BOCHART, SAMUEL, a French protestant pastor, was born at Rouen in 1599. He was educated at Paris and Sedan, and probably also he studied theology at Saumur. The masters to whose instructions he was chiefly indebted were two Scutchmen, Dempster and Cameron, then resident in France. When the college at gaumur was broken up, Bochart followed Cameron to England, where he spent some time, chiefly at Oxford, and where he laid the foundation of that immense Oriental erudition for which his name is so famous. After leaving England he was for some time at Leyden studying Arabic under Er penius, and at length settled at Caen as pastor of the protestant congregation there. Here the rest of his life was spent, and here his great works were composed. In 1646 he published his Geo gmphia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan, a work of vast and varied learning, and from which, as from a storehouse, all subsequent writers on biblical geography and ethnography have drawn; though, as might have been expected, the greater acquaint ance with eastern localities and relations obtained since his day, has led to extensive departures from, or modifications of, the results at which he arrived. The work is divided into two parts, Phaleg and Canaan. The former comprises four books, of which the first consists of various discussions of a preliminary nature, the second is devoted to the posterity of Shem, the third to that of Japheth, and the fourth to that of Ham. The second part
comprises two books, of which the former is occu pied with the colonies of the Phoenicians, the latter with the Phoenician and Punic languages. Bochart's next great work was his Hierozokon, sive Biparti tam opus de animalibus Scripture, Lond. 1663, fol., in which he treats, with an immense profusion of learning, of all the animals, quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and insects mentioned in Scripture. Of this work an edition was published by Rosenmiiller, in three vols. 4to. Lips. 1793-6. His collected works were edited by Leusden and Villemand, in 3 vols. fol., Leyden and Utrecht, and again 1712. Other editions have appeared, but these are the best. Bochart died suddenly 16th May 1667. —W. L. A.
BOCHIM the weepings ; Sept. 6 ?Attu& ;Jaw, aathaZ ves), the name given to a place (pro bably near Shiloh, where the tabernacle then was) where an `angel of the Lord' reproved the assem bled Israelites for their disobedience in making leagues with the inhabitants of the land, and for their remissness in taking possession of their heri tage. This caused the bitter weeping among the people for which the place took its name (Judi. ii. 5).