Bedouins still bake bread in this way, or do so on a heated iron disk, the Arabic sadj.

Grain offerings made by the Israelites were often “something baked in the oven,” came “from off the griddle,” or from “out of the deep-fat kettle.” (Lev. 2:4-7) The griddle was a thick pottery plate having depressions (comparable to a modern waffle iron), though iron griddles were also used.—Ezek. 4:3.

Professional bakers were in business in the cities. While Jeremiah was in custody in the Courtyard of the Guard in Jerusalem during the time of scarcity prior to that city’s overthrow in 607 B.C.E., he was given a daily ration of a round loaf of bread “from the street of the bakers,” as long as the supply lasted. (Jer. 37:21) So, commercial bakers evidently occupied a particular street in Jerusalem. Years later, when Jerusalem’s walls were restored under Nehemiah’s supervision, the “Tower of the Bake Ovens” was also repaired. (Neh. 3:11; 12:38) Just how the tower came to be named is uncertain, but it is possible that it was given its unusual name because the ovens of commercial bakers were located there.

In modern times, the professional Oriental baker does not customarily prepare the dough. Instead, it is made by the house baker and is then sent to the public baker. So it is not uncommon to observe the baker’s boy walking along with trays of freshly baked bread balanced on his head, delivering the bread to customers’ homes. In Bible times, too, the professional baker may often have baked the dough (and even meat and vegetables) brought to him. After removing the bread or cakes from his oven with a long shovel, the baker at times greased them. The fine quality of bread baked in the larger oven of the Oriental commercial baker seems to be indicated by this proverb of the Arabs: “Send your bread to the oven of the baker, though he should eat the half of it.”

Bakers in ancient Egypt had to render to the overseer of granaries strict accounts of the materials they had in stock. The Greek historian Herodotus of the fifth century B.C.E. spent some time in Egypt and provides a detailed account of Egyptian baking processes. He says the Egyptians kneaded bread with their feet, a procedure confirmed in a wall painting from the tomb of Ramses III.

The royal baker was evidently a man of some importance in ancient Egypt. The above-mentioned wall painting from Ramses III’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes depicts an Egyptian royal bakery in full operation, showing such steps as the kneading of dough with the feet, the making of cakes of bread and the preparing of the oven. As reported in Genesis, one Egyptian royal baker gained particular notoriety because he sinned against the king and was cast into prison. There he had a dream in which he saw himself carrying three baskets of bread on his head, with fowls eating from the topmost basket. This “chief of the bakers” was taken out on the third day and “hung up,” thus fulfilling Joseph’s interpretation: “The three baskets are three days. In three days from now Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you and will certainly hang you upon a stake; and the fowls will certainly eat your flesh from off you.”—Gen. 40:1-3, 16-22.

BALAAM

(Ba’laam) [perhaps, devouring or devourer].

A son of Beor of the fifteenth century B.C.E., who lived in the Aramaean town of Pethor in the upper Euphrates valley and near the Sajur River. Though not an Israelite, Balaam had some knowledge and recognition of Jehovah as the true God, speaking of him on one occasion as “Jehovah my God.” (Num. 22:5, 18) This may have been because devout worshipers of Jehovah (Abraham, Lot and Jacob) formerly lived in the vicinity of Haran, not far from Pethor.—Gen. 12:4, 5; 24:10; 28:5; 31:18, 38.

Balaam turned down the offer of the first delegation from the Moabite king Balak, who brought with them “payments for divination,” saying: “Jehovah has refused to let me go with you.” (Num. 22:5-14) When “other princes in greater number and more honorable” came (Num. 22:15), and Balaam again sought God’s permission to go, Jehovah said: “Get up, go with them. But only the word that I shall speak to you is what you may speak.”—Num. 22:16-21; Mic. 6:5.

On the way Jehovah’s angel three times stood in the road, causing Balaam’s ass first to turn into a field, then to squeeze Balaam’s foot against a wall, and at last to lie down. Three times Balaam beat the animal, which then miraculously uttered a spoken protest. (Num. 22:22-30) Finally, Balaam himself saw Jehovah’s angel, who announced: “I have come out to offer resistance, because your way has been headlong against my will.” Yet Jehovah once again allowed Balaam to continue in his chosen course.—Num. 22:31-35.

