The Israelites were by occupation shepherds and dwellers in tents
(Genesis 47:3); but from the time of their entering Canaan they became
dwellers in towns, and in houses built of the native limestone of Palestine.
Much building was carried on in Solomon’s time. Besides the buildings he
completed at Jerusalem, he also built Baalath and Tadmor (1 Kings 9:15,
24). Many of the kings of Israel and Judah were engaged in erecting various
buildings.
Herod and his sons and successors restored the temple, and built
fortifications and other structures of great magnificence in Jerusalem (Luke
21:5).
The instruments used in building are mentioned as the plumb-line (Amos
7:7), the measuring-reed (Ezekiel 40:3), and the saw (1 Kings 7:9).
Believers are “God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9); and heaven is called “a
building of God” (2 Corinthians 5:1). Christ is the only foundation of his
church (1 Corinthians 3:10-12), of which he also is the builder (Matthew
16:18).
- BUL rainy, the eighth ecclesiastical month of the year (1 Kings 6:38), and
the second month of the civil year; later called Marchesvan (q.v.). (See
MONTH.) - BULLOCK (1.) The translation of a word which is a generic name for
horned cattle (Isaiah 65:25). It is also rendered “cow” (Ezekiel 4:15), “ox”
(Genesis 12:16).
(2.) The translation of a word always meaning an animal of the ox kind,
without distinction of age or sex (Hos. 12:11). It is rendered “cow”
(Numbers 18:17) and “ox” (Leviticus 17:3).
(3.) Another word is rendered in the same way (Jeremiah 31:18). It is also
translated “calf” (Leviticus 9:3; Micah 6:6). It is the same word used of the
“molten calf” (Exodus 32:4, 8) and “the golden calf” (1 Kings 12:28).
(4.) In Judges 6:25; Isaiah 34:7, the Hebrew word is different. It is the
customary word for bulls offered in sacrifice. In Hos. 14:2, the Authorized
Version has “calves,” the Revised Version “bullocks.”
- BULRUSH (1.) In Isaiah 58:5 the rendering of a word which denotes
“belonging to a marsh,” from the nature of the soil in which it grows