connect Baal-zephon, as a Hebrew compound, with the root H312, to spy, as if it were named from a watch- tower on the frontier like the neighboring P'^J'O, " the tower." It is noticeable that the name of the son of Gad, called Ziphion ("piSS) in Gen. xlvi, 16, is writ- ten Zephon C|is^) in Num. xxvi, 15. — Kitto; Smith. Ba'ana (Heb. Baana', N3V.?» Pr°b- for N:"~"2, son of affliction), the name of three or four men.
1. (Sept. Bavd.) Son of Ahilud, one of Solomon's twelve purveyors ; his district comprised Taanach, Me- giddo, and all Bethshean, with the adjacent region (1 Kings iv, 12). B.C. 1012.
2. (Sept. Baava.) Son of Hushai, another of Solo- mon's purve3"ors, having Asher and Bealoth (1 Kings iv, 16, where, however, the name is incorrectly An- glicized "Baanah"). B.C. 1012.
3. (Sept. Baava.) Father of Zadok, which latter repaired a portion of the walls of Jerusalem on the re- turn from Babvlon, between the fish-gate and the old- gate (Neh. iii, 4). B.C. 446.
4. (Baava.) One of those who returned from Baby- lon with Zerubbabel (1 Esdr. v, 8) ; the Baanah (q. v.) of the Heb. text (Ezra ii, 2).
Ba'anah (Heb. Baanah', !"I3SS1, another form of the name Baani [q. v.] ; Sept. Baava), the name of four men.
1. One of the two sons of Bimmon the Beerothite. captains of bands in Saul's army, who assassinated Ishbosheth (2 Sam. iv, 2); for which murder they
rerc slain by David, and their mutilated bodies hung up over the pool at Hebron (ver. 5, 6, 19). B.C. 1046. Josephus represents him (BavaoSa, Ant. vii, 2, 1) as a person of noble family, and instigated by personal ambition. See David.
2. A Netophathite, father of Heleb or Heled, which latter was one of David's thirty heroes (2 Sam. xxiii, 29 ; 1 Chron. xi, 30). B.C. ante 1061. The Sept. ut- terly confounds the list of names at this part, but some copies retain the Baava.
3. (1 Kings iv, 16.) See Baana, 2.
4. One of the chief Jews who returned from Baby- lon with Zerubbabel, B.C. 536 (Ezra ii, 2; Neh. vii, 7) ; possibly the same with one of those who long af- terward (B.C. 410) united in the sacred covenant with. Nehemiah (Neh. x, 27).
Baanes. See Baanites.
Baani'as (rather Banaias [q. v.], Bavaiac), one of the Israelites, sons of Phoros, who divorced his Gen- tile wife after the exile (1 Esdr. v, 26) ; evidently the Benaiah (q. v.) of the correct text (Ezra ii, 25).
Baanites, a sect of Paulicians, called by the name of their leader, Baanes, in the ninth century. — Nean- dcr, Ch. Hist, iii, 250, 266. See Paulicians.
Ba'ara (Heb. Eaiira' , KJJS3, brutish ; Sept. Baapa v. r. Baaed), one of the wives of Shaharaim, of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chron. viii, 8, where, however, there is some confusion as to his prior children), by whom she had several children (ver. 9, where by some error she is called Hodesh, compare ver. 11). B.C. ante 1612. See Shaharaim.
Baaras (Badpar), the name (according to Jose- phus, War, vii, 6, 3) of a valley inclosing the city of Herodium on the north, and so called from an extra- ordinary species of plant (but whether the same with the gigantic me, irifyavov, mentioned in the same con- nection, does not appear), to the root of which the credulous Jewish historian ascribes magical properties of a most marvellous character. See Herodium. For other faint notices of a locality by names similar to Baaris, in the vicinity of Machamis, see Roland, Pa- laest. p. 881.
Baasei'ahdleb. Baaseyah', i1*~3S, ft>riT£iyS|-"ja, snn nf A sain h, or work of Jehovah; Sept. Baaaia), a Gershonite Levite, son of Malchia, and father of Mi-
BAASHA
589
BABEL
chad, in the lineage of Asaph (1 Chron. vi, 40 [25]). B. C. cir. 1310.
Ba'asha (Heb. Basha', &WJ3S, for SWJ?3, from an obsolete root, 113S3, signifying, according to Furst [Heb. Handw. s. v.], to be bold, but according to Gese- nius [Thes. Neb. s. v.] = U3X3, to be offensive, hence wicked; Sept. Baaaa, Josephus Baaavijc, Ant. viii, 11, 4, etc.), third sovereign of the separate kingdom of Israel, and the founder of its second dynasty (1 Kings
and finally to the whole province of Babylonia (Ezek. xxiii, 17, margin), of which this was the capital. For these latter, see Babylon-, Babylonia.
1. Origin of the Tower. — From the account in Gen. xi, 1-9, it appears that the primitive fathers of man- kind having, from the time of the Deluge, wandered without fixed abode, settled at length in the land of Shinar, where they took up a permanent residence. As yet they had remained together without experien- cing those vicissitudes and changes in their outward
2 Chron. xvi ; Jer. xli, 9). He reigned i lot which encourage the formation of different modes B.C. 950-927. Baasha was son of Ahijah, of the tribe of speech, and were therefore of one language. Ar- of Issachar, and commander of the royal forces of the I rived, however, in the hind of Shinar, and finding ma- northern kingdom ; he conspired against King Nadab, i terials suitable for the construction of edifices, they son of Jeroboam, when he was besieging the Philistine I proceeded to. make and burn bricks, and using the town of Gibbethon, and, having killed him, proceeded j bitumen, in which parts of the country abound, for to extirpate his entire circle of relatives. He appears cement, they built a city and a tower of great eleva- to have been of humble origin, as the Prophet Jehu ! tion. A divine interference, however, is related to speaks of him as having been "exalted out of the j have taken place. In consequence, the language of dust" (1 Kings xvi, 2). In matters of religion his j the builders was confounded, so that they were no