BAB 
Baal-BEKith, the god of the Shedtemitcs. Bochart,. 
conjectures, that Berith is the lame as Beroc, the daughter 
of Vgnus and Adonis, who was given in marriage to Bac¬ 
chus; and that die gave her name to the city ot Berith in 
Phoenicia, and became afterwards the goddefs ot it, Baal- 
berith fignifies ‘lord of the covenant,’ and may be taken 
for the god who prefides over alliances and oaths, in like 
manner as the Greeks had their £svs and the Romans 
their deus Julius, or Jupiter Pijlius. The idolatrous I I'rael- 
ites, we are told, made Baal-berith their god. Juclg. viii. 33 . 
Baal-peor, Ba-al-phecor, or Beel-phegor, an 
idol of the Moabites and Midianites. We are told, that 
Ifraeljoined himjelf to Baal-peor ; and that Solomon erefted 
an altar to this idol upon the mount of Olives. Baal-peor 
has been fuppofed to be no other than a Priapus, and that 
theworfltip of him confided in the mod obfcene practices. 
Others have thought, that, as Baal is a general name lig- 
rifying ‘lord,’ Peor may be the name of fome great prince 
deified after his death. Mede imagines, that Peor being 
the name of a mountain in the country of Moab, on which 
the temple of Baal was built, Baal-peor may be only another 
name of that deity, taken from the lituation of his temple; 
in like manner as Jupiter is dyled Ulympius, becaufe’he was 
wordtipped in a temple built on mount Olympus. Selden, 
who is of this-Jatter opinion, conjedhires likewife; that 
Baal-peor is the fame with Pluto;:: which he grounds up¬ 
on thefe words of the Pfalmid, They joined thtmfelves-unto 
Baal-peor, and ate the offerings of the dead ; though by the 
Jacrifces or offerings of the dead , in this padage, may be 
meant no more than facrifices or offerings made to idols, 
or falfe gods, who are very properly called the dead,, in 
contradidinCtion to the true .God, who is dyled in Scripture 
the living God. 
Baal-zebub, Beel-zebub, opBelzebub, [3131 Sys 
Heb. the lord of flies, or devils.] The idol; or god, of the 
Ekronites. In Scripture he is called the prince of devils. 
His name is rendered the ‘lord of flies,’ or the ‘god-fly;’ 
which fome think was a mock appellation bedowed on him 
by the Jews. He had a famous-temple and oracle at Ek- 
ron. Ahaziah, king of Ifrael, having , fallen from the 
terrace of his houfe into a lower room, and being dange- 
roudy hurt, fent to confult this deity, to know if he diould 
be cured of his wounds. The wordiip of this falfe god 
mud have prevailed in our Saviour’s time, dnee the Jews 
accufed him of driving out devils in the name of Belzebub 
their prince. 
BA'ALIM, [d*Sj> 3 Syr. lords.] The plural number of 
Baal, or Bel,, a god of the Phoenicians and Samaritans. 
BA'ANITES, heretics, followers of one Baanes, who 
taught the errors of the Manichees in the ninth century. 
BA'ARD,/. a fort of fea-veffel, or tranfport-ddp. 
BAA'SHA, [twys Heb. making or preding together.] 
A king of Ifrael. 
BA'BA, a town of Terra Firma, in South America, the 
capital of a jurifdi&ion to which it gives name ; the coun¬ 
try produces abundance of cocoas, of which they make 
two gatherings in a year. 
Baba, orTEMtsvAR, a town of European Turkey, in 
Bulgaria, fixty-four miles ead of Silidra. 
BABACHO'KA, one of the Biffagos Mlands, on the- 
wed coad of Africa, in the Atlantic Ocean. 
BAB AHOY'A, a town of South America, in the coun¬ 
try of Terra Firma, the chief place of a bailiwick, and 
extenfive jurifdiftion: the country about it is low, and 
fubjeft to inundations, but fertile in cocoa, cotton, rice, 
and fruit. 
BABAIN', a town of Perfia, in the province of Ker¬ 
man, ninety miles fouth-ead of Sergian. 
BAB'BIN, a town of Pomerania, in the idand of Ru- 
gen, twelve miles north of Bergen- 
To B AB'BLE, v. n. \babbelen, Germ, babilltr, Fr.] To 
prattle like a child ; to prate imperfectly : 
My babbling praifes I repeat no more, 
But hear, rejoice, dand dlent, and adore. - Prior. 
