Baal, a Semitic word signifying owner, lord, or master, and in the highest sense denoting the deity. The Hebrews never used it as a designation of their deity, but always to distinguish some god of the surrounding nations. In this sense, with some adjunct appended, it indicated several local deities: Baal-zebub was the fly god of the Ekronites, corresponding to the of the Greeks; Baal-peor answered to the Roman Priapus; Baal-berith, Covenant Baal, to and deus fidius of the Greeks and Romans. With the article prefixed, it designated the Baal or chief deity of the Phoenicians. Strictly Baal meant the highest male god (the sun or the planet Jupiter), as Ashtoreth or As-tarte did the highest goddess (the moon or Venus), divinities from whom all things visible and invisible had their origin. The Greeks and Romans, however, sought and found analogies between the several Baals and some of their subordinate deities, as Mars and Hercules. The Bel or Bil of the Babylonians is closely related to the Baal of the Phoenicians, the former name being a contraction of the latter, or this a guttural extension of the former. Baal, Bal, and Bel, as prefixes or suffixes, enter largely into many proper names of places and persons. Such are Baal-ze-phon, Baal-gad, Baal-hamon, Jerub-baal, Esh-baal, Bal-adan, and Bel-shazzar. The Phoenicians carried the word through all their wanderings, giving us the Carthaginian Asdru-bal, Adher-bal, and Hanni-bal. They carried the name to Ireland, where we read of Beal or Bal, the ancient deity worshipped by Bal fires on the summits of the hills, and of Bel's cairns, where sacrifices were offered to Baal. The Greek , and the Latin Belus are merely the Babylonian Bel with a terminal syllable, though the Greeks invented for him a descent of their own. Whenever the Israelites fell into idolatry, their natural tendency was to worship Baal, the god of the nations with whom they came into most immediate contact.

Baal.