any one is embarrassed in his affair. The signification fastidire, rejicere, is, in general, quite foreign to the Arabic. The verb
denotes only: mente turbatus, attonitus fuit, i.e., to be possessed, deprived of the use of one's strength, to be embarrassed, not to know how to help one's self: compare the Camus in Schultens and Freytag. As soon as the plain connection of this signification with the ordinary one is perceived, it is seen at once, that it is here out of the question. As regards the second derivation, we must bring this objection against it, that the fundamental signification of ruling, from which that of ruling tyrannically is said to have arisen, is entirely foreign to the Hebrew. More clearly than by modern Lexicographers it was seen by Cocceius, that the fundamental, yea the only signification of בעל, is that of possessing, occupying. It may, indeed, be used also of rulers, as, e.g. Isa. xxvi. 13, and 1 Chron. iv. 22; but not in so far as they rule, but in so far as they possess. On the former passage: "Jehovah our God, בעלונו אדונים זולתיך, Lords beside thee have dominion over us," Schultens, it is true, remarks: "Every one here easily recognizes a severe and tyrannical dominion;" but it is rather the circumstance that the land of the Lord has at all foreign possessors, which is the real sting of the grief of those lamenting, and which so much occupies them, that they scarcely think of the way and manner of the possessing.--Passages such as Is. liv. 1,[1] lxii. 4, compare Job i. 8, where a relation is spoken of, founded on most cordial love, show that the signification "to marry," does not by any means proceed from that of ruling, and is not to be explained from the absolute, slavish dependence of the wife in the East, but rather from the signification "to possess." And this is farther proved by passages such as Deut. xxi. 10–13, xxvi. 1, where the copula carnalis is pointed out as that by which the בעל is completed. And, finally, it is seen from the Arabic, where the wife is also called, בעלה,
, just as the husband is called בעל,
.---It is farther obvious that, in the frequent compositions of בַּעַל with other nouns, in order, by way of paraphrasis, to form adjectives, the signification "lord" is far less suitable than that of "possessor," e.g., בעל חלמות, the dreamer, בעל אף, the angry one, בעל נפש, the covetous one, בעל מזמזת, the deceitful one, בעלי עיר oppidani, בעלי ברית, the members of the covenant, etc. We arrive at the same conclusion, if we look to the dialects. Here, too, the signification "to possess" appears as the proper and original signification. In the Ethiopic, the verb signifies multum possedit, dives fuit. In Arabic, the significations are more varied; but they may all be traced back to one root. Thus, e.g.
, בעל, according to the Camus, "a high and elevated land which requires only one annual rain; farther, a palm-tree, or any other tree or plant which is not watered, or which the sky alone irrigates;" i.e., a land, a tree, a plant which themselves possess, which do not require to borrow from others. This reason of the appellation clearly appears in Dsheuhari (compare Schultens l. c.): "It is used of the palm-tree, which, by its roots, provides for itself drink and sap, so that there is no need for watering it."