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Bible Dictionaries
Bitumen
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or BITUMEN , asphalt, or mineral pitch is an inflammable viscous substance, composed of hydrocarbons of the same series as those which constitute mineral oil or petroleum. It has in fact been described as ‘petroleum hardened by evaporation and oxidation,’ and may vary in consistency from a solid to a semi-liquid condition. It occurs both in Mesopotamia and Palestine. The springs at Kit, on the Euphrates, 150 miles above Babylon, are mentioned by Herodotus (i. 179), and still yield an abundant supply. There are similar springs at Kal‘at Sherkat , on the Tigris, 60 miles S. of Nineveh (Layard, Nineveh and its Remains , II. 467). In Pal. it is found at Hasbeyah, near Mt. Hermon, and in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea (hence called Asphaltitis Limnç by Josephus [ BJ IV. viii. 4] and Lacus Asphaltites by Pliny [ HN V. XV. 15]). Some of the limestone strata in the last-named locality are highly bituminous, and masses of bitumen are known to float on the Dead Sea itself after earthquakes. In the OT there are three Heb. words which denote some form of this substance.
In the Flood-story kôpher (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] asphaltos , EV [Note: English Version.] pitch ) is used in the construction of the ark ( Genesis 6:14 ). Hçmar (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] slime , RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘bitumen’) was the mortar employed by the early Babylonian builders ( Genesis 11:3 , LXX [Note: Septuagint.] asphaltos ). Bitumen pits or wells, into which the pitchy liquid (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] asphaltos ) oozed from the earth, are mentioned as occurring in the Vale of Siddim, i.e. the Dead Sea basin ( Genesis 14:10 ). This is quite in keeping with the nature of the region, though such wells are not now found in it. In Exodus 2:3 hçmar is one of the substances with which the ark of bulrushes was made watertight, the other being zepheth (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘pitch’). LXX [Note: Septuagint.] includes both in the general rendering asphaltopissa , and they probably denote the more solid and the more liquid varieties of bitumen respectively. Zepheth also occurs twice in Isaiah 34:9 (LXX [Note: Septuagint.] pissa , EV [Note: English Version.] ‘pitch’). The context makes it probable that the reference is again to bitumen.
James Patrick.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Bitumen'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/b/bitumen.html. 1909.
