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•BEATEN GOLD in Numbers 8:4, means “turned” or rounded work in gold. The Greek Version, however, renders the word “solid gold;” the Revised Version, “beaten work of gold.” In 1 Kings 10:16, 17, it probably means “mixed” gold, as the word ought to be rendered, i.e., not pure gold. Others render the word in these places “thin plates of gold.”
•BEATEN OIL (Exodus 27:20; 29:40), obtained by pounding olives in a mortar, not by crushing them in a mill. It was reckoned the best. (See OLIVE.)
•BEAUTIFUL GATE the name of one of the gates of the temple (Acts 3:2). It is supposed to have been the door which led from the court of the Gentiles to the court of the women. It was of massive structure, and covered with plates of Corinthian brass.
•BECHER first-born; a youth, the second son of Benjamin (Genesis 46:21), who came down to Egypt with Jacob. It is probable that he married an Ephraimitish heiress, and that his descendants were consequently reckoned among the tribe of Ephraim (Numbers 26:35; 1 Chronicles 7:20, 21). They are not reckoned among the descendants of Benjamin (Numbers 26:38).
•BED (Hebrews mittah), for rest at night (Exodus 8:3; 1 Samuel 19:13, 15, 16, etc.); during sickness (Genesis 47:31; 48:2; 49:33, etc.); as a sofa for rest (1 Samuel 28:23; Amos 3:12). Another Hebrew word (er’es) so rendered denotes a canopied bed, or a bed with curtains (Deuteronomy 3:11; Psalm 132:3), for sickness (Psalm 6:6; 41:3).
In the New Testament it denotes sometimes a litter with a coverlet (Matthew 9:2, 6; Luke 5:18; Acts 5:15).
The Jewish bedstead was frequently merely the divan or platform along the sides of the house, sometimes a very slight portable frame, sometimes only a mat or one or more quilts. The only material for bed-clothes is mentioned in 1 Samuel 19:13. Sleeping in the open air was not uncommon, the sleeper wrapping himself in his outer garment (Exodus 22:26,27; Deuteronomy 24:12,13).