the height seven feet, and the circumference fifteen; the head three feet and a half, and the girt nine feet; the mouth in width about two feet. The general color of the animal is brownish; the ears small and pointed; the eyes small in proportion to the creature, and black; the lips very thick and broad; the nostrils small. The armament of teeth in its mouth is truly formidable; more particularly the tusks of the lower jaw, which are of a curved form, somewhat cylindrical: these are so strong and hard that they will strike fire with steel, || are sometimes more than two feet in length, and weigh upwards of six pounds each. The other teeth are much smaller. The tail is short and thick; and the whole body is thinly covered with short hair. The natives of Africa capture the hippopotamus by harpooning him as he lies asleep on the shore or sand banks. He always takes to the water; and then the hunters draw him up by the line of the harpoon to the side of their small ship or bark, and despatch him. Mr. Ruppell gives the following graphic account of such a combat on the upper Nile: "One of the hippopotami which we killed was a very old male, and seemed to have reached his utmost growth. He measured, from the snout to the end of the tail, about fifteen feet; and his tusks, from the root to the point, along the external curve, twentyeight inches. In order to kill him, we had a battle with him of four hours long, and that too in the night. Indeed, he came very near destroying our large bark; and with it, perhaps, all our lives. The moment he saw the hunters in the small canoe, as they were about to fasten the long rope to the buoy, in order to draw him in, he threw himself with one rush upon it, dragged it with him under water, and shattered it to pieces. The two hunters escaped this extreme danger with great difficulty. Out of twenty-five musket balls, which were fired into the monster's head, at the distance of five feet, only one penetrated the hide and the bones near the nose; so that, every time he breathed, he snorted streams of blood upon the bark. All the other balls remained sticking in the thickness of the hide. We had, at last, to employ a small cannon, the use of which, at so short a distance, had not before entered our minds; but it was only after five of its balls, fired at the distance of a few feet, had mangled, most shockingly, the head and body of the monster, that he gave up the ghost. The darkness of the night augmented the horrors and dangers of the contest. This gigantic hippopotamus dragged our large bark at his will, in every direction of the stream; and it was in a fortunate moment for us that he yielded, just as he had drawn the bark among a labyrinth of rocks, which might have been so much the more dangerous, because, from the great confusion on board, no one had observed them. "Hippopotami of the size of the one above described, cannot be killed by the natives, for want of a cannon. These animals are a real plague to the land, in consequence of their voraciousness. The inhabitants have no permanent means of keeping them away from their fields and plantations; all that they do is, to make a noise during the night with a drum, and to keep up fires in different places. In some parts, the hippopotami are so bold, that they will yield up their pastures or places of feeding, only when a large number of persons come rushing upon them with sticks and loud cries." BEL, see BAAL. BELIAL strictly means worthlessness, and is always so used in a moral sense. A man or son of Belial, therefore, is a wicked, worthless man; one resolved to endure no subjection; a rebel; a disobedient, uncontrollable fellow. Judg. 19:22. In later writings, Belial is put for the power or lord of evil, i. e. Satan. 2 Cor. 6:15. BELSHAZZAR, the wicked king of Babylon, who made an impious feast, at which he and his courtiers drank out of the sacred vessels which had been carried away from the temple at Jerusalem. He was terrified by the apparition of the hand which wrote upon the wall, and in the same night was slain, and the city taken by the Medes, under Darius and Cyrus. Dan. c. 5. See BABYLON. BENJAMIN, the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel. Gen. 35:16,17, &c. Rachel died immediately after he was born, and with her last breath named him Ben-oni, the son of my sorrow: but Jacob called him Benjamin, the son of my right hand. BEREA, a city of Macedonia, not far from Pella towards the south-west, and near mount Berinius. It was afterwards called Irenopolis, and is now called by the Turks, Boor; by others, Cara Veria. Acts 17:10,13. BERNICE, or BERENICE, eldest daughter of king Herod Agrippa first, and sister to the younger Agrippa. Acts 25:13,23. 26:30. She was first married to her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis;|| and after his death, in order to avoid the merited suspicion of incest with her brother Agrippa, she became the wife of Polemon, king of Cilicia. This connection being soon dissolved, she returned to her brother, and afterwards became mistress of Vespasian and Titus. BERYL, the name of a precious stone of a sea-green color, found principally in India. Rev. || 21:20.