From start to finish God unalterably disapproved any cursing of Israel, insisting that if Balaam went he would have to bless, not curse. (Josh. 24:9, 10) However, God permitted him to go. It was as in the case of Cain, when Jehovah expressed his disapproval, but at the same time allowed the individual personal choice, either to abondon his bad way or plunge ahead in his wicked course. (Gen. 4:6-8) Balaam, then, like Cain, was headstrong in disregarding Jehovah’s will in the matter, determined to gain his own selfish objective. In Balaam’s case it was greed of reward that blinded him to the wrong of his way, as Jude writes: ‘Balaam rushed into the erroneous course for reward.’ The apostle Peter comments: “Balaam, the son of Beor, . . . loved the reward of wrongdoing, but got a reproof for his own violation of what was right. A voiceless beast of burden, making utterance with the voice of a man, hindered the prophet’s mad course.”—Jude 11; 2 Pet. 2:15, 16.

Upon reaching Moabite territory and meeting King Balak on the bank of the Arnon, Balaam wasted no time in going to work for these opposers of Jehovah’s people the next day. Balaam then withdrew, hoping to “come upon any unlucky omens” (Num. 23:3; 24:1), but the only message received was a blessing for Israel from Jehovah. The same sacrificial procedure was again followed atop Pisgah, and again “no unlucky spell against Jacob,” only blessings. Finally, the performance was repeated atop Peor, and again for the third time “God changed the malediction into a benediction.”—Num. 22:41–24:9; Neh. 13:2.

At this turn of events, “Balak’s anger blazed against Balaam,” and, clapping his hands in a rage, he exclaimed: “It was to execrate my enemies that I called you, and, look! you have blessed them to the limit these three times. And now run your way off to your place. I had said to myself I was without fail going to honor you, but, look! Jehovah has held you back from honor.” (Num. 24:10, 11) Balaam tried to excuse himself, blaming Jehovah for his failure at cursing Israel, saying he was not “able to pass beyond the order of Jehovah,” and that ‘whatever Jehovah said is what he had to speak.’ So with a few more proverbial pronouncements against Israel’s enemies, “Balaam got up and went and returned to his place.”—Num. 24:12-25.

When it says that Balaam “returned to his place” it does not necessarily mean he actually reached his home back in Pethor. The words themselves do not imply that Balaam left more than the immediate vicinity of Mount Peor. As Cook’s Commentary observes on Numbers 24:25: “Returned to his own place. Not to his own land, for he remained amongst the Midianites to plot by new means against the people of God, and to perish in his sin . . . The phrase, which is of frequent recurrence (cf. e.g. Gen. xviii. 33, xxxi. 55; 1 S. xxvi. 25; 2 S. xix. 39), is idiomatic, meaning merely that Balaam went away whither he would.”

Balaam still entertained hope of having that rich reward for which he had come so far and for which he had worked so hard. If he could not curse Israel, he reasoned, perhaps God himself would curse his own people, if only they could be seduced to engage in sex worship of the Baal of Peor. So “Balaam . . . went teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.” (Rev. 2:14) “By Balaam’s word,” the daughters of Moab and Midian “served to induce the sons of Israel to commit unfaithfulness toward Jehovah over the affair of Peor, so that the scourge came upon the assembly of Jehovah.” (Num. 31:16) The result: 24,000 men of Israel died for their sin. (Num. 25:1-9) Neither did Midian, nor Balaam, for his part, escape divine punishment. Jehovah commanded that all their men, women and boys be executed; only virgins were spared. “And they killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.” (Num. 25:16-18; 31:1-18) As for the Moabites, they were barred from the congregation of Jehovah “to the tenth generation.”—Deut. 23:3-6.

BALADAN

(Balʹa·dan) [he has given a son].

The father of Merodach-baladan (Isa. 39:1; “Berodach-baladan” at 2 Kings 20:12). Baladan’s son Merodach-baladan was king of Babylon during at least part of the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah (745-716 B.C.E.).

In the past, some viewed this mention of Baladan as in error, since the Assyrian inscriptions of King Sargon II refer to Merodach-baladan as the son of “Yakin.” However, in the inscriptions of Assyrian King Shalmaneser III, King Jehu of Israel is called the “son of Omri,” whereas Jehu was actually the son of Jehoshaphat and grandson of Nimshi. (2 Ki. 9:2) Though Omri’s dynasty ended with the death of Jehoram (2 Ki. 9:24), the Assyrians continued to refer to the kingdom of Israel as “Bit Humri” (House of Omri, or, Omri-land) and, correspondingly, the land of Merodach-baladan is referred to as “Bit Yakin.” So it appears that Merodach-baladan was the “son of Yakin” primarily in the sense of successor to his throne or dynasty.

Some consider “Baladan” to be an abbreviation of a fuller name, suggesting that Merodach-baladan’s father bore the same name as his son. Such abbreviation of names is not unusual in the Biblical record (as, for example, the abbreviation of “Jehoahaz” to “Ahaz”), nor is it unusual in the Assyrian and Babylonian texts.

BALAH

See BAALAH No. 3.

BALAK

(Baʹlak) [devastator].

