I. Name

Akk. baštu (in later texts baltu, Sum. téš) “dignity, pride, decorum” is sometimes characterized as a protective spirit in Mesopotamia. Heb. bōšet occurs in personal names in the OT (2 Sam. 2.8 and 2 Sam. 4.4) as a substitute for the theophoric element. The Akkadian noun derived from the verb baʾāšu “to come to shame”, which is of common Semitic origin (e.g. Ug. bṯ, Aram. behet, Heb. bōš). Von Soden (1964) tried to show that baštu had an original meaning “sexual power” and that it was par…