reign was no improvement on that of Jeroboam ; he equally forgot his position as king of the nation of God's election, and was chiefly remarkable for his per- severing hostility to Judah. It was probabpy in the twenty-third year of his reign [see Asa] that he made war on its king, Asa, and began to fortify Raman as a barrier against it. He was compelled to desist, how- ever, being defeated by the unexpected alliance of Asa with Bcnhadad I of Damascus, who had previously been friendly to Baasha. Benhadad took several towns in the north of Israel, and conquered lands be- longing to it near the sources of Jordan (1 Kings xv, 18 sq.). Baasha died in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, and was honorably buried in the beautiful city of Tirzah (Cant, vi, 4), which he had made his capital (1 Kings xv, 33). — Smith, s. v. For his idolatries, the Prophet Jehu declared to him the determination of God to exterminate his family likewise, which was ac- complished in the days of his son Klah (q. v.) by Ziinri (1 Kings xvi. 30 13). See Israel, Kingdom of.
Baba. See Mishxa.
Babai (Bd lag or Ba'/3«, since the latter only ap- pears as a genitive), a person mentioned by Josephus as the last descendant of the Asmonteans, but simply to relate that his sons were preserved by Costabarus from the general massacre of the adherents of Antigo- nus ordered by Herod the Great on obtaining posses- sion of Jerusalem, until their concealment was dis- closed by Salome to the tyrant, who immediately made sure of their death (Ant. xv, 7, 10).
Babe (5?ii3>, del', or bhs, olal', so called from its petulance, Psa. viii, 2; xvii, 14, elsewhere "child" or "infant ;" WOAbvp}, taalulim' ', from the same root, Isa. iii, 4; once "C'3, na'ar, Exod. ii, G, usually a "fore?;" Gr. j3pi<poc., prop, an unborn ftelus, Luke i, 41, 44, but also a very young child, Luke ii, 12, 16; 1 Pet. ii, 2 ; vi\iziov, strictly an infant [i. c. as yet unable to talk], but likewise used of children generally, Matt, xi, 25 ; xxi, 16 ; Luke x, 21 ; Rom. ii, 10; 1 Cor. iii, 1 ; Heb. v, 13). This term is used figuratively in Isa. iii, 4, to represent the succession of weak and wicked princes who reigned over the kingdom of Judah from the death of Joeiah to the destruction of the city and Temple. In the New Testament, the term refers to those who are weak in the Christian faith and knowledge, being ignorant and inconstant : or being but just born again, begotten from above, they require that heavenly nourishment which is suited to their nature — "the sincere milk of the word" (1 Cor. iii, 1 ; Heb. v, 13 ; 1 Pet. ii, 2). See Child.
Ba'bel (Heb. Babel', 333, confusion; and so the Sept. Suyxw'd Gen. xi, 9), originalhy the name ap- plied to the Tower of Babel (Gen. xi, 9), but afterward extended (in the Heb.) to the city of Babylon (Gen. x, 10), which appears to have grown up around it,
longer able to understand each other. They therefore " left off to build the city," and were scattered "abroad upon the face of all the earth." The narrative adds that the place took its name of Babel (confusion) from this' confusion of dialect. See Confusion of Tongues.
2. Its Design. — The sacred narrative (Gen. xi, 4) assigns as the reason which prompted men to the un- dertaking simply a desire to possess a building so large and high as might be a mark and rallying-point in the vast plains where they had settled, in order to prevent their being scattered abroad, and thus the ties of kindred be rudely sundered, individuals be involved in peril, and their numbers be prematurely thinned at a time when population was weak and insufficient. The idea of preventing their being scattered abroad by building a lofty tower is applicable in the most re- markable manner to the wide and level plains of Baby- lonia, where scarcely one object exists different from another to guide the traveller in his journeying, and which, in those early days, as at present, were a sea of land, the compass being then unknown. Such an attempt agrees with the circumstances in which the sons of Noah were placed, and is in itself of a com- mendable nature. But that some ambitious and un- worthy motives were blended with these feelings is clearly implied in the sacred record, which, however, is evidently conceived and set forth in a dramatic manner (vcr. 6, 7), and may wear around a historical substance somewhat of a poetical dress (Bauer, Mythol. i, 223). The apostate Julian has attempted to turn the narrative into ridicule ; but even if viewed only as an attempt to account for the origin of diversity of languages, and of the dispersion of the human family, it challenges consideration and respect. The opinion of Heeren (Asiatic Nations, ii, 146) is far different and more correct : " There is," says he, " perhaps nowhere else to be found a narrative so venerable for its an- tiquity, or so important in the history of civilization, in which we have at once preserved the traces of pri- maeval international commerce, the first political asso- ciations, and the first erection of secure and permanent dwellings." A comparison of this narrative with the absurd or visionary pictures which the Greeks and Romans give of the primitive condition of mankind, will gratify the student of the Bible and confirm tho faith of the Christian by showing the marked differ- ence there is between the history contained in Genesis and the fictions of the poet, or the traditions of the mythologist. (See Eichhorn, Diversitatis linguaram ex traditione Scmitica origines, Goett. 1788; also in the B'b- lioth. d. bibl. Lit. iii, 981 sq.)