Baal-worshiping king of Moab in the fifteenth century B.C.E.; son of Zippor. Balak’s people were frightened and filled with a “sickening dread” when they saw what Israel had done to the Amorites. In league with Midian, Balak sent to the town of Pethor by the Euphrates River for Balaam to come from Mesopotamia and curse Israel with “uncanny power,” hoping thereby to gain a military advantage. “Look!” Balak said to Balaam, “[the Israelites] have covered the earth as far as one can see, and they are dwelling right in front of me.” At first Balaam declined to go, but after Balak sent a more honorable delegation of princes and raised his offer, the greedy prophet finally accepted, with Jehovah’s allowance. Upon coming to the bank of the Arnon River, Balak chided him with: “Why did you not come to me [at first]? Am I not really and truly able to honor you?”—Num. 22:2-37.

Balak took Balaam to three vantage points from which to view the host of Israel. At each point the same sacrificial procedure was followed; Balak was directed to construct seven altars upon which seven bulls and seven rams were sacrificed. However, at each place, instead of cursing Israel, Balaam blessed them.—Num. 22:41–24:9; Mic. 6:5.

Well, at this turn of events “Balak’s anger blazed against Balaam.” Clapping his hands in a rage, he exclaimed: “It was to execrate my enemies that I called you, and, look! you have blessed them to the limit these three times. And now run your way off to your place.” But before this prophet from Pethor departed, he foretold the Messianic “star” coming through Jacob’s seed.—Num. 24:10-17; Josh. 24:9, 10; Judg. 11:25.

Subsequent events show that Balaam also “went teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.”—Rev. 2:14; Num. 25:1-18.

BALDNESS

The absence of hair on the head, although not necessarily a total loss of hair. Often baldness occurs in spots or patches, while on other parts of the head the hair grows normally. This kind of hair loss is called pattern baldness and accounts for about 90 percent of all cases. The Bible makes mention of crown baldness and forehead baldness. (Lev. 13:41-44) The exact cause of baldness is unknown. Heredity is considered the primary contributing factor, while infection, hormone imbalance, aging, nervous disorders and syphilis are also factors.

Baldness is a defect that interferes with personal attractiveness and so among peoples of ancient times was associated with shame, mourning and distress. (Isa. 3:24; 15:2; Jer. 47:5; Ezek. 27:31; Amos 8:10; Mic. 1:16) However, under the law of Moses, baldness was not considered as uncleanness. (Lev. 13:40) The Law given through Moses does not list baldness as a defect that would prevent one from being allowed to serve as priest, but the Hebrew Mishnah lists it as a disqualifying factor. In the prophet Ezekiel’s vision the command was given that the priests should wear their hair neither loose nor shaved, but clipped.—Ezek. 44:20.

Jehovah’s prophet Elisha was bald. After he had succeeded to the prophetic office of Elijah, he was proceeding uphill from Jericho toward Bethel when he was mocked by a mob of children who cried: “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” The primary reason for their jeers seems to have been not that Elisha was baldheaded but that they saw a baldheaded man wearing Elijah’s familiar official garment. They did not want any successor of Elijah around. He should either keep going his way up to Bethel or get off the earth altogether by making an ascent into the heavens as the former wearer of that official garment had done. To answer this challenge of his being Elijah’s successor and to teach these young people and their parents proper respect for Jehovah’s prophet, Elisha called down evil upon the jeering mob in the name of the God of Elijah. It was a test of his prophetship. Jehovah manifested his approval of Elisha by causing two she-bears to come out of the nearby woods and to tear to pieces forty-two of them.—2 Ki. 2:23, 24.

Some peoples made a practice of artificially imposing baldness by shaving in time of sorrow for a dead relative or for religious reasons, but the Israelites were forbidden to practice this. (Deut. 14:1) Priests were given a specific command that they should not make themselves bald or shave the extremities of their beards for the dead. (Lev. 21:5) Israel was commanded that they should not cut the side locks or extremity of their beards.—Lev. 19:27; Jer. 9:26.

In Egypt, the men generally shaved their heads, and they looked upon beards as a sign of slovenliness. For this reason Joseph, when taken out of prison, shaved before being brought into the presence of Pharaoh. (Gen. 41:14) However, the Egyptians covered baldness with wigs, and many who shaved their heads and beards wore wigs and tied on false beards. In the Papyrus Ebers, an Egyptian medical treatise from the second millennium B.C.E., there are eleven prescriptions for preventing baldness.

In the Law, one with head leprosy was to shave his head at the beginning of his quarantine period and on the day of purification and again on the seventh day. (Lev. 13:33; 14:8, 9) If a Nazirite became defiled, then at the time of establishing his purification he shaved his head. (Num. 6:9) A captive woman whom