The same perplexity occurs respecting the connec- tion of this god with the heavenly bodies as we have already noticed in regard to Ashtoreth. Creuzer (S/jmb. ii, 413) and Movers (Phon. i, 180) declare Baal to be the Sun-god ; on the other hand, the Bal >y Ionian god is identified with Zeus by Herodotus, and there seems to be no doubt that Bel-Merodach is the planet Jupiter (Bawlinson, Herod, i, 512). On the whole, Baal probably represents properly the sun, and, in connection with Astarte, or the moon, was very generally worship- ped by the idolatrous nations of Western Asia, as rep- resenting the great generative powers of nature, the former as a symbol of the active, and the latter of the passive principle. Traces of this tendency to worship the principal luminaries of heaven appear frequently in the history of the Israelites at a very early period, before Sabianism as such was distinctly developed (Exod. xx, 4; Deut. iv, 19; xvii, 3; 2 Kings xxiii, 11). Gesenius, however (in his Tkesiur. Heb.), con- tends that Baal was not the sun, but the planet Jupi- ter, as the guardian and giver of good fortune ; but the view of Milnter (in his Relgion der Babi/lonkr) seems most tenable, who, while he does not deny the astro- logical character of this worship, still maintains that, together with and besides that, there existed in very earl}' times a cosmogonical idea of the primitive power of nature, as seen in the two functions of generation and conception or parturition, and that the sun and moon were the fittest representatives of these two powers. It is quite likely that in the case of Paul, as well as of Ashtoreth, the symbol of the god varied at different times and in different localities. Indeed, the great number of adjuncts with which the name of Baal is found is a sufficient proof of the diversity of charac- ters in which he was regarded, and there must no doubt have existed a corresponding diversity in the worship. It may even be a question whether in the original no- tion of Baal there was reference to any of the heaven- ly bodies, since the derivation of the name does not in this instance, as it does in the case of Ashtoreth, point directly to them. If we separate the name Baal from idolatry, we seem, according to its meaning, to obtain simply the notion of lord and proprietor of all. With this the idea of productive power is naturally associ- ated, and that power is as naturally symbolized by the sun ; while, on the other hand, the ideas of providen- tial arrangement and rule, and so of prosperity, are as naturally suggested by the word, and in the astral mythology these ideas are associated with the planet Jupiter. In point of fact, we find adjuncts to the name of Baal answering to all these notions, e. g. Bff\aafxr,v,
BAAL
5SU
BAALAH
Bdbamen (Plant. Pan. v, 2, G7) = liBO-PSa, "Lord of the heavens" *"r!->rn, Baal-Hamon (Gesenius, Man. Phan. p. 349), the Sun-Baal (comp. the similar name of a city in Cant, viii, 11); ^5~P53, Baal-Gad, the name of a city (Josh, xi, 17), q. d. Baal the For- tune-bringer, which god may he regarded as identical with the planet Jupiter. Many more compounds of Baal in the 0. T. occur, and among them a large num- ber of cities, which are given below. There has re- cently been discovered among the ruins of a temple on Mount Lebanon an inscription containing the name BaUmarcos, the first part of which is evidently identical with the Phoenician Baal, -who appears to have been ■worshipped then under the title of "the god of dancing" (Bihlioth. Sacra, 1843, p. 559 sq.). Dr. "Wilson, -when at Damas- cus, obtained the impression of an ancient scarabaws, on which was carved an in- scription, in the old Phoenician alpha- bet, containing the title bl"zb, "to Baal" (Lands of Bible, ii, 769). See Baalim.
2. (Sept. B««X.) A Benjamite, fourth son of Jehiel, the progenitor of the Gibeonites, by his wife Maachah (1 Chron. viii, £0 ; ix, 3C). B.C. post 1618.
3. (Sept. B«fi\ v. r. Bit)\ and even 'W/X.) AReu- benite, son of Reia and father of Beerah, which last was among the captives transported to Assyria by Tiglath-Pileser (1 Chron. v, 5). B.C. ante 738.
4. (Sept. BadA.) A place in the vicinity of Ain and Ashan, inhabited by the Simeonites (1 Chron. iv, 33); probably the same elsewhere (Josh, xix, 8) called Baalath-Beer (q. v.). See Baal-.
Baal- or -baal (Ileb. id. ~'""3 or £>?3~, i. e. Baal), a geographical word occurring as the prefix or suffix to the names of several places in Palestine (see those following, also Glr-Baal, etc.). Gesenius has ex- pressed his opinion (Thes. Beb. p. 225, col. o) that in these cases it has no reference to any worship of the god Baal at the particular spot, but merely expresses that the place "possesses" or contains something spe- cial denoted by the other part of the name, the word Baal bearing in that case a force synonymous with that of Beth (q. v.). See Baal-tamar, etc. "With- out contradicting this conclusion, some reasons may be mentioned for reconsidering it. Sec Baalim.
1. Though employed in the Hebrew Scriptures to a certain extent metaphorically, and there certainly with the force of "possession" or "ownership," as a "lord of hair" (2 KiiiL's i, 8), "lord of dreams" (Gen. xxxvii, 10), etc., Baal never seems to have become a naturalized Hebrew word, but frequently occurs so as to betray its Canaanite origin and relationship. Thus it is several times employed to designate the inhabi- tants of towns either certainly or probably heathen, but rarely, if ever, those of one undoubtedly Hebrew. It is applied to the men of Jericho before the conquest (Josh, xxiv, 11); to the men of Shechem, the ancient city of Hamor the Hivite, who rose to recover the rights of Hamor's descendants long after the conquest of the land (Judg. ix, 2 51, with Ewald's commentary, Gesch. ii, 1 15 1 17), and in the account of which strug- gle the distinction between the "lords" (Erbr'£) of Shechem and the "men" (D"Va5K — Hebrew relations) of Abimelech is carefully maintained. It is used for the men of Keilah, a place on the western confines of Judah, exposed to all the attacks and the influen- ces of the surrounding heathen (1 Samuel xxiii, 11, 12), for Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. xi, 26), and for Others (Isa. xvi. 8, etc.). Add to this the considera- tion that if Baal forms part of the name of a person, we arc sure to find the name mentioned with some Ile- brew alt. rati. .u. as Jerubbesheth for Jerub-haal; Me- phiboBheth for Merib-baal; Ishbosheth for Esh-baal, and others. In Hos. ii, 16, a remarkable instance is preserved of the distinction, noticed above in connec-