Baal (), or Ba'al (), was a title and honorific meaning "owner" or "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have shown that the name Baal was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations. The Ugaritic god Baal (ðÂÂÂðÂÂÂðÂÂÂ) is the protagonist of one of the lengthiest surviving epics from the ancient Near East, the Baal Cycle.
Known by epithets like "rider of the clouds" and "Victorious Baal", he was associated with rain, lightning, wind, fertility, and kingship, and was often depicted in opposition to sea and death deities like Yammu and Mot. Worship of Baal spread throughout the Levant, Egypt, and the Mediterranean via Phoenician colonization, with regional forms such as Baal Hammon in Carthage. The god was also known as "the mighty one", and "the one without equal" ("there is none above him").
The Hebrew Bible includes use of the term in reference to various Levantine deities, often with application towards Hadad, who was decried as a false god. In the Hebrew Bible, Baal appears frequently as a foreign or rival deity, with prophets like Elijah opposing his cult, while in early Israelite contexts, the title may have sometimes referred to Yahweh. Depiction as a false god was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the form Beelzebub in demonology.
Classical sources rendered him as Belus. The Quran also references Baal worship, portraying him as a false god opposed by the prophet Elijah.
Ba'al (ÃÂâÃÂ) is the most commonly used Modern Hebrew word for a husband.
Baûal's widely used epithet is "rider (or mounter) of the clouds". (rkb ÿrpt, cf. rkb bÿrbt in Ps. 68:4; Ugaritic rkb ÿrpt.) These are related to Zeus's "gatherer of the clouds" and Yahweh's "rider of the heavens". Like the English word ride, rkb has equine and sexual uses.
The spelling of the English term "Baal" derives from the Greek Báal () which appears in the New Testament and Septuagint, and from its Latinized form ', which appears in the Vulgate. These forms in turn derive from the vowel-less Northwest Semitic form (Phoenician and ). The word's biblical senses as a Phoenician deity and false gods generally were extended during the Protestant Reformation to denote any idols, icons of the saints, or the Catholic Church generally. In such contexts, it follows the anglicized pronunciation and usually omits any mark between its two As. In close transliteration of the Semitic name, the ayin is represented, as Baÿal.
In the Northwest Semitic languagesâÂÂUgaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, and AramaicâÂÂthe word baÿal signified "owner" and, by extension, "lord", a "master", or "husband". Cognates include the Akkadian BÃÂlu (), Amharic bal (), and Arabic baÿl (). Báÿal () and baÿl still serve as the words for "husband" in modern Hebrew and Arabic respectively. They also appear in some contexts concerning the ownership of things or possession of traits.
The feminine form is baÿalah (; ), meaning "mistress" in the sense of a female owner or lady of the house and still serving as a rare word for "wife".
Suggestions in early modern scholarship also included comparison with the Celtic god Belenus, however this is now widely rejected by contemporary scholars.
Like En in Sumerian, the Akkadian bÃÂlu and Northwest Semitic baÿal (as well as its feminine form baÿalah) was used as a title of various deities in the Mesopotamian and Semitic pantheons. Only a definitive article, genitive or epithet, or context could establish which particular god was meant.
Baÿal was also used as a proper name by the third millennium BC, when he appears in a list of deities at Abu Salabikh. Most modern scholarship asserts that this BaÿalâÂÂusually distinguished as "The Lord" (, Ha-Baÿal)âÂÂwas identical with the storm and fertility god Hadad; it also appears in the form Baÿal Haddu. Scholars propose that, as the cult of Hadad increased in importance, his true name came to be seen as too holy for any but the high priest to speak aloud and the alias "Lord" ("Baÿal") was used instead, as "Bel" was used for Marduk among the Babylonians and "Adonai" for Yahweh among the Israelites. A minority propose that Baÿal was a native Canaanite deity whose cult was identified with or absorbed aspects of Adad's. Regardless of their original relationship, by the 1st millennium BCE, the two were distinct: Hadad was worshiped by the Aramaeans and Baÿal by the Phoenicians and other Canaanites.
Baÿal is well-attested in surviving inscriptions and was popular in theophoric names throughout the Levant but he is usually mentioned along with other gods, "his own field of action being seldom defined". Nonetheless, Ugaritic records show him as a weather god, with particular power over lightning, wind, rain, and fertility. The dry summers of the area were explained as Baÿal's time in the underworld, and his return in autumn was said to have caused the storms that revived the land. Thus, the worship of Baÿal in CanaanâÂÂwhere he eventually supplanted El as the leader of the gods and patron of kingshipâÂÂwas connected to the region's dependence on rainfall for its agriculture, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which focused on irrigation from their major rivers. Anxiety about water availability for crops and trees increased the importance of his cult, which focused attention on his role as a rain god. He was also called upon during battle, showing that he was thought to intervene actively in the world of man, unlike the more aloof El. The Lebanese city of Baalbeck was named after Baal. Alternatively, Ba' al is a divine co-regent with El, where El was the executive while Ba' al was the sustainer of the cosmos.
