Base (Hastings' Dictionary)

The adj. 'base' (from Fr. bos, 'shallow,' 'low,' but prob. of Celtic origin) is used to express — 1. That which is literally ' low,' not high, as Spenser, FQ I. v. 31, ' An entraunce, dark and base . . Descends to Hell.' Of this use we still have ' base ' of sounds (though we spell it ' bass ') ; cf. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV. II. iv. 5, ' I have sounded the very base string of humility.' There is no example of this meanin" in the Bible. 2.

Figuratively, low in the social scale, of lowly birth or station, then unassuming, humble. This is the meanin" of b. in AV : Is 3° 'the b. against the honourable' (i.e. the low-born against tne nobles) ; Ezk 17" ' that the kinj^dom might be b., that it might not lift itself up ' (Heb. S:v ; so 291- '», 2 S 6» Mai '2?, Dn 4" ' the most High . . setteth up . . the basest of men ') ; Job 30 ' children of b. men ' (cif^'^ "J?, lit. ' sons of no name,' i.e.

sons of him who has no name = the ignoble). In NT: 1 Co 1** ' b. things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen ' (d7ei'7js, ' of low birth ') ; 2 Co 10' ' Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentle- ness of Christ, who in presence am b. among you ' (RV 'in your presence am lowly'; the Gr.

is TairfLvbs, which in NT signifies ' lowly, either in position, as Ja 1' ' let the brother of low degree glory in his high estate' ; or in heart, as Mt ll" ' I am meek and lowly in heart '). 3. Morally low, mean, contemptible, the meaning of the word in mod. English. This meaning was known in 1611, and it is probable that there is at least soine moral reprobation in Ac 17' ' certain lewd fellows of the baser sort ' (RV ' certain vile fellows of the rabble ' ; Gr. ayopatoi, lit.

' of the market place,' i.e. loungers). RV has introduced 'b,ase' in this sense in Wis 2" ' We were accounted by him as b. metal ' (AV ' counterfeits,' Gr. ».i,i5>)Xos) ; and Dt 13" ' Certain b. fellows are gone out ' (AV ' certain men, the children of Belial,' Heb. cvjn ''i:^?"i3 = ' men, sons of worthlessness ' ; elsewhere Eng. RV retains the AV rendering of this phrase, 'son of Belial,' 'man of Belial,' etc., though belial (wh. see) is not a proper name ; but Amer.

RV always changes it into ' base fellow,' except 1 S 1" ' wicked woman ' (AV ' daughter of Belial ). Base, as subst. (from Lat. batis after Or. $iril, 'a stepping,' then 'that on which one steps, or anything stands') ia distinci from the adj. in origin ana meaning, and once was distinct in pronunciation. It occurs freq. in AV as tr. of (1) mikhinah BASE.MATH BASKET 255 (evp.

in 1 K 7 of the Htandtt for the lavers of bnu^s in Solomon's temple); (2) kfn, I K 7^"- »' (KV "ucdestal,' which hod better, perhaps, been given as Ir. of uUkfiOnah, the kt'n bein^ appar- entlv not the stand of the lavers, but the upright projections vhich kept them in tlieir place •) ; and in UV (3) ^ifwicfA (AV 'bottom'); (1) ^Hrft (AV 'shaft'); (5) galih, Ezk 43'3 (AV higher place,' where the difference between ' base ' as pedestal tod b«se ' the adj.

is well seen ; the gaO/i bein;; a raised place, a mound, and so here the elevated base of the altar. J. Hastings. BASEMATH (n;:^; ' frapant ' ; AV Bashemath). —1. One of the wives of E.sau. In Gn 20*" (P) she is called the datighter of Elon the Hittite, while in Gn 3G' (prob. K) she is said to have been Ishmael's daughter, and sister of Nebaioth.

Hut in Gn 28" (1') Esau is said to have taken Malialath, the daughter of Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife ; and in Gn 30" the first mentioned of Esau's wives is Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. There is manifestly a confusion of names in the text, which cannot be satisfactorily explained. The Sam. text reads Mahalatb instead of Base- math throughout Gn 30, and on the whole it seems most probable that these are different names for the same person. 2.

