Bal'amo (rather Bel'amon, BtXa/itor, v. r. Bat '- amon, BaXapwi'), a place named in the Apocrypha (Jud. viii, 3) as not far from Dothaim (Dothar), and usually supposed to be the same as the Bclmen of J udith
BALANCES
624
BALD
iv, 4, ami the Abel-maim (q. v.) of Scripture. Reland p. 615, 022) inclines, however, to identify it with the Bekmoth (Bt.\f/«"c) stated by Epiphanius (lit. Prophetarum, p. 244) to have been the native place of the prophet Hoaea, and called Bt lemon (Bt\t- fmv) in the Packed Ch
Balances (IIeb. in the dual D?3tXB, mozena'yim, i. e. ttoopoisi rs ; and so the Chald. equivalent, ""'DTK'S, '/?, Pan. v. 27; once the Heb. n.D£, kaneh', j,ro|.. a branch, as of "cane," used in the sing. Isa. xlvi, G, the rod or beam of a steel-yard; in Rev. vi, 5, %{<yoc, a yoke, hence a "pair of balances"). In the e irlv periods of the world gold and silver were paid by weight, so that persons employed in traffic of any kind carried with them a pair of scales or balances and different weights (generally stones of different sizes) in a pouch or bag. Fraudulent men would carry two sorts of weights, the lighter to sell with and the other to bay with (Mic. vi, 11). Balances or scales of va- rious forms are frequently seen upon the most ancient Egyptian monuments, and were also used for dividing the spoil by the ancient Assyrian warriors (Bonomi, yin r h, p. 1G3, 268); they bear a general resemblance to those now in use, and most likely they are similar to those used by the ancient Hebrews (Lev. xix, 36).
Among the Egyptians large scales were generally a flat wooden board, with four ropes attached to a ring at the extremity of the beam ; and those of smaller size were of bronze, one and a half inch in diameter, pierced near the edge in three places for the strings. The principle of the common balance was simple and ingenious : the beam passed through a ring suspended from a horizontal rod, immediately above and parallel to it, and when equally balanced, the ring, which was large enough to allow the beam to play freely, showed when the scales were equally poised, and had the addi- tional effect of preventing the beam tilting when the goods were taken out of one and the weights suffered to remain in the other scale. To the lower part of the rin^ a small plummet was fixed, and this being touch- ed by the hand, and found to hang freely, indicated, without the necessity of looking at the beam, that the weight was just. The figure of a baboon was some-
Al" ' "' ;' " - Rings of Metal, with Weights in
of ;i eated Animal.
timi • placed upon the top, as the emblem of the god Thoth, the regulator of measures, of time, and of "i his i haracter of the moon; but there is no goddess of justice being connected with the balam s,exc pi in the judgment scenes of the '! •"!• I he pair of scales was the ordinary and, appar- ently, only kind of balance used by the Egyptians, no
'"'' ,,r'' teel-yard being met with in the paint-
inga "I H"!" ■ "i- of Beni Hassan; and the introduc- tion of the latl t is confined to a Roman era. The
other kind of balance, ui invention has been as-
cribed by Pliny to Disdains, is Bhown to have been
known and applied in Egypt at least as early as the time of the Osirtasens. One kind of balance used for weighing gold [see Goldsmith] differed slightly from those of ordinary construction, and was probably more delicately formed. It was made, as usual, with an upright pole, rising from a broad base or stand, and a cross-beam turning on a pin at its summit ; but in- stead of strings suspending the scales was an arm on either side, terminating in a hook, to which the gold was attached in small bags (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. abridg. ii, 151, 152). See Weight.
A pair of scales is likewise a well-known symbol of a strict observation of justice and fair dealing. It is thus used in several places of Scripture, as Job xxxi, 6; Psa. lxii, 9; Prov. xi, 1, and xvi, 11. But balance, joined with symbols denoting the sale of corn and fruits by weight, becomes the symbol of scarcity; bread by weight being a curse in Lev. xxvi, 26, and in Ezek. iv, 16, 17. So in Rev. vi, 5, "He that sat upon him had a pair of balances in his hand." Here the balance is used to weigh corn and the necessaries of life, in order to signify great want and scarcity, and to threaten the world with famine. See Scales.
Balas. Sec Alexander.
Balas'amus (or rathsr Baal'samus, Waa\ca^og ; comp. Belsamen in the art. Baal-), the last named of those that stood at the right hind of Ezra while read- ing the law (1 Esdr. ix, 43); but the corresponding name in the true text fNeb. viii, 4) is Maaseiah (q. v.).
Bald (prop. Tj~}p, kare'iich, naturally bare of hair on the top or back of the head ; Sept. (paXciKpoc ; differ- ent was the n2S, g:bbe'ach, diseased loss of hair on forehead, Lev. xiii, 41; Sept. c'tvafiaXai'Toc). There are two kinds cf baldness, viz., artificial and natural. The latter seems to have been uncommon, since it ex- posed people to public derision, and is perpetually al- luded to as a ma>-k of squalor and misery (2 Kings ii, 23; Isa. iii, 24, "instead of well-set hair, baldness, and burning instead of beauty." Isa. xv, 2; Jer. xlvii, 5 ; Ezek. vii, 18, etc.). For this reason it seems to have been included under the "scab" and "scurf" (Lev. xxi, 20, perhaps i. q. dandruff), which were dis- qualifications for priesthood (Mishna, Bcrachoth, vii, 2). In Lev. xiii, 29 sq., very careful directions are given to distinguish the scall (pf?'3, bohak' , "freckled spot," ver. 39), described as "a plague (SM, ne'gn, stroke) upon the head and beard" (which probably is the Mentagra of Pliny, and is a sort of leprosy), from mere natural baldness which is pronounced to be clean, v, 40 (Jahn, Bibl. Arch. 189). See Lep- rosy. But this shows that even natural baldness subjected men to an unpleasant suspicion. It was a defect with which the Israelites were by no means familiar, since the Egyptians were very rarely subject to it, according to Herodotus (iii, 12) ; an immunity which he attributes to their constant shaving. They adopted this practice for purposes of cleanliness, and generally wore wigs, some of which have been found in the ruins of Thebes. Contrary to the general prac- tice of the East, they only let the hair grow as a sign of mourning (Herod, ii, 36), and shaved themselves on all joyous occasions ; hence in Gen. xli, 44, we have an undesigned coincidence. The same custom obtains in China and among the modern Egyptians, who shave off all the hair except the shoosheh, a tuft on the fore- head and crown of the head (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. iii, 359 sq. ; Lane, Mod. Egypt, i, ch. 1). Baldness was despised both among Greeks and Romans. In Homer (II. ii, 219) it is one of the defects of Thersites ; Aristophanes (who was probably bald himself, Pax, 767 ; Eq. 55b) takes pride in not joining in the ridicule against it (Nub. 540). Caesar was said to have had some deformity of this sort, and he generally endeav- ored to conceal it (Suet. Caes. 45; comp. Bom. 18).