During Solomon’s reign one of the twelve commissariat districts placed under deputies and assigned to provide food for the royal tables included Bashan.—1 Ki. 4:7, 13.

The principal route through Transjordan from N to S, called “The King’s Highway,” ran through Bashan at the city of Ashteroth-karnaim, and this fact, together with Bashan’s great fertility and its proximity to Damascus, made it the goal of military conquest. King Hazael of Damascus captured Bashan during Jehu’s reign (909-881 B.C.E.), but it was evidently recovered in the reign of Jehoash (2 Ki. 10:32, 33; 13:25) or at least by the time of Jeroboam II (852-811 B.C.E.). (2 Ki. 14:25) Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria overran the whole area in the reign of Pekah (775-755 B.C.E.).—2 Ki. 15:29; 1 Chron. 5:26.

In postexilic times Bashan came under Greek control and later became one of the major wheat granaries of the Roman Empire. It was divided into four districts and, with the exception of the NE district called Trachonitis, these districts preserved to some extent original names from the area: the district of Gaulanitis in the W drew its name from Golan, Auranitis in the S from Hauran, and central Batanea from Bashan. Aside from a reference to Trachonitis (Luke 3:1), Bashan is not mentioned in the Greek Scriptures.—See ARGOB No. 2; HAURAN.

BASIN

The Scriptures do not provide a detailed description of basins used in ancient times, though such vessels were commonly earthenware, or were made of wood or metal. Some basins served a domestic purpose, like those that were among the provisions brought to David and the people with him when they fled from Absalom. (2 Sam. 17:27-29) The Hebrew word saph is used for a basin of this kind. It is also employed for the basin into which the Israelites in Egypt put the blood of the passover victim (Ex. 12:22) and for the temple basins that Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylon. (2 Ki. 25:15; Jer. 52:19) This word may also be rendered “bowl,” and thus Jehovah is represented as saying prophetically: “Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl [saph] causing reeling to all the peoples round about.” (Zech. 12:1, 2) Among the larger basins used at meals was the banquet bowl (Heb., tsal·laʹhhath).—Prov. 26:15.

SANCTUARY USE

Basins were also used for sacred purposes in connection with Jehovah’s worship at the tabernacle and the later temples. As Jehovah instructed Moses, the tabernacle articles included a large basin that was to be filled with water. It was made of copper, rested on a copper stand, and was placed between the tent of meeting and the altar to provide the high priest and the other priests with water for washing their hands and feet either before entering the tent of meeting or before ministering at the altar. (Ex. 30:17-21; 31:9; 40:30, 31) This basin, called a laver in some translations (AS; AT; AV; RS), was made “by the use of the mirrors of the women servants who did organized service at the entrance of the tent of meeting.”—Ex. 38:8.

The thought has been advanced that the priests did not actually wash in the tabernacle basin itself, for this would have made the water unclean and defiled. So it has been suggested that the basin had taps through which streams of water would flow and that the priests washed by holding their hands and feet under the flowing water. But this is not specifically stated in the Scriptures.

According to the Masoretic text, there is no specific instruction given on the transporting of the tabernacle basin. However, the Septuagint Version (which agrees with the ancient Samaritan Pentateuch) adds to Numbers 4:14 the words: “And they will take a purple cloth and cover the basin and its stand and put it in a blue skin covering and put it upon poles.”

The Hebrew words ki·yohrʹ and ki·yorʹ, which evidently designate something round, are used for the tabernacle basin and for the ten basins Solomon had made for temple use. Things having to do with the burnt offering were rinsed in the latter.—2 Chron. 4:6, 14.

Each of the ten copper basins (lavers, AT; RS) Hiram made for temple use could hold “forty bath measures,” or about 232 gallons (U.S.A.; about 878 liters) of water. If these basins were hemispherical in shape this would mean that they had a diameter of about six feet (1.8 meters). Of course, if they bulged and tapered somewhat toward the top, the measurements would be different, and it must be observed that the Bible does not provide detailed information on their form, though it says “each basin was four cubits.” Each basin was placed on a four-wheeled carriage skillfully made with ornamental work and engravings, five being placed on the right and five on the left side of the house.—1 Ki. 7:27-39.

Another basin of great size was the large ornamented molten sea that stood upon twelve fashioned bulls and was “placed at the right side, to the east, toward the south” of the house. Stored therein was water the priests used. It was circular, ten cubits (c. 14.6 feet or 4.4 meters) from brim to brim and five cubits (c. 7.3 feet or 2.2 meters) high.—2 Chron. 4:2-6, 10.

