(2) Baal Berith, covenant-lord (Judg. ix:4), is the name of a god worshiped by the people of Shechem (Judg. viii:33; ix:4, 46), who, on account of the signification of the name, has been conipa red to the Zeus /Iorkeeos, guardian of oaths, Zek 'Opdos of the Greeks and the Latin Deus •ifth's.
(3) Baal Peor, or sometimes only Peor, respec tively represented in the Sept. by Reelphegor, and Phogor, appears to have been properly the idol of the Moabttes (Num. xxv:1-9; I)cut. iv:3; Josh. xxii: 17; Ps. cvi:28; Hos. ix:to); but also of the Midi anites (Num. xxxi:15, 16).
It is the common opinion that this god was wor shiped by obscene rites; and, from the time of Jerome downwards, it has been usual to compare him to Priapus. Selden and J. Owen (De Diis Syriis,i:5; Theologoumena, v:4) seem to be the persons who have disputed whether any of the passages in which this god is named really warrant such a conclusion. hie inmost that these passages express is the fact that the Israelites re ceived this idolatry from the women of Moab, and were led away to eat of their sacrifices icf. l's. cvi 28); but it is very possible for the sex to have been the means of seducing them into the adop tion of their worship, without the idolatry itself being of an obscene kind.
(4) Baalzebub, Elr-lora, occurs in 2 Kings i:2-i6, as the god of the Philistines at Ekron, whose oracle Ahaziali sent to consult. There is much diversity of opinion as to the signification of this name, according as authors consider the title to be one of honor, as used by his worshipers, or one of contempt.
The analogy of classical idolatry would lead us to conclude that all these Itaals arc only the same god under various modifications of attributes and emblems; hut the scanty notices to which we owe all our knowledge of Svro-Arabian idolatry do not furnish data for any decided opinion on this sub The name was so obnoxious to the Jews in later times that bJsheth, shame, was frequently substituted for it (see IstnuosuliTio. Thus we get Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth for Ishbaal, Meribbaal. (Hastings' Bib. Diet.) BAAL (Wal), (Heb. bah'al, master, pos sessor).
1. A Reubenite, descendant of Beerah (B. C. 1300), who was carried off by the Assyrian Tiglath Pileser Chron. v:5).
2. Grandfather of Saul (I Chron. viii:3o; ix:36), B. C. 1180.
3. (Heb. as above). This word is often found as the first element of compound names of places. In this case, Gesenius thinks that it seldom, if ever, has any reference to the god of that name; but that it denotes the place which possesses, which is the abode of the thing signified by the latter half of the compound—as if it was a syno nym of beth (2 Kings i:8; Gen. xxviii:10). The best support of this opinion is the fact that baal and bah are used interchangeably of the same place; as Baalshalisha and Baaltamar are called by Eusebius Bethshalisha and Bethtamar.