BEDOLACH (bed'o-131i), ( Heb. be-do This word occurs but twice in the Scriptures— in Gen. as a product of the land of Havilah, and Num. xi:7, where the manna is likened to it. It has been much disputed among critics, both ancient and modern. In the Septuagint it is con sidered as a precious stone, and translated (Gen. ii:t2) by dv0p4, a dark red stone, carbuncle, and !Num. mr..71 by tcpelaraXXos, crystal; while Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion and the Vulgate render it bdelltum, a transparent aromatic gum from a tree growing in Arabia. Of this opinion also is Jo hus, cliibgs iii:t, 6, where he describes the marina as similar to the aromatic bdellium (Num. xi:7).
The Jewish Rabbins, however, followed by a host of their Arabian translators, and to whom Bochart (Hieroz, iii, p. 593. sq.) and liesenius ( Thesustr. i:181) accede, transl•te bedolach by pearl, and consider //avihth as the part of Arabia near Catipha and Bahrein on the Persian Gulf, where the pearls are found.
BEE (be), (Heb. d•b-o-raTte, orderly, occurs in Dent. i:44; Judg. xiv•8; l's. CXVIII:12; Is. vii:t8). This insect was unclean by the law iLev. x1:23). It belongs to the family tzpid,r, order hymenoptera, species aPis me-Ili/Ica, commonly called the honey-bee. because this species has often yielded honey to man.
The bee is one of the most generally diffused creatures on the globe, being found in every region. Its instincts, its industry and the valuable product of its labors have obtained for it universal attention from the remotest times. No nation upon earth has had so many historians as this insect. The naturalist, agriculturist and politician have been led by a regard to science or interest to study its habits.
In proceeding to notice the principal passages of Scripture in which the bee is mentioned, we first pause at Dent. i:;4. where Moses alludes to the irresistible vengeance with which bees pursue their enemies: 'The Anrorites came out against you and chased you as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir unto Hormalr The powerlessness of man under the united attacks of these insects is well attested. Even in this country the stings of two exasperated hives have been known to kil! a horse in a few minutes.
The reference to the bee contained in Judg. xiv :8 has attracted the notice of most readers. It is related in the 5th and 6th verses that Sam son, aided by supernatural strength, rent a young that warred against him, as he would have rent a kid, and that 'after a time,' as he returned to take his wife, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, 'and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion.' It has
been hastily concluded that this narrative favors the mistaken notion of the ancients, that bees might be engendered in the dead bodies of animals. The Syriac version translates 'the bony carcass.' The learned Bochart remarks that the Hebrew phrase. 'after a time,' sometimes signifies o whole year. The circumstance that 'honey' was found in the carcass, as well as bees, shows that sufficient time had el?psed since their possession of it for all the flesh .o be removed. Nor is such an abode for bees—probably in the skull or thorax —more unsuitable than a hollow in a rock, or in a tree, or in the ground, in which we know they often reside.
The phrase in Ps. cxviii:12. 'They compassed me about like bees,' will be readily understood by those who know the manner in which bees attack the object of their fury.
The only remaining passage has been strangely misunderstood (Is. vii :18) : 'The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the river of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.' I lere the fly and the bee are no doubt the personifications of those inveterate enemies of Israel. the Egyptians and Assyrians, whom the Lord threatened to excite against his disobedient people. But the hissing for them has been interpreted, even by modern writers of eminence, as involving 'an allusion to the prac tice of calling out the bees from their hires, by a hissing or whistling sound, to their labor in the fields, and sununoning them to return when the /leavens begin to lower, or the shadows of evening to fall' (Dr. Ilarris' .Vatural History of the Bible, London, 1825). No one has offered any proof of the existence of such a custom, and the idea will itself seem sufficiently strange to all who are acquainted with the habits of bees.
The true reference is. no doubt, to the custom of the people of the East, and even of many parts of Europe, of calling the attention of any one in the street. etc.. by a significant hiss, or rather hist, as Bishop Lowth translates the word both here and in Is. :26, but which is generally done in this country by a short significant hero! or other exclamation. (For figurative allusions and moral lessons see Ezek. iii :3; Ps. x ix ; m ; Prov. xvi :24