BASKET

A container made of such materials as palm-leaf fibers, reeds, rushes, rope, twigs and willows was often used by persons in ancient times for agricultural, domestic or other purposes. Their baskets varied greatly in shape, size and construction. There were those with an open weave and others with a close weave. Some had handles and lids, whereas other baskets lacked either or both of these things.

The Scriptures do not provide detailed descriptions of the different kinds of baskets used in antiquity in Bible lands, and various Hebrew and Greek words are used for baskets. The Hebrew word most often employed to denote a basket is sal. It is used for the three baskets containing white bread that Pharaoh’s chief of the bakers dreamed he was carrying on his head, a dream Joseph rightly interpreted as signifying death for the dreamer. (Gen. 40:16-19, 22) Sal is also used for the basket in which unfermented bread, cakes and wafers were placed for use when installing Israel’s priesthood, it further being called the “installation basket.” (Ex. 29:3, 23, 32; Lev. 8:2, 26, 31) This same Hebrew term was used for the basket containing the unfermented cakes and wafers used ceremonially on the day that one’s Naziriteship came to the full. (Num. 6:13, 15, 17, 19) Also, it was into a sal that Gideon put the meat he set before Jehovah’s angel. (Judg. 6:19) While the Scriptures do not describe the sal, it seems that this type of basket was of fine weave and, in later times at least, was made of peeled willows or palm leaves. It may have been fairly large and flat, thus being a type convenient for carrying bread, as in the royal baker’s prophetic dream. In the British Museum there is a painted wooden model of a woman balancing a large flat and open basket on her head, it being filled with food provisions supposedly for the dead. This Egyptian tomb model is fifteen inches (c. 38 centimeters) high and has been dated as of about 2000 B.C.E.

During the Israelites’ bondage in Egypt and their “hard slavery at clay mortar and bricks” (Ex. 1:14), they evidently used baskets to carry construction materials, clay for bricks and bricks themselves. Reflecting on the way in which Jehovah effected the release of Israel from Egyptian slavery, the psalmist Asaph represents God as saying: “His own hands got to be free even from the basket [dudh].” (Ps. 81:4-6) This same Hebrew term (dudh) is applied to a basket for carrying figs.—Jer. 24:1, 2.

The Hebrew teʹneʼ was the basket in which the harvest firstfruits were placed for presentation to God, being deposited before the altar of Jehovah. (Deut. 26:2, 4) This basket served as a container for products of the soil and was probably a large, deep receptacle. It may have been like one type used by modern-day Palestinian peasants, a basket made of straw and clay. This basket, having the general form of a jar, serves as a receptacle for grain that is put into it through a mouth at the top and that can be withdrawn by means of an opening at the bottom, which can thereafter be closed up with a cloth. However, the actual form of the teʹneʼ is uncertain, though the Septuagint Version renders it karʹtal·los, a term signifying a basket tapering downward, one of inverted cone form. The Hebrew term teʹneʼ was used for “basket” by Moses when he apprised Israel of the consequences of obedience and of disobedience to Jehovah and said, “Blessed will be your basket and your kneading trough” if a course of obedience was pursued, but, “cursed will be your basket and your kneading trough,” if Israel was disobedient.—Deut. 28:5, 17.

The Hebrew word k^eluvʹ may denote a basket woven of rushes or leaves. This term is employed for “basket” at Amos 8:1, 2, where the prophet reports that Jehovah caused him to see “a basket of summer fruit.” Just how this basket may have differed from the dudh of Jeremiah 24:1, 2 (used for figs) is not revealed in the Scriptures.

After Jesus Christ miraculously multiplied loaves and fishes to feed five thousand men, besides women and young children, there were twelve baskets full of surplus fragments. (Matt. 14:20; Mark 6:43; Luke 9:17; John 6:13) For the type of basket used to gather the leftovers, all four Gospel writers use the Greek word koʹphi·nos. This type may have been a relatively small wicker hand basket in which to carry provisions on a journey, or, possibly, it had a cord serving as a handle by which the basket could be carried on one’s back. Its general capacity may be deduced from the fact that this Greek term is also used for the Boeotian measure of approximately two gallons (c. 7.6 liters).

After Matthew and Mark tell of Jesus’ feeding four thousand men, besides women and young children, from the seven loaves and a few little fishes, they show that seven baskets of surplus fragments were collected. But they use a different Greek word, sphu·risʹ (or spuirisʹ); this denotes a large provision basket or hamper. (Matt. 15:37; Mark 8:8) Whereas the smaller koʹphi·nos would suffice when one was traveling in Jewish territory and away from home only a short time, a larger basket would be needed when going on an extended journey through foreign areas. The sphu·risʹ (or spu·risʹ) denotes something round and folded or twisted together. So the term would apply to a plaited reed basket. At times this type was quite large, big enough to hold a man. Gospel writers draw a distinction between the koʹphi·nos and spu·risʹ (or sphu·risʹ) (NW using “baskets” for the former and “provision baskets” for the latter) when reporting Jesus Christ’s later references to his acts of miraculously multiplying food.—Matt. 16:9, 10; Mark 8:19, 20.

