BASIN (bo's'n), the rendering in the A. V. of several words in the original; also spelled "ba son." 1. .elg-gawn' (Heb. literally, fiounded out; a vessel for washing, a laver, large bowl, or cuff (Exod. xxiv:6).
2. Saf dishes or bowls for holding the blood of victims (Exod. xii:22; Jer. lii:i9); the oil for the sacred candlestick (I Kings vii:5o); basins for domestic purposes (2 Sam. xvii:28); also a drinking cup (Zech. x11:2).
3. .illiz-rawk' (Heb. r7r;), a bowl from which anything was sprinkled. The sacrificial bowls in the Tabernacle were of " brass," bronze or copper (Exod. xxvii:3), and those in the Temple, of gold (2 Chron. iv :8).
4. Kef-ore' (Heb. a covered dish, goblet, or tankard, such as the gold and silver vessels of the sanctuary (r Chron. xxviii:17; Ezra i:io; viii:27.
5. Nzfi-tare' (Gr. vorrhp), a large vessel, such as the basin from which our Lord washed the dis ciples' feet (John xiii:5). (See BowL, Cup.) BASKET (135,s'ke't). There are several words in the Scriptures by which different kinds of baskets appear to be indicated.
1. Dood ( Heb. a pot ), which occurs in 2 Kings x :7, where the heads of Ahab's sons are sent from Samaria to Jezreel in baskets ; Jer. xxiv :2. as containing figs ; and Ps. lxxxi :6 (rendered pots), also as containing figs ; where, therefore, deliverance from the baskets means deliverance from the bondage of carrying bur dens in baskets. In fact, very heavy burdens were thus carried in Egypt, as corn in very large baskets from the field to the threshing-floor, and from the threshing-floor to the granaries. They were carried between two men by a pole resting on their shoulders; which agrees with the previous clause of the cited text, 'I removed his shoulder from the burden.' This labor and form of the basket arc often shown in the Egyptian sculptures.
2. Telt'neh (Heb. ), which occurs in connection with agricultural objects, 'the basket and the store' (Deus. xxvi :2-4 ; xxviii :5-17), and would therefore appear to have been somewhat similar to the above ; and, in fact, the Egyptian sculptures show different baskets applied to this use.
3. Kel-oob' ( Heb. =»= ). From the etymol ogy, this appears to have been an interwoven basket, made of leaves or rushes. In Lev. v:27, however, it is used for a bird cage, which must have been of open work, and probably not un like our own wicker bird cages. The name is also applied to fruit baskets (Amos viii :r, 2), Egyptian examples of which arc presented in Figs. 2 and 4 (which contain pomegranates) of
the annexed cut.
4. Sal-sil-loth' (Heb. salsilloth), oc curs only in Jer. vi:o, where it obviously denotes baskets in which grapes were deposited as they were gathered. The form of the basket used for this purpose is often shown on the Egyptian monuments, and is similar to that represented in fig. 4, cut 2.
5. In all the other places where the word bas ket occurs, we are doubtless to understand a basket made of rushes, similar both in form and material to those used by carpenters for carrying their tools. This is still the common kind of basket throughout Western Asia ; and its use in ancient Egypt is shown by an actual specimen which was found in a tomb at Thebes, and which is now in the British Museum. It was, in fact, a carpenter's basket, and contained his tools (fig. I).
The specimens of Egyptian baskets in the British Museum, represented in our cut, convey a favorable idea of the basket-work of ancient with colors (figs. 3. 5. cut i ; also the modern times. Some of these are worked ornamentally examples, figs. 2. 7. cut 2). And besides these the monuments exhibit a large variety of hand baskets, of different shapes, and so extensively employed as to show the numerous applications of basket-work in the remote times to which these representations extend. They are mostly manufactured, the stronger and larger sorts of the fibres, and the finer of the leaves of the palm tree, and not infrequently of rushes, still more seldom of reeds.
6. In the New Testament baskets are described 1 under the three following terms: 1,60ivos (kof' es nos), airttpls (sfioo-rece', hamper), oap-ydryi (sar-ganc ay). The last occurs only in 2 Cor. xi:33, in describing St. Paul's escape from Damascus.
With regard to the two former words, it may be remarked that the first is exclusively used in the description of the miracle of feeding the five thousand ( Matt. xiv :20 ; xvi :9; Mark vi :43; Luke ix :17; John vi :13), and the second, in that of the four thousand (Matt. xv :37 ; Mark viii: 8) ; the distinction is most definitely brought out in Mark viii :19. 20.
The spuris is also mentioned as the means of St. Paul's escape (Acts ix :25). The difference between these two kinds of baskets is not very apparent. Their construction appears to have been the same. (Smith, Bib. Diet.).