BUTTER (biietEr), (Hcb. ;1:=7.), khem-aw'; ftoOrupor, MO:rum, curdled milk, as distinguished from khaw-lawY, fresh milk ; hence, curds,but ter,and in one place probably cheese), the oily part of milk.
Calmet,with others,supposesthe butter of Scrip ture to be the same with cream among the eastern nations; but it is plain from Prov. xxx :33, that it was brought forth by churning; but whether in a skin, as is the custom at present among the Moors and Arabs, or otherwise, we know not. It was late ere the Greeks knew anything of butter. Their an cient poets, who speak of milk and cheese, make no mention of butter. Among the Romans it would appear that butter was employed more as a medicine than ordinary food.
Thomson, Land and Book, says that neither the ancient nor the modern Orientals have made but ter in our sense of the word. The butter given to Sisera by Jacl was sour milk, called in Arabic leben. The butter, so called, of Prov. xxx :33 is a production made in this way. A bottle formed by stripping off the entire skin of a young buffalo is filled with milk and then perseveringly kneaded or shaken by women. Then the contents are taken out, boiled or melted, and put into bottles of goats' skins. In winter it resembles candied honey, and in summer is mere oil.
Figurative. (t) To wash one's steps with butter is to enjoy great and delightful prosperity ( Job xxix :6). This passage is sufficiently indic ative of the state in which butter exists in a tropical climate—Job could not have washed his steps with a solid. (2) Flattering speech is smoother than butter, is apparently very soft and agreeable (Ps. lv :21 ).
BUTZ (blitz). See lIvsstts.
BUZ (bin), (Hch. boo:, contempt).
1. Son of Nahor and and brother of Iluz (Gen. xxii:21).
Elihu, one of Jobs friends, who is distinguished as an Aram:can or Syrian ( Job xxxii :2), was doubtless descended from this Buz. Judgments are denounced upon the tribe of Buz by Jeremiah (xxv :23) ; and from the context this tribe appears to have been located in Arabia Deserta, B. C. 2050.
2. The father of Jando of the tribe of Gad (i Citron. v:14), B C. before toot 3. The tribe of Buz being mentioned along with Dedan and Tema, seems to be located in Arabia Petrira. and it is possible that in early times it had migrated thither from Mesopotamia. The passage in Jer. xxv :23, reads: "Dedan, and Tema. and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners." Orelli (Com.) renders, "all with clipped temple" (Comp. ix :26) ; and adds, "The meaning is, that they shaved the chief hair all round, leav ing only a tuft in the middle." BUZI (brezi), (Heb. TD, boo-see', a Buzite), father of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. i:3), who must have been a priest, since the son was (B. C. before Of the man himself nothing is known. Jewish writers were led to identify him with Jeremiah, partly by a supposed connection of the name with a verb meaning 'despise,' and partly by a theory that when the father of a prophet is named it is to be understood that he also was a prophet.
BUZITE boo-see'), a term indicating the ancestry of Elihu, only found in Job xxxii:6,"Elihu the son of Barache% the Buzite: ' to which verse 2 adds, "of the kindred of Ram." In Gen. xxii :21 Buz is son of Nahor and uncle of Aram and a relative of Abraham.