BATHE, BATHING (bath. With'ing), (Hcb. raw-khals').
(1) in contradistinction to the washing of par ticular parts of the body, hands, feet, etc., bath ing is used in this article of the washing of the whole body, and that either by the application of water, by pouring or otherwise, to the body, or by the immersion of the body in water, which alone is bathing in the strict sense of the term. The Hebrew of the Old Testament does not distinguish between the processes, both of which are expressed by •archhats, to wash the body, as opposed to the washing of clothes The new born infant among the Hebrews was bathed in water before being dressed (12zek. xvi :4). ()last ings' Bib. Pict.) (2) The Israelites, from early times, were customed not only to wash the hands and feet before eating, but also to bathe the body when about to visit a superior (Ruth iii :3). after mourning, which always implied defilement (2 Sam. xii :20), but especially before any re ligious service (Gen. xxxv :2 ; Exod. xix :to; Josh. iii :5 ; I Sam. xvi :5), that they might ap pear clean before God. The high priest at his inauguration (Lev. xiii :6), and on the day of atonement before each act of propitiation (Lev. xvi :4, 24), was also to bathe. To cleanse the body snow water was used, or lye put into the water ( Job ix :3o), also bran, according to ishna. Bathing in running water was specially favored (Lev. xv :13), or in rivers (2 Kings v :io; Exod. :5). Baths were placed in the courts of private houses (2 Sam. xi :2 ; Susannah 15 ; Ale. and Str.; Barnes, Bib. Cyc.).
(3) The "pools," such as that of Siloam, and Hezekiah's iii :15, 16 ; 2 Kings xx :20 ; Is. xxii :it ; John ix :7), often sheltered by por ticoes ( John v :2), are the first indications we have of public bathing accommodation. Ever since the time of Jason ( Prideaux, ii. i6S) the Greek usages of the bath probably prevailed, and an allusion in Josephus (the baths of the soldiers, B. J. i. 17, sec. 7) seems to imply the use of the bath (hence, no doubt, a public one, as in Rome) by legionary soldiers. We read also of a castle luxuriously provided with a volume of water in its court, and of a Herodian palace with spacious pools adjoining, in which the guests continued swimming, etc., in very hot weather from noon till dark (Joseph. Antlq. xii :4, sec. I i ; xv :3, sec. 3). The hot baths of Tiberias, or more strictly of Emmaus (Euseb. Oncvnast. AlOciu, query Alwie Bonfrerius) near it, and of Cal lirhoe, near the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, were much resorted to. (Rela d
Antic). xviii :2 ; xvii :6, sec. 5, B. J. i :33, sec. 5; Amm. Marcell. xiv :8 ; Stanley, 373, 295.) The parallel customs of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, are too well known to need special al lusion. (Smith, Bib. Did.) Figurative. 1. By a bold and striking figure, "the sword of the Almighty bathed in heaven," Isaiah represents the vengeance of God on the mighty ones of earth (Is. xxxiv :6).
2. Heaven in Scripture is often emblematical of exalted political power (Is. xiv :12 ; Matt. xxiv :29 ; Rev. vi :13 viii :12).
(batla-gallim), (Is. x:3o). See GALLIM.
BATH SOL (.1)5tb'kol), (Heb. bath'kol,daughter of the voice).
Under this name the Talmud, the later Tar gums, and the Rabbinical writers, make frequent mention of a kind of oracular voice, constituting the fourth grade of revelation, which, although it was an instrument of Divine communication throughout the early history of the Israelites, was the most prominent, because the sole, pro phetic manifestation which existed during (and even after) the period of the second Temple. The Midrashint and the Gemara, cited in Re land's Antiq. Sacr. pt. ii., chap. ix, severally affirm that the Bath Kol is the voice which spoke to Abraham. Moses. David. Nebuchadnezzar. and others; and the Targums of Jonathan and of Jerusalem make the Bath Kol appear in Gen. xxxviii :26 ; Num. xxi :6, and in other places.
The Jewish authorities are not agreed as to what the Bath Kol was, nor as to the precise reason of its designation. It is disputed whether the persons hes~ing the Bath Kol heard the very voice from heaven, or only a daughter of it—an echo of it ; whether as thunder is often mentioned as a sign of the Divine presence, and as the word z.oice appears to be used for thunder in Exod. ix : 23; Jer, x :13; Ps. xxix :3, the Bath Kol may not signify an articulate voice proceeding out of the thunder ; or whether, according to the explana tion of Maimonides, 'the Bath Kol is when a man has such a strong imagination that he be lieves he hears a voice from without himself.' As to the meaning of the name itself, passages are cited in Buxtorf's Les. Tabu. s. v. and in Reland's Antic]. Sacr. 1. c., which show that the daughter of the voice sometimes means the echo of a sound, and sometimes merely a pri mary sound itself.