Ba'alath-be'er (Ileb. Baalath' Beer', rb"3 "1X3, Baalah of [or having] a well; Sept. BaaXdS c. r. BrtXk-), probably the same as the Baal of 1 Chron. iv, 33, a city of Simeon ; mentioned in connec- tion with RAMATK-Negeb, or Southern Ramah (Josh. xix, 8 ; comp. 1 Sam. xxx, 27), in such a manner as to make them identical (so the Sept. B. iropcvoniviov ByppafithS ; Vulg. Baalath- Beerramoth). See Ra- math. It is also the same with the Bkaloth (q. v.) of Judah (Josh, xv, 24). Other sacred wells in this parched region were the Beer-lahai-roi, the " well of the vision of God;" and Beer-sheba, the "well of the oath." See Beer-.
Baalbek, a city of Code-Syria, celebrated for its superb ruins yet extant of an ancient temple of the sun, and supposed by many to be the site designated by Solomon's famous " House of the Forest of Leba- non" (1 Kings vii, 2 ; x, 17 ; 2 Chron. ix, 16). We are also informed that among those parts of Palestine which were unsubdued by the Hebrews at the death of Joshua was "all Lebanon toward the sun-rising,
from Baal-gad, under Mount Hermon, unto the enter ing into Hamath" (Josh, xiii, 5). This position ot Baal-gad is not unfavorable to the conclusion which some have reached, that it is no other than the place which, from a temple consecrated to the sun that stood there, was called by the Greeks Heliopolis, i. e. city of the sun ; and which the natives called and still call Baalbek, a word apparently of the same meaning. The honor of being identified with Baalbek has also been claimed for the Baalath which Solomon built or fortified ; but this claim has already been disposed of [see Baalath] ; and no weight is to be attached to the local traditions which claim Solomon as the found- er of Baalbek, seeing that it is the practice of the na- tives to ascribe to that great king every grand ancient work of unknown date which the country contains. It is also to be observed that those who contend for Baalath admit its possible identity with Baal-gad, and hence there are no conflicting claims to adjust. Even those who suppose the Baal-hamon of the Canticles (viii, 11) to be Baalbek, conceive that to be a later name for Baal-gad, and hence the only question that remains is whether Baal-gad be not the more ancient name of the place afterward known as Heliopolis and Baalbek. Baalbek, in the Syrian language, signifies the city of Baal, or of the sun ; and, as the Syrians never borrowed names from the Greeks, or translated Greek names, it is certain that when the Greeks came into Syria they found the place bearing this name, or some other signifying "city of the sun," since they termed it Heliopolis, which is doubtless a translation of the native designation. Now the question is wheth- er this word has the same meaning as Baal-gad, and, if not, whether any circumstances can be pointed out as likely to occasion the change of name. If we take Baal for the name of the idol, then, as in the case of Baalbek, the last member of the word must be taken as a modifying appellation, not as in itself a proper name; and as Gad means a troop, a multitude, or a press of people, Baal-gad will mean Baal's crowd, whether applied to the inhabitants, or to the place as a resort of pilgrims. The syllable bek has precisely the same meaning in the Arabic. If this should not seem satisfactory, we may conclude that Baal was so com- mon an element in the composition of proper names that it is not sufficiently distinctive to bear the stress of such an interpretation, and may rather take it to signify (as Gesenius says it always does in geograph- ical combinations) the place where a thing is found. See Baal-. According to this view, Baal-gad would mean the place of Gad. Now Gad was an idol (Isa. lxv, 11), supposed to have been the god or goddess of good fortune (comp. Sept. Ti>xn; Vulg. Fortuna), and identified by the Jewish commentators with the planet Jupiter. See Gad. But it is well known that Baal was identified with Jupiter as well as with the sun ; and it is not difficult to connect Baalbek with the wor- ship of Jupiter. John of Antioch affirms that the great temple at Baalbek was dedicated to Jupiter; and in the celebrated passage of Macrobius {Saturn, i, 23), in which he reports that the worship of the sun was brought by Egyptian priests to Heliopolis in Syria, he expressly states that they introduced it under the name of Jupiter (sub nomine Jovis). This implies that the worship of Jupiter was already established and popu- lar at the place, and that heliolatry previously was not; and therefore we should rather expect the town to have borne some name referring to Jupiter than to the sun, and may be sure that a name indicative of heliolatry must have been posterior to the introduction of that worship by the Egyptians ; and, as we have no ground for supposing that this took place before or till long after the age of Joshua, it could not then be call- ed by any name corresponding to Heliopolis. But 1 see Baal-gad.