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Belshazzar

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

preceding kings. It is interesting to observe in this connection that in the Chaldean legend given by Abydenus, of doubtful date, the last king of Babylon is spoken of as a son of Nebuchadnezzar (compare Schrader, in " Jahrbucher f iir Protest. Theologie," 1881, pp. 618-629). It should be remarked that the force of the narrative of tha fifth chapter of Daniel would have been materially weakened had the author known and made use of the names of the kings Aim of intervening between Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel

last king. The whole point of the fifth chapter is a comparison between the great Nebuchadnezzar, the real founder of the Babylonian monarchy, and the insignificant last king who suffered the reins of government to slip from his feeble hands, with a prophetic emphasis on the coming stranger people who should divide among them the empire of Nebuchadnezzar. There can be no doubt that the son of Nabonidus was the prototype of the Biblical Belshazzar. The author of Daniel simply did not have correct data at hand. must not be surprised at the incongruity between the historical inscriptions and the Book of Daniel in this instance, but should rather note the very evident points of agreement first, that while the Belshazzar of Daniel is represented as being the whose name last king, the original of the tradition " was is etymologically equivalent to " Belshazzar actually the son of the last king and secondly, that the son of Nabonidus probably met his death at the time of the capture of Babylon, as has recently been

v.

and the

We



—

—



established (compare Prince, ib. p. 103), in partial agreement with the Biblical account of the final feast

of Belshazzar. That such a festival really took place on the eve of the capture of Babylon is not improbable. Although there is no parallel account in the inscriptions, it certainly seems significant that both Herodotus and Xenophon allude to a feast at this time.

Thus, according to Herodotus, i. 191, Babylon was captured while the besieged were off their guard during a festival; and Xenophon, alluding to the capture of Babylon, states that Cyrus had heard that a feast was going forward ("Cyropfedia," viii. 5, See Daniel, Mene, Nebuchadnezzar. 15). I M. P. j. jr.

BELTESHAZZAR



The name given

to Daniel

The writer chief of the eunuchs (Dan. i. 7). of the Book of Daniel sees in the first syllable the god Bel, but it is more probable that the name is to be explained as the Babylonian " balatsu [or " balatushu"]-usur," "May [Bel] guard his life" (Schrader, "C. I. 6. T." ii. 125; compare Kohler, in "Zeit.

by the

fur Assyriologie," iv. 49). George Hoffmann, how" ever, translates the name " May Belit guard the king ("Zeit. fur Assyriologie," ii. 56). G. B. L. G

BELTRAN, DIEGO DE HIDALGO:

Poet;

Spanish Marano of the seventeenth century son of and a Jew from Murcia. He was noted as an editor commentator of Spanish popular poetry. The fol;

lowing charming example of the redondilla (roundelay) is from his pen

"

Bemidbar Kabbah

O no mirar decfs,

mas

6 morir pensamiento amando

?

mlrando que no mirando vivir." vale morir

Bibliography Amador de los Rios, Estudios Histdricos, Politicos y Literarios sobre Los Judios de Bspafla, pp. 551

et seq.

M. K.

g.

BEMAH. See Almemar. BEMIDBAR ("in the wilderness"): brew name J.

for the

The HeBook of Numbers (see Number).

JR.

G. B. L.

BEMIDBAR RABBAH



The Midrash com-

mentary upon Numbers, called in the ediiio princeps of Constantinople (1512) "Bemidbar Sinai Rabbah," and so cited frequently by Nahmanides and others. It is the latest component of the " Rabbot " collection upon the Pentateuch, and as such was unknown to 'Aruk, Rashi, and Yalkut. It consists of two parts, which are of different origin and extent. The first portion, sections i.-xiv. (ed. Venice, 1545, parashah "Bemidbar," fol. 135a to 145c; parashah "Naso," fol.

145c to 178J)

—contains

Num. (fol.

— almost three-quarters of the whole

a late haggadic commentary upon the second part, sections xv.-xxxiii. 178J to 194tZ, ed. Venice), reproduces the Midrash

work

i.-vii.



Tanhuma from Num.

viii.

almost word for word.

The

consideration of the second portion will thereThere also fore be found in the article Tanhuma. the form of the homilies of the Tanhuma Midrash, their halakic introductions, their proems, their exposition covering in each case only a few verses of the text, their regular formulas of conclusion, are more appropriately considered. Suffice it to state here that the second portion of BemidRelation to bar Rabbah follows closely those readTanhuma. ings of the Tanhuma which are familiar from the oldest edition (compare Buber's Introduction to his edition of the Tanhuma, pp. 38a et seq.); and that M. Beneviste, in the preface to " Ot Emet " (Salonica, 1565), drew attention as early as 1565 to the fact that Tanhuma and Bemidbar Rabbah are almost identical from the section " Beha'aloteka " onward. Buber gives a list of the varia-

between the two (ib. 39a et seq.). The passages drawn from the Pesikta Rabbati (Zunz, "G. V." p. tions

259, note) are to

be found exclusively in the

first

This is true also, or later part of this Midrash. with the exception of the interpretation of the numerical value of the Hebrew word for "fringes," of the other passages pointed out by Zunz as origina-

This ting with later, and notably French, rabbis. numerical interpretation just mentioned forms a part of a passage, also otherwise remarkable, at the end of the section "Korah " (xviii. 21), which, taken from

Bemidbar Rabbah, was interpolated princeps of the

Tanhuma

in the editio as early as 1523 (Constan-

but is absent from all the manuscripts. Another long passage, ib. 22, which belongs to the beginning of "Hukkat," as in Tanhuma, is erroneously appended in the editions to the same section, "Korah." The halakic exordium at the beginning of the second part, on Num. viii. 1, is cut down to its concluding passage the Paris MS. Cod. No. 150, and a MS. in the possession of Epstein, contain the exordium tinople),



,