* BETHANY, John 11:18, a village, distant about two miles east from Jerusalem, beyond the mount of Olives, and on the way to Jericho. Here Martha and Mary dwelt, with their brother Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead; and here Mary poured perfume on our Saviour's head. BETHEL, house of God, the name of a city west of Hai, on the confines of the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin, Gen. 12:8. 28:10 and occupying the spot where Jacob slept and had his memorable dream. Eusebius places Bethel twelve miles from Jerusalem, in the way to Sichem, or Napolose. Bethel was also called Beth-aven by the prophets, i. e. house of nought, in derision of the worship of the golden calves established there. BETHESDA, i. e. house or place of mercy, a building destined for the reception of the sick; the name of a pool or fountain near the temple in Jerusalem, with an open building over or near it, for the accommodation of the sick, who came to try the healing efficacy of the water. John 5:2. BETH-HORON, the name of two cities or towns lying apparently near each other, and distinguished by the names of Upper and Lower Beth-horon. Josh. 16:3,5. 1 Chr. 7:24. They would seem to be sometimes spoken of as only one place, and were situated on the confines of Benjamin and Ephraim, about 12 miles north-west from Jerusalem. || ground between that plain and the valley of the Jordan. The place is now called Bysan, and is described by Burckhardt as situated on rising ground, on the west of the river Jordan, about twenty-four miles south of Tiberias. The present village contains seventy or eighty houses, the inhabitants of which are in a miserable condition, owing to the depredations of the Bedouins. BETHLEHEM, i. e. house of bread, a celebrated city, the birthplace of David and Jesus. It was situated in the limits of the tribe of Judah, about six or eight miles south by west of Jerusalem, and probably received its appellation from the fertility The ruins of the ancient of the circumjacent country. city are of considerable extent, Matt. 2:1,5,6,8,16. Luke 2:4, along the banks of the rivulet 15. John 7:42. (See Mission- which ran by it, and the valley ary Herald, 1824, p. 67.) It was formed by its branches; and bealso called Ephrath, or Ephra-speak it to have been nearly tah. Gen. 48:7. Mic. 5:2. three miles in circuit. 1 Sam. 31:10. BETHPHAGE, i. e. house or place of figs, a little village at the eastern foot of the mount of Olives, between Bethany and Jerusalem, and near to Bethany. Luke 19:29. BETHSAIDA, i. e. house or place of fishing, the name of two cities in the N. T. 1. Bethsaida of Galilee was situated in Galilee, on the western shore of the lake of Gennesareth, a little south of Capernaum, and was the birthplace of the apostles Philip, Andrew and Peter. Matt. 11:21. Mark 6:45, &c. 2. The other Bethsaida lay in Gaulonitis, on the eastern side of the same lake, and near the place where the Jordan enters it. Luke 9:10. Comp. Matt. 14:13, &c. and Mark 6:31, &c. This town was enlarged by Philip, tetrarch of that region, Luke 3:1, and called Julias in honor of Julia, the daughter of Augustus. BETH-SHEAN, more generally known by the name of Scythopolis, was situated on the west of the Jordan, at the southeastern extremity of the great plain of Esdraelon, on the high BETH-SHEMESH, see HE LIOPOLIS. BETROTHING, the engagement of a man and woman to marry each other at a future time. Parents anciently often betrothed their daughters without their consent, and even while yet young, as is still the case in oriental countries. Sometimes a regular contract was made, in which the bridegroom always bound himself to give a certain sum as a portion to his bride. See ESPOUSALS. BIBLE. This word signifies the book, by way of distinction, i. e. the book of all books. It is also called Scripture, or the Scriptures, i. e. the writings. It comprises the Old and New Testaments, or more properly covenants. The former was written mostly in Hebrew, and was the Bible of the ancient Jewish church; a few chapters of Daniel and Ezra only were written in Chaldee. The N. T. was wholly written in Greek, and is more peculiarly the rule of faith to Christians, as unfolding the history and doctrines of their di vine Redeemer and of his holy || glorious object has by far exinstitutions. The first English translation of the N. T. was that of Wycliffe, made about 1370, before the invention of printing. The next was that of Tyndal, printed in 1526, which was afterwards followed by his translation of the Pentateuch. The first complete English Bible is that of bishop Coverdale, in 1535. Matthew's Bible appeared in 1537. Coverdale and some other prelates, who resided at Geneva during the bloody reign of Mary, published there another edition in 1560, hence called the Geneva Bible. At the accession of queen Elizabeth, a new