The sphu·risʹ (or spu·risʹ) is the kind of basket in which Paul was lowered to the ground through an opening in the wall of Damascus. (Acts 9:25) In telling the Corinthian Christians about this escape, the apostle used the Greek word sar·gaʹne, which denotes a plaited or wicker basket made of rope or entwined twigs. Both of these Greek terms can be used for the same type of basket.—2 Cor. 11:32, 33.

Jesus Christ, after identifying his disciples as “the light of the world,” told them: “People light a lamp and set it, not under the measuring basket, but upon the lampstand, and it shines upon all those in the house.” Such a “measuring basket” (Gr., moʹdi·os) was a dry measure that had a capacity of nearly one peck (.96 peck, or 7.68 U.S. dry quarts [c. 8.8 liters]), but Christ used it illustratively as a covering. Rather than hide their spiritual light under a figurative “measuring basket,” Jesus admonished his disciples, saying: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your fine works and give glory to your Father who is in the heavens.”—Matt. 5:1, 2, 14-16; see also Mark 4:21; Luke 11:33.

BAT

A flying mammal that, apart from its large wings of membranous skin, resembles the mouse. The Scriptures classify the bat among the unclean flying creatures that were not to be eaten by the Israelites. (Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18) The varieties encountered in the Near East may have a wingspread of a few inches to more than twenty inches (50.8 centimeters). Both insect-eating and fruit-eating bats are found in Palestine.

The bat can fly under the darkest conditions, for it is equipped with a sort of built-in “sonar” system that enables it, when in flight, to avoid obstacles even as small as a wire as well as to locate insect prey. Through its nostrils the bat emits high-frequency pulses of sound far above the range of human hearing. Its ears are specially designed so as to permit the bat to detect the reflections of its own sounds, thus determining the proximity of surrounding objects, animate or inanimate. The sound emitted is not confused with the echo, since a tiny ear muscle contracts at the precise moment the bat broadcasts its high-pitched sound. Even when tens of thousands of these creatures mill around for hours in a dark cave, there are no collisions. Each bat apparently recognizes its own signals and does not confuse them with those of his neighbors.

During the daylight hours bats generally roost head downward in dark caves or deserted buildings, then come forth at dusk to hunt for food during the hours of darkness. Where large numbers of them roost in one place there is a repulsive, mousy odor. In some caves bat manure has built up into layers of considerable thickness, providing a valuable source of fertilizer. It is doubtless because of the bat’s habit of roosting in dark places that the prophet Isaiah speaks of throwing gods of gold and silver to the bats. A place of darkness and uncleanness is all such idols deserve, instead of the places of honor and prominence accorded them by their deceived worshipers.—Isa. 2:20.

BATH

A liquid measure amounting to a tenth of a homer and corresponding to the dry-measure ephah. (Ezek. 45:10, 11) On the basis of jar fragments bearing the designation “bath” in ancient Hebrew characters, it has been estimated that the bath measure equaled 5.81 gallons (22 liters). This approximate capacity of the bath would better fit the Bible’s description of the “molten sea” than that of the much larger bath (10.3 gallons, c. 40 liters) derived from Josephus’ writings.—See MOLTEN SEA.

BATHING

The Hebrew word ra·hhatsʹ is rendered either “bathe” or “wash” and applies to the human body and other objects that are cleansed by dipping or having water poured over them. (Ex. 40:31; Lev. 16:24) However, to describe the washing of clothes when they are pounded under water, the Hebrew word ka·vasʹ (meaning “to trample”) is used. We, therefore, read in Leviticus 14:8: “And the one cleansing himself must wash [a form of ka·vasʹ] his garments and shave off all his hair and bathe [ra·hhatsʹ] in water and must be clean.”—See also Leviticus 15:5-27; Numbers 19:19.

Physical cleanliness is required of those who worship Jehovah in holiness and purity. This was demonstrated in connection with the tabernacle arrangement and the later temple service. At their installation, High Priest Aaron and his sons bathed before donning the official garments. (Ex. 29:4-9; 40:12-15; Lev. 8:6, 7) The copper basin in the courtyard of the tabernacle, and later the huge molten sea at Solomon’s temple, served for washing of hands and feet of the priests. (Ex. 30:18-21; 40:30-32; 2 Chron. 4:2-6) On the day of atonement the high priest bathed twice.