BAZLITII
705
BDELLIUM
s^m^M^
] mure man piouauii
\l \ as yet unknown in i
illy he would certainly
V from the costly con
Bazaar at Alexandria.
course which it offers. And this is partly true ; for the market is the resort not only of the busy, but of the idle and the curious — of those who seek discussion, or information, or excitement, or who desire "to be seen of men ;" and where, consequently, the exterior aspect of Oriental life and manners is seen in all its length, and breadth, and fulness. — Kitto, Pict. Bible, note on Mark vii, 32. See Merchant.
Baz'lith or Baz'luth (Heb. Batslitti or Batsluth', fl^OSSl or DSlPSS, nakedness; Sept. BaaaXwS), the head of one of the families of Nethinim that returned to Jerusalem from the exile (Ezra ii, 52 ; Neh. vii, 54). B.C. 536.
Bdellium (nb"73, bedo'lacli) occurs but twice in the Scriptures — in Gen. ii, 12, as a product of the land of Ilavilah, and Num. xi, 7, where the manna is likened to it and to hoar-frost on the ground. In the Sept. it is considered as a precious stone, and trans- lated (Gen.) by avOpaE, and (Num.) liy icpwraWoc ; while Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Vul- gate render it bdellium, a transparent aromatic gum from a tree. Of this opinion also is Josephus {Ant. iii, 1, 6), where he describes the manna — ojioiov ry twv dpufiaTOJV fiSeWy, i. e. similar to the aromatic bdellium (Num. xi, 7). See Manna. Reland sup- poses it to be a crystal, while Wahl and Hartmann render it beryl (reading ttbia). The Jewish rabbins, however, followed by a host of their Arabian trans- lators, and to whom Bochart (Hieroz. iii, 593 sq.) and Gesenius (Thesaur. i, 181) accede, translate bedolach by pearly and consider Havilah (q. v.) as the part of Arabia, near Catipha and Bahrein, on the Persian Gulf, where the pearls are found.
Those who regard bedolach as some kind of precious
stone rest their argument on the fact that it is placed
(Gen. ii, 12) by the side of "the onyx-stone" (EiTJ,
shoham), which is a gem occurring several times in
Yy
the Scriptures, and that they are both mentioned as belonging to the produc- tions of the land Havilah. But if this meaning were intended, the reading ought to be, "there is the stone of the onyx and of the bdellium," and not "there is the bdellium and the stone of the onyy," expressly excluding bedo- lach from the mineral kingdom. Those who translate bedolach by "pearl" refer to the later Jewish and Arabian ex- pounders of the Bible, whose authority, if not strengthened by valid arguments, is but of little weight. It is, moreover, more than probable that the pearl was the time of Mosef, »r not have excluded it contributions to the tab- ernacle, the priestly dresses, or even the Urim and Thummim, while its fellow shoham, though of less value, was va- riously used among the sacred ornaments (Exod. xxv, 7 ; xxxv, 9, 27 ; xxviii, 20 ; xxxix, 13). Nor do we find any men- tion of pearl in the times of David and Solomon. It is true that Luther trans- lates B^JPiS, peninim' (Prov. iii, 15; viii, 11 ; x, 25 ; xxxi, 10), by pearls, but this is not borne out by Lament, iv, 7, where it is indicated as having a red color. The only passage in the Old Test, where the pearl really occurs under its true Arabic name is in Esth. i, 6 ("fl, dar); and in the N. T. it is very frequently mentioned under the Greek name jiap- yaplrng. See Pearl. It is therefore most probable that the Hebrew bedolach is the aromatic gum bdellium, which issues from a tree growing in Arabia, Media, r.nd the Indies. Di- oscorides (i, 80) informs us that it was called //«- deXicov or fioXx^'i and Pliny (xii, 19), that it bore the names of brochon, malacham, and maldacon. The frequent interchange of letters brings the form very near to that of the Hebrew word ; nor is the similar- ity of name in the Hebrew and Greek, in the case of natural productions, less conclusive of the nature of the article, since the Greeks probably retained the ancient Oriental names of productions coming from the East. Pliny's description of the tree from which the bdellium is taken makes Ksempfer's assertion (Amcen. Exot. p. 068) highly probable, that it is the sort of palm-tree (borassus j!ab"/'ifnrmis, Linn. ci. 6, 3, Trigynia) so frequently met with on the Persian coast and in Arabia Felix.
The term bdellium, however, is applied to two gum- my-resinous substances. One of them is the Indian bdellium, or false myrrh (perhaps the bdellium of the Scriptures), which is obtained from Amt/r's (balsamo- dendron?) Commiphora. Dr. Roxburgh QFlor. hid. ii, 245) says that the trunk of the tree is covered with a light-colored pellicle, as in the common birch, which peels off from time to time, exposing to view a smooth green coat, which, in succession, supplies other similar exfoliations. This tree diffuses a grateful fragrance, like that of the finest myrrh, to a considerable distance around. Dr. Royle (lllmt. p. 170) was informed that this species yielded bdellium; and, in confirmation of this statement, we may add that many of the speci- mens of this bdellium in the British Museum have a yellow pellicle adhering to them, precisely like that of the common birch, and that some of the pieces are perforated by spiny branches, another character serv- ing to recognise the origin of the bdellium. Indian bdellium has considerable resemblance to myrrh. Many of the pieces have hairs adhering to them. The other kind of bdellium is called African bdellium, and