kings of Abraham’s time (b. 1933 B.C.E.). At the time of the Israelite invasion (1473 B.C.E.), Og, the king of Bashan and the last-remaining one of the giantlike men of that area, was defeated and slain and the land was occupied by Israel. (Num. 21:33-35; Deut. 3:1-3, 11; Josh. 13:12) The tribe of Manasseh received Bashan as its inheritance, although it appears that a southern portion of it was allotted to the tribe of Gad.—Josh. 13:29-31; 17:1, 5; 1 Chron. 5:11, 16, 23.
The principal cities of Bashan were: Ashtaroth (a city of Og and later a Levite city), Edrei (the frontier city where Israel defeated Og), Golan (which also became a Levite city and one of the three cities of refuge E of the Jordan) and Salecah. (Deut. 4:41-43; Josh. 9:10; 12:4, 5; 20:8, 9; 1 Chron. 6:64, 71) In the region of Argob alone there were sixty walled cities, and ruins of ancient towns still dot the entire area today.—Deut. 3:3-5.
-