The Baÿal of Ugarit was the epithet of Hadad, but as time passed, the epithet became the god's name while Hadad became the epithet. Baÿal was usually said to be the son of Dagan, but appears as one of the sons of El in Ugaritic sources. Both Baÿal and El were associated with the bull in Ugaritic texts, as they symbolized both strength and fertility. He held special enmity against snakes, both on their own and as representatives of Yammu (<small></small> "Sea"), the Canaanite sea god and river god. He fought the Tannin (Tunnanu), the "Twisted Serpent" (Bṯn ÿqltn), "Lotan the Fugitive Serpent" (Ltn Bṯn Brḥ, the biblical Leviathan), and the "Mighty One with Seven Heads" (à  lyá¹ D.à ¡bÿt Raà ¡m). Baÿal's conflict with Yammu is now generally regarded as the prototype of the vision recorded in the 7th chapter of the biblical Book of Daniel. As vanquisher of the sea, the Canaanites and Phoenicians regarded Baÿal as the patron of sailors and sea-going merchants. As vanquisher of Mot, the Canaanite death god, he was known as Baÿal RÃÂpiþuma (Bÿl Rpu) and regarded as the leader of the Rephaim (Rpum), the ancestral spirits, particularly those of ruling dynasties.
From Canaan, worship of Baÿal spread to Egypt by the Middle Kingdom and throughout the Mediterranean following the waves of Phoenician colonization in the early 1st millennium BCE. He was described with diverse epithets, and before Ugarit was rediscovered, these were supposed to refer to distinct local gods. However, as explained by Day, the texts at Ugarit revealed that they were considered "local manifestations of this particular deity, analogous to the local manifestations of the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church". In those inscriptions, he is frequently described as "Victorious Baÿal" (Aliyn or Ảlá»Âyn Baÿal), "Mightiest one" (Aliy or þAly) or "Mightiest of the Heroes" (Aliy Qrdm), "The Powerful One" (Dmrn), and in his role as patron of the city "Baÿal of Ugarit" (Baÿal Ugarit). As Baÿal Zaphon (Baÿal á¹¢apunu), he was particularly associated with his palace atop Jebel Aqra (the ancient Mount á¹¢apÃÂnu and classical Mons Casius). He is also mentioned as "Winged Baÿal" (Bÿl Knp) and "Baÿal of the Arrows" (Bÿl ḤáºÂ). Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions describe "Baÿal of the Mace" (Bÿl Krntryà ¡), "Baÿal of the Lebanon" (Bÿl Lbnn), "Baÿal of Sidon" (Bÿl á¹¢dn), Bÿl á¹¢md, "Baÿal of the Heavens" (Baÿal Shamem or Shamayin), Baÿal þAddir (Bÿl þdr), Baÿal Hammon (Baÿal Ḥamon), Bÿl Mgnm.
Baÿal Hammon was worshipped in the Tyrian colony of Carthage as their supreme god. It is believed that this position developed in the 5th century BCE following the severing of its ties to Tyre following the 480 BCE Battle of Himera. Like Hadad, Baÿal Hammon was a fertility god. Inscriptions about Punic deities tend to be rather uninformative, though, and he has been variously identified as a moon god and as Dagan, the grain god. Rather than the bull, Baÿal Hammon was associated with the ram and depicted with his horns. The archaeological record seems to bear out accusations in Roman sources that the Carthaginians burned their children as human sacrifices to him. He was worshipped as Baÿal Karnaim ("Lord of the Two Horns"), particularly at an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein ("Two-Horn Hill") across the bay from Carthage. His consort was the goddess Tanit.
The epithet Hammon is obscure. Most often, it is connected with the NW Semitic ḥammÃÂn ("brazier") and associated with a role as a sun god. Renan and Gibson linked it to Hammon (modern Umm el-âÂÂAmed between Tyre in Lebanon and Acre in Israel) and Cross and Lipià Âski to Haman or Khamà Ân, the classical Mount Amanus and modern Nur Mountains, which separate northern Syria from southeastern Cilicia.
Baÿal (ÃÂ÷üâ÷ÃÂ) appears about 90 times in the Hebrew Bible in reference to various gods. The priests of the Canaanite Baÿal are mentioned numerous times, most prominently in the First Book of Kings. Many scholars believe that this describes Jezebel's attempt to introduce the worship of the Baÿal of Tyre, Melqart, to the Israelite capital Samaria in the 9th century BCE. Against this, Day argues that Jezebel's Baÿal was more probably Baÿal Shamem, the Lord of the Heavens, a title most often applied to Hadad, who is also often titled just Baûal.
1 Kings 18 records an account of a contest between the prophet Elijah and Jezebel's priests. Both sides offered a sacrifice to their respective gods: Baûal failed to light his followers' sacrifice while Yahweh's heavenly fire burnt Elijah's altar to ashes, even after it had been soaked with water. The observers then followed Elijah's instructions to slay the priests of Baÿal, after which it began to rain, showing Yahweh's mastery over the weather.
Other references to the priests of Baÿal describe their burning of incense in prayer and their offering of sacrifice while adorned in special vestments.
The title baÿal was a synonym in some contexts of the Hebrew adon ("Lord") and adonai ("My Lords") still used as aliases of the Lord of Israel Yahweh. According to some scholars, the early Hebrews did use the names Baÿal ("Lord") and Baÿali ("My Lord") in reference to the Lord of Israel, just as Baÿal farther north designated the Lord of Ugarit or Lebanon. This occurred both directly and as the divine element of some Hebrew theophoric names. However, according to others it is not certain that the name Baal was definitely applied to Yahweh in early Israelite history. The component Baal in proper names is mostly applied to worshippers of Baal, or descendants of the worshippers of Baal. Names including the element Baÿal presumably in reference to Yahweh include the judge Gideon (also known as Jerubaÿal, "The Lord Strives"), Saul's son Eshbaÿal ("The Lord is Great"), and David's son Beeliada ("The Lord Knows"). The name Bealiah ("The Lord is Jah"; "Yahweh is Baÿal") combined the two. However John Day states that as far as the names Eshbaûal, Meribaûal, and Beeliada (that is, Baûaