Bul

Bul, meaning rain or produce, was the name of the eighth month in the ancient Hebrew calendar, corresponding roughly to October–November. It is mentioned in 1 Kings 6:38 as the month in which Solomon's temple was completed, after seven years of construction. The name appears in inscriptions from Gezer and in Phoenician sources, confirming its use in the broader Canaanite cultural sphere. After the Babylonian exile, this month came to be called Marcheshvan (or Cheshvan) in the Babylonian-derived calendar that Israel adopted.

Bul falls at the beginning of the rainy season in Palestine, when the early rains break the summer drought and the agricultural cycle begins anew with plowing and planting. The completion of the temple in this month may carry symbolic significance: the house of God finished as the rains return, linking divine habitation with the life-giving rhythms of the land. The pre-exilic Hebrew calendar with its agricultural month names (Abib, Ziv, Ethanim, Bul) reflects the deep integration of Israel's religious life with the cycles of Palestinian farming.