(1 K 4", in AV Basmath) A daughter of Solomon, who became the wife of Ahimaaz, one of the king's ollicers who was pur- veyor for the royal household in tlie district of Naphtali. R. M. Boyd. BASHAN [iy:n ' The Bashan ' ; perhaps, like the modern Arab. Bathaniyeh, it means 'soft earth.' With the def. article in all hist, statements except 1 Ch 5°" ; also sometimes in poetry (Dt 33, , Ps 135" 130"), and prophecy (Is 2'^ Jer 22-" Su''-", Am 4'); but in prophecy and poetry the art.

is more often omitted (Is 33», Ezk 27" 30\ Mic 7", Nah l\ Zee W, Ps 22'» (Eng.'-) C8'«-^ (Eng.">- =2)].— In a region where all place-names were used more or less loosely, it is difficult to define the limits of Bashan, but the name was ai)plied to territory N. of Gilead, and seems generally to have meant the whole of the most northerly of tlie three "reat divisions of E. Pal., — Bashan, Gilcad, Moab. It first apjiearsas the kingdom of Og (Nu 21^, Dt 1* etc.), extending as far E.

as Salecah, the present Salkhat, the last great town towards the Arabian desert, and in- cluding Edrei, Ashtarotli, and Golan (Dt 1* S'" 4", Jos 9'" 12< 13"- '»• " 20" 21-''). If Ashtaroth be the present Tell Ashtfira, and the city Golan lay within the present Jaulan, this would mean that B. proper covered all the S. of Huuran, including the region known to-d.ay aa En-.'iukra. It is the same ex]ianse, between the Leia and Gilead, which seems to have been covered in Gr. times by the name Batan.

-ea (Jos. Ant. XV. x. 1, xvil. ii. 1 ; Vitn 11, etc. ; Euseb. Onom. art. McLaav). Whether in this, its more i>roper sense, tlie name extended to the Jordan Valley it is impossible to say, till we know where Gesliur and Maacah lav. Indeed, Jos 12^ 13"' " seem to imply that the latter came between B. and the Jordan Valley (cf. Guthe, ZDPV xii. 232). If the ojiinion were correct which identifies Argob with the Lei.i, then B. must have extended to the N. and E.

of'^the latter ; but for that identi- fication there is no real evidence. The kingdom of Og is said to have contained a large number of cities, and these have been alleged by Porter {Gifint t'itie.1 uf Ilnshm) t<> be the largo ba.salt ruins »o thickly strewn across Hauran ; yet none of the latter, with one or two trilling exceptions, bear any proof of a date earlier than the rise of Gr. civilisation in tluese parts under the protection of the Kom. Eiiitiire. In a geniTiil sense the name B.

was attached to the long eiigi' of the E. plateau, as seen across Jordan from \V. Pal., and the name is frequently • In the correspondlnif demrintion of the tabernacle, RV translates IWn 'base' (AV 'foot). Ex 80I»-« 81» 8610 S8» 398» <oii, u s". joined with Carmel and Lebanon as one of the most prominent features in view of N. I.srael (see Carmel). Another verse, ' Dan is a lion's whelp, he leaps from B.'

(Dt 33', ), carries the name up [a the foot of Hermon, where the position of the city of Dan is to be looked for, not at Tel el-I^adi on the defenceless floor of the Jordan Valley, but rather at Banias, actually on the E. hills, and therefore a site from which Dan could justly be said ' to leap from B.' Again, the term ' mount ' or ' mountains of B.' is uncertain, but jirob. depends on the interpretation to be given to the description of them in Ps 08" as 'mountains of humps' or ' protuber.

ances ' or ' bold heights.' This can hardly be the triple summits of Hermon to which it has been applied both by Olshausen and Baethgen. It suits far better the many broken cones of extinct craters which are scattered over B. (Delitzscli). Welzstein proposes the Jebel Hauran or Druz ; but this apijears unlikely, even though it were proved that the Mt. Salmon of the previous verse were the same name as that which Ptolemy gave the Jebel Hauran, viz. Asalmanus (cf. Guthe, ZDPV xii. 231). B.

was celebrated for its breed of cattle (Dt 32"), which are also the types throughout OT of cruel and loud-mouthed oppressors ; similarly, Amos calls the censorious and tyrannical matrons of Samaria 'kineof B.' (4'). The name B. survived in Gr. times as Batana^a (as described above). Batanoea was part of Philip's tetrarchy.

Conder thinks it appears in NT as tlie ' Bethany beyond Jordan ' (the most probable reading of Jn 1^, see Westcott and Hort); but if so well known a province as Batana^a had been intended, and not rather some town, the epithet 'beyond Jordan' would hardly have been ailded. To-day the name survives, Ard el-15atlianiyeh ; but since the 10th cent., when, according to Idrisi, it was still the province in which Edrei stood, it has drifted round to the E.

of the Lejil, where it will be found in the most recent maps. LiTERATi'RB — Besides what is quoted, Reland ; Wetzstein, lieUgberirht ; Merrill, Eagt qf Jordan ; Driver, Dcut. 47, 3ti() ; Smith, UM. Ueoii. pp. 542, 649-663, 670 II. ; Buhl, (jmj. all. Pal. 117 t. (on Dan, 238). G. A. SMlfH. BASHMUR^C VERSIONS.— See Egyptian Ver- sions.