revision was made, which appeared in 1568, and is called the Bishop's Bible. This continued in use till our present English version, made by order of James I. was published in 1611. The first copy of this was made by forty-seven of the most learned men in England, divided into three companies, at Cambridge, Oxford and Westminster. This first copy was then revised by a committee of six, or two from each of the three companies; and then again by two others. The work of translation and revision occupied between four and five years. One of the most remarkable movements of modern times, and that which holds out the greatest promise of good for the coming triumphs of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the temporal as well as spiritual welfare of future generations, the mighty effort which is making to circulate the Holy Scriptures, not only in Christian but also in heathen lands. In the year 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society was formed; and the success which has attended this ceeded the most sanguine expectations of its founders and supporters. "Their voice has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." During the first twentyone years of this society, it printed or assisted in printing, the Scriptures in 140 languages, in fifty-five of which they had never before been printed; and issued upwards of 4,500,000 copies of the Sacred Writings! Other similar associations have followed nobly this glorious example; and of these none has labored with more effect than the American Bible Society. BIRDS, like other animals, were divided by Moses into clean and unclean: the former might be eaten, the latter not. The general ground of distinction is, that those which feed on grain or seeds are clean; while those which devour flesh, fish or carrion are unclean. There is great difficulty in accurately determining the different species of birds prohibited in Lev. 11:13, &c. Deut. 14:11, &c. The English translators have not always given the proper version of the Hebrew names. The second column in the following list gives the most probable names; those which may be reckoned certain being printed in small capitals. Birds of the Air. Eng. Trans. Eagle.. Ossifrage. Osprey Vulture Kite. Raven Probable Species. ...EAGLE. .VULTURE. .Black Eagle. ..... .......... HAWK. ....KITE. .RAVEN. Bat....... ..BAT. Moses, to inculcate humanity on the Israelites, orders, they find a bird's nest, not to take the dam with the young, but to suffer the old one to fly away, and to take the young only. Deut. 22:6,7. BIRTHRIGHT, the privilege of the first-born son. Among the Hebrews, as, indeed, among most other nations, the first-born enjoyed particular privileges; and wherever polygamy was tolerated, it was highly necessary to fix them. See Deut. 21:15 17. See FIRST-BORN. BISHOP, an overseer, one who has the charge and direction of any thing. But the most common acceptation of the word bishop, is that which occurs Acts 20:28, and in Paul's Epistles, Phil. 1:1, where it signifies the pastor of a church. Peter calls Jesus Christ" the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls," 1 Pet. 2:25. Paul describes the qualities requisite in a bishop, 1 Tim. 3:2. || Tit. 1:7, &c. BITHYNIA, 1 Pet. 1:1, a province of Asia Minor, in the northern part of that peninsula, on the shore of the Euxine, having Phrygia and Galatia to the south. It is famous as being one of the provinces to which the apostle Peter addressed his First Epistle; also, as having been under the government of Pliny, who describes the manners and characters of the Christians there, about A. D. 106; also for the holding of the most celebrated council of the Christian church in the city of Nice, its metropolis, about A. D. 325. It should seem to be, with some justice, considered as a province taught by Peter; and we read that when Paul attempted to go into Bithynia, the Spirit suffered him not. It is directly opposite to Constantinople. Acts 16:7. BITTERN, a fowl about the size of a heron, and of the same genus. Nineveh and Babylon became a possession for the bittern and other wild birds, Isa. 14:23. 34:11. Zeph. 2:14, according to the English Bible; but it is very doubtful whether this be correct. The more probable meaning of the Hebrew word is hedge-hog, or porcupine. The best critics now understand it in this sense; and Mr. Rich says expressly, that he found "great quantities" of porcupine quills among the ruins of Babylon. BLASPHEMY. A man is guilty of blasphemy, when he speaks of God, or his attributes, injuriously; when he ascribes such qualities to him as do not belong to him, or robs him of those which do. The law sentences blasphemers to death, Lev. 24: 12-16. BLESS, BLESSING, is referred, (1.) to God, and, (2.) to man. Without doubt the inferior is blessed by the superior. When God blesses, he bestows that virtue, that efficacy, which renders his blessing effectual, and which his blessing expresses. His blessings are either temporal or spiritual, bodily or mental; |