B. was celebrated for its breed of cattle (Dt 32"), which are also the types throughout OT of cruel and loud-mouthed oppressors ; similarly, Amos calls the censorious and tyrannical matrons of Samaria 'kineof B.' (4').
The name B. survived in Gr. times as Batana^a (as described above). Batanoea was part of Philip's tetrarchy. Conder thinks it appears in NT as tlie ' Bethany beyond Jordan ' (the most probable reading of Jn 1^, see Westcott and Hort); but if so well known a province as Batana^a had been intended, and not rather some town, the epithet 'beyond Jordan' would hardly have been ailded. To-day the name survives, Ard el-15atlianiyeh ; but since the 10th cent., when, according to Idrisi, it was still the province in which Edrei stood, it has drifted round to the E. of the Lejil, where it will be found in the most recent maps.
LiTERATi'RB — Besides what is quoted, Reland ; Wetzstein, lieUgberirht ; Merrill, Eagt qf Jordan ; Driver, Dcut. 47, 3ti() ; Smith, UM. Ueoii. pp. 542, 649-663, 670 II. ; Buhl, (jmj. all. Pal. 117 t. (on Dan, 238). G. A. SMlfH.
BASHMUR^C VERSIONS.— See Egyptian Ver- sions.
BASILISK.— See Serpent.
BASKET, a vessel made of plaited reeds, twigs, palm-leaves, or other material. The word is tised in EV as the equivalent of live Ileb. and three Gr. «ords.
1. '70 §al, a bag of flexible interwoven twigs, probably similar in shape to the basket in which a carpenter carries his tools. Three such baskets the chief baker of Pharaoh dreamt he carried on his head (Gn 40'"- "• "*), probably in the manner represented on the tomb of Ramses iii. (Wilkin- son i. 401). These were baskets of white bread (RV), not white bivskets as in AV, or o]ienwork baskets, as Symmachus. Similar baskets were useil to carry the unleavened bread and the oiled cakes and wafers for the ollering of consecration of the priests (Ex '2!)'-2> ; also Lv S^") ; hence in Lv 8" it IS called the basket of consecration. Such baskets were also useil for the Nazirite's ollering (Nu 6'»- "• '"). Gideon carried the llcsh of the kid iiml the unleavened cakes of his provision fur the aii;:el in a biiskel of this .sort (.Ig 0'"). The name Sallni in Nell 11' 12-'" has been fancifully su|iposed to refer to a family of basket-makers, but this is highly improbable on etymological grounds.
2. n'i'?c';B siilsilhdk, in Jer 6", is translated 'grape-gatherer's bivskets,' the tallalak of the
236
BASKET
BASON
Arabs. Such baskets are represented in the Ejiyptian tomb-pictures (Wilkinson, i. 3S3). The context, however, makes it probable that the word is connected with zaUallim, used in Is IS', meaning young shoots or tendrils, for the idea in the verse IS the gleaning of an already stripped vine. Tal- talliin IS used in Ca 5" for twisted locks of hair.
3. k;3 <<,'ne', a basket for ordinary household or jigricultural use, employed for carrying the first- fruits (Ut26-*). LXX renders it KapraWos, which, like the Roman corbis, was a basket tapering downwards. National prosperity, consequent on welldoing, was typified by the blessing of the liasket {tens') and the store (Dt28'). The opposite <'ondition was attended with a ciu'se ou the basket (v.").
I'erid ami tennu are common Egyp. names for a b;isket. In line 2 of the Canopic decree the Arsinoite basket-bearing priest is called tend n met A rsinati. This is rendered in the Gr. version canephorus, the name given to the Athenian basket-bearing girls at the feasts of Dionysus and Demeter. The basket-bearing priest is a con- spicuous feature in the Assyrian sculptures.
4. in dudh, the KdXados of the LXX, was prob- ably also a tapering basket, like that used by the Romans for wool (Virg. jEneid, vii. 805) or by the Greeks for fruit (Aristoph. Lysistr. 579). In it were contained the figs of Jeremiah's vision ;24' '). Large baskets of this kind were used for carrying clay to the brick-kilns ; these are referred to in Ps 8I« (RV ; not ' pots ' as in AV). They are represented in Egyp. paintings as carried on the back, over one shoulder, as in most Ushabti figures, or else they were borne between two on a pole, or two were carried by a yoke resting on the shoulders, as shown in a painting at Benihassan. In any case the deliverance of the Israelites is well expressed by the removal of their shoulders from the burden. In baskets of this kind the heads of Ahab's sons were sent to Jehu at Jezreel (2 K 10'). This word is also translated ' kettle' in 1 S 2", as in Job 41-'" (see Kettle in art. Food).
5. 3i'?3 l;(ltibh, rendered by LXX S.yyoi, is used in Am 8'- '^ for a basket containing summer fruits. The same word in Jer 5-'' signifies a bird-cage, probably of basketwork, in which sense the word occurs in Phoenician and Syriac. Compare )cXcj/36s in Autipater's epigram (Anthol. Palat. vi. 109. 3).
The njn tibhah of papyrus reeds, in which the infant Moses was exposed, was a sort of basket. Teh is the Egyptian name of a mummy-case. ( >ther Egyptian baskets were Tnesen, a fruit basket of palm leaves and rushes for carrying dates ; liutcp, a basket for carrying meat {Pap. Anastasi) or nowers (Diimichen), senab, seg, and x'^X'^t " basket for catching fish, such as tliat figured on the tomb of Ti ; compare the lUikkah of Hab 1'°.