BAB 591 
To talk idly, or Irrationally.—John had conned over a ca¬ 
talogue of hard words; tltefe he ufed to taMleindiderent- 
ly in all companies. Arbuthnol .—To talk thoughtlefsly ; 
to tell fecrets.—There is more danger in a referved and ii- 
lent friend, than in a noify babbling enemy-. L’EJlrange.—' 
To talk much : 
The babbling echo- mocks the hounds, 
Replying dirilly to the well-tun’d horns, 
As if a double hunt were heard at once. Shakefpeare. 
BAB'BLE,y. \babil , Fr.] Idle-talk; fenfelefs prattle.— 
The babble, impertinence,, and folly, I have taken notice of 
in dilputes. Glanville. 
B AB'BLEMENT, f Senfelefs prate; empty words.-— 
Deluded all this while with ragged notions and babblements, 
while they expedted worthy and delightful knowledge. 
Milton. 
BAB'BLER,-/. Ar. idle talker; an irrational prattler. 
—The apodle had no fooner propofed it to the maders at 
Athens, but he himfelf was ridiculed as a babbler. Rogers „• 
—A. teller of fecrets.—Great babblers , or talkers, are not 
fit for trud. DEJlrangc. 
BABE,y. [of babola, I tab as fome imagine; others of- 
bab,. being a word of eafy pronunciation, and one of the 
fird ufed by infants; others from pappus or puppa, thence 
bube, Tent, though bube fignifies-a young boy, and not am 
infant; it feems more likely to be a contraction of the Ita¬ 
lian word bambino.'] An infant ; • a.child of either lex : 
The babe had all that infant care beguiles, 
And early knew his-mother in her fmiles. Dry den, 
BABEIN', a-town of Egypt, built on the ruins of an 
ancient city, fix miles wed of Afhmunein. 
BA'BEL, [S23 Heb. confufion.] A city and tower un¬ 
dertaken to be built by the whole human race foon after 
the flood, and remarkable for the miraculous frudration 
of the attempt by the confufion of languages. As to the- 
lituation of ancient Babel, moll authors are of opinion that 
it was exaCtly in the place where the celebrated city of Ba¬ 
bylon afterwards dood. That it was in the fame country, 
appears indifputably from Scripture; but that it was ex¬ 
actly in the fame place is what cannot be proved, nor is it- 
a matter of any confequence. 
Authors have been much divided about the motive by 
which the whole race of mankind were induced to join as. 
one man in fuch an undertaking. Some have imagined 
that it was out of fear of a fecond deluge ; others, that 
they knew beforehand that they were to be difperfed thro’ 
all the different countries of the world, and built this tow¬ 
er in order to defeat the dedgn of the Deity, becaufe, hav¬ 
ing a tower of fuch v-ad height as they propofed, thofe 
who were at a didance could eadly find their way back, 
again. Had either of thefe been their defign, however, 
it is probable they would have chofen an eminence rather 
than "a plain for the lituation of their tower, or indeed, 
that they would have chofen fome high mountain fuch as 
Ararat for their mark, rather than any tower at all : for 
though it is laid that they defigned the top of their tower 
to reach to heaven, we can fcarcely fuppofe them to have 
been fo abfurd,. as to imagine this poffible in the fenfe we 
underdand it; and mud therefore rather take it in the li¬ 
mited fenfe in which it is often ufed by Mofes and his 
countrymen, where they fpeak of cities walled up to hea¬ 
ven. Others there are who imagine that the top of this 
tower was not to reach up to heaven, but to be confecra- 
ted to the heavens, i. e. to the wordiip of the fun, moon, 
and dai s; of the fire, air,. &c. and other natural powers, as 
deities ; and therefore that the true Deity interpofed in or¬ 
der to prevent a total and irrecoverable defection. Cer¬ 
tain it is, that the lpecies of idolatry which takes for the 
objedls of its vvorlhip thofe natural agents, as it is the mod 
ancient, fo it is by far the mod rational, and the mod dif¬ 
ficult to be difproved. It is much more difficult, for in¬ 
dance, to prove that the fun, which by his enlivening 
beams gives vigour to the whole creation, is not a deity, than 
that 
