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•BLUE generally associated with purple (Exodus 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36, etc.). It is supposed to have been obtained from a shellfish of the Mediterranean, the Helix ianthina of Linnaeus. The robe of the high priest’s ephod was to be all of this colour (Exodus 28:31), also the loops of the curtains (26:4) and the ribbon of the breastplate (28:28). Blue cloths were also made for various sacred purposes (Numbers 4:6, 7, 9, 11, 12). (See COLOUR.)
•BOANERGES sons of thunder, a surname given by our Lord to James and John (Mark 3:17) on account of their fervid and impetuous temper (Luke 9:54).
•BOAR occurs only in Psalm 80:13. The same Hebrew word is elsewhere rendered “swine” (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8; Proverbs 11:22; Isaiah 65:4; 66:3, 17). The Hebrews abhorred swine’s flesh, and accordingly none of these animals were reared, except in the district beyond the Sea of Galilee. In the psalm quoted above the powers that destroyed the Jewish nation are compared to wild boars and wild beasts of the field.
•BOAZ alacrity. (1.) The husband of Ruth, a wealthy Bethlehemite. By the “levirate law” the duty devolved on him of marrying Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:1-13). He was a kinsman of Mahlon, her first husband.
(2.) The name given (for what reason is unknown) to one of the two (the other was called Jachin) brazen pillars which Solomon erected in the court of the temple (1 Kings 7:21; 2 Chronicles 3:17). These pillars were broken up and carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.
•BOCHIM weepers, a place where the angel of the Lord reproved the Israelites for entering into a league with the people of the land. This caused