applied to the Arabs and their country generally. States, the punishment is or shall be declared to be mY. , . . e .. • , .. J ■ -P .-
i 4.u » » o t>i i . sr , ■ Ihe onlv positive instance oi this 1 itter signification
death. See Blackstone, Comuu ntnriis. iv. 28. . T- , . ™ , ,lt. i
clergy shall not be used or allowed, upon conviction of any crime for which, by any statute of the Uni
stone, Commentaries, iv, 28 Be'ne-ja'akan (Heb. Beney' Yaakan', "p"? "OSl Children of Jaakan; Sept. Bavaia v. r. Bavticav ; Vulg. Benpjaacari), a tribe who gave their name to certain wells in the desert which formed one of the halting- places of the Israelites on their journey to Canaan
of Kedem occurs in Gen. x, 30, where " Sephar, a mount of the East," is by the common agreement of scholars situate in Southern Arabia. Sec Arabia; Sephar.
In the O. T., 2^", "Arabia," with its conjugate forms, seems to be a name of the peoples otherwis
(Num. xxxiii, 31, 32). See Beeroth-bene-Jaakan. j called Bene-Kedem, and with the 'same limitations, 'I he tribe doubtless deriv 3d its name from Jaakan, the The same mav be observed of »/ avardki), " the East," son of Ezer, son of Seir the Horite (1 Chr. i, 42). See in the N. T. (Matt, ii, 1 sq.). The Heb. word " Ke- Akan ; Jakan. In the time of Eusebius and Jerome dem," with its adjuncts (in the passages above referred v. 'Iofra'/^Beroth fil. Jacin), the spot was to), is translated by the Sept. and in the Vulg., and
shown ten miles from Petra, on the top of a mountain. Robinson suggests the small fountain et-Tavjilxh, at the bottom of the pass er-Rubay under Petra, a short
sometimes transcribed (Ktcifi} by the former, except the Sept. in 1 Kings iv, 30, and Sept. and Vulg. in Isa. ii, 6, where they make Kedem to relate to ancient
word "Beeroth," however, suggests, not a spring, but a group of artificial wells. In the Targum of Pseu- do-Jonathan the name is given in Numbers as Ahta (N~P? ^T?)- Tne assemblage of fountains near the northern extremity of the Arabah is no doubt re- ferred to. See EXODB.
Bene-Kedem (Heb. Beney' -Ke' dem, Q"!p-i:a nounce< "Children of the East"), an appellation given toapeo-|at whi( pie, or to peoples dwelling to the east of Palestine. iVI11) ^
Benevent, a town in Southern Italy, and see of a Roman Catholic archbishop. A considerable number of councils have been held there, among which the fid- lowing are the most important : 1087, at which the An- tipope Guibert was excommunicated, and the investi- ture bj' laymen forbidden ; 1108, which again pro- ■d against the investiture by laymen ; and 1117, ich Bishop Mauritius Verdinus (later Gregory i, or to peoples dwelling to the east of Palestine. I v 11Jt-> was excommunicated.
J! '"': »n^f Allowing passages of the O. T. : (1) Benevolence, due (// o^iXouIw; tvvoia, but best
,",'!■ X.MX: ,,' . '';"/ , Came mt" the land of the lleoI,lc I MSS. simply >) oAe^rj), a euphemism for marital duty of the East ,n which was therefore reckoned Haran. i (1 Cor. vii 33/ ^ec Cohaditation. (- 1 Job 1, .,, Job was "the greatest of all the men of j
""■ East." See Job. (3) Judg. vi, 3, 33 : vii, 12 ; Benezet, or Benedet, St., born at Hermillion; viii, 10. In the first three passages the Bene-Kedem ■ shepherd. The popes, during their residence at are mentioned together with the Midianites and the Avignon, authorized bis worship. "Benezet is said Amalekites ; and in the fourth the latter peoples seem to have been directed by inspiration to proceed to the to be included in this common name: ''Now Zebah bishop of Avignon, in September, 1176, and tell him and Zalmunna [ were] in Karkor, and their hosts with 'that bis mission was to build the bridge of that city them, abouJ fifteen thousand [men], all that were left over the Rhone. The bishop, very naturally thinking "r :l11 ,l'" '"'•|- of the children of the East." In the I him out of his mind, ordered him to be whipped. events to which these passages of Judges relate, we Benezet, however, is said to have shown his divine '""' a curious reference to the language spoken' by mission by supernatural proofs ; and the bridge was tin- ■ I', istern tribes, which was understood by Gideon commenced in 1177, and finished in 1188. He died in .-.nd his Bervant (or one of them) as they listened to' 1184, and was buried on the bridge, where afterward the talk in the camp ; and from this it is to be inferred |» little chapel was built over his remains. Subse- that they spoke a dialed intelli ii.lr to an [sraelite— • I Iquently a hospital was added, and a confraternity es-
BENEZET
•40
BENGEL
tablished for the care of his worship and of the repair of the bridge. These things are said to be 'amply verified by the Acts drawn up at the time.' When the tomb was opened in 1670, owing to its ruinous state, it appears that the body was found in a perfect condition. The body was but four feet and a half long." This is a specimen of the so-called "lives of the Saints !" — Landon, Eccl. Diet. s. v.