Apparently Bela, the first Edomite king, was not a native of Edom. Possibly we liave in these n.aniea the preservation of an old tradition respecting the succession of dynasties and their royal residences. Of Dinhabah nothing is known ; but, according to Knobel, the name Danaba is found in connexion with I'almyrene Syria (Ptol. 5. 15. 24), Danabe with Babylonia (Zosim. Hist. 3. 27), and Dannaba with Moab (Onoinast. 1. 14. f. ed. Lag.). Bela the son of Beor may have been of Aram^an origin. For Balaam, the son of Beor, is said to have come from Pethor on the Euphrates (Nu 22», cf. Dt 23"), a town which has been identified with the Pitru of the Assyrian inscriptions on the W. bank of the river, at its junction with the S&dshflr (Sagurri), a little south of Carchemish (see Schrader, COT' i. 143). Now, when this fact is considered in con- nexion with the mention of the sixth Edomite king (Gn 36"), who presumably came from the same Eupliratic region, ' Shaul of Rehobotb by the River ' (Kehoboth being placed by some Assyri- ologists at the junction of the Euphrates and the Chaboras, Riehm HWB' 1291), there is evidently some ground for the theory that Bela the son ol Beor was an Aramaean, or possibly Hittite, con- queror who came from the banks of the Euphrates. Still, nothing is known of him ; and even the age in which he lived is uncertain ; nor can we at present say whether Beor ( = ' burning '), whose soe he is termed, was a man or a local deity.
The Sept. transliterates BdXa/c (Cod. A), BdXcic (Cod E), as if Bela was to be identified with the king of Moab rather than with the seer.
2. The eldest of the sons of Benjamin (Gn 46^', Nu 26^, 1 Ch 7« 8'). According to 1 Ch 8» he was the father of Addar, Gera, Abihud, Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah, Gera (a second mention), Sliep- huphan and Huram. According to Nu 26" the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman.
3. ' The son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who dwelt in Aroer, even unto Nebo and Baalmeon ; and eastward he dwelt even unto the entering in of the \\'ilderness from the river Euphrates' (1 Ch 5*- '). He was a Reubenite, and a dweller in the Moabite territory. It is note- worthy that this B., like the Edomite king men- tioned above, seems to have been traditionally connected with the Euphrates. H. E. Ryle.
BELAITES, THE ('V^;"), the descendants of Bela (2), one of the divisions of the tribe of Benjamin mentioned in Nu 26^.
BELA (y'?3), Gn I4»-«.— A name of Zoar.
BELCH.— Pb 59' ' they b. out with their mouth ' (y?'?, used again in a bad sense Ps 94*, RV 'prate' ; but in a good sense 19" ' utter speech,' Del. ' well forth speech ' ; and 1 19'" ' utter praise '). B., which is orig. to void wind noisily from the stomach by the mouth, is rarely used in a good sense, though Wyclif has ' belkid out a good word ' in Ps 45' (RV ' overfloweth with a goodly matter ') ; rather as Stanyhurst, .lEnei*, iL 67, 'I belcht owt blas- phemye bawling.' J. HastiIiGS.
BELEMOS mxtfiot), 1 Ea 2" (", LXX). See Bishlam.
BELIAL (Si':^3). — The common view is that this word is derived from "^3 not, and 'jy; in Hiph. to profit ; and that its primary meaning is ' worthlesa- ness,' ' wickedness,' and its secondary ' destruction.' But Cheyne has sought to show {Expositor, June 1895, p. 435) that this derivation is erroneous, and that the primary meaning is ' hopeless ruin,' and the secondary 'great or extreme wickedness.' Ht regards the word as a mythological survival, the
BELIE
BELSHAZZAK
2G9
name of 'the subterranean watery abyss' which waB understood to mean ' the depth which lets no man return' (i^i^ '^J). In the UT the word in the sense of ' worthlessness ' or ' wickedness ' is mostly found in combination with a noun : ' daughter ' (1 S 1"), 'thing' (Dt 15"), 'man' (1 S 25*', 2S 16' 20^, Pr 16-''), 'witness' (I'r ly=»), 'person' (Pr 6"), ' men '{IS 3CP), ' sons ' (Ut 13'», Jg 19» 20'», 1 S 2" lO" 25", 2 S 23', 1 K 21'<'- ", 2 Ch 13'), and in the AV following the Vulg. is, with few exceptions, rendered literally, as if a proper name ; so also frequently in the RV ; but the margin here gives renderings, 'base fellows,' 'wicked woman,' etc., which the American Revisers desired to see in the text. Owing to the poverty of the Heb. language in adjectives, this combination was 'a favourite expression in the accounts of the earlier monarchical period' for sinners of 'deepest dye.' In the sense of ' destruction ' the word is found only four times, Ps 18* KV ' floods of ungodliness ' ; but Cheyne and others, 'the rushing streams of perdition' ; Ps 41' AV and RV 'an evil disease'; Nah 1" AV 'a wicked counsellor,' RV ' that counselleth wicked- ness,' but Cheyne assigns to belial here the sense of 'hopeless ruin'; 1" AV 'the wicked,' RV 'the wicked one,' but others render 'the destroyer'; and Cheyne sees here already a transition to the absolute use of the word as a personal name for Satan, found in 2 Co 6". In this passage the AV and RV both read ^eXioX ; but the reading now usually preferred is ^eXiap, which is 'either to be ascribed to the harsh Syr. pro- nunciation of the word j9tX(aX, or must be derived from "ly: ^3, lord of the forest.' St. Paul uses the word as a name of Satan ^vith reference to unclean heathenism ; and his use shows that the word had come to be used generally as a proper name. Milton gives this name to tne fallen angel who is the representative of impurity {Par. Lost, i. 490- 606 ; Par. Reg. u. 150). A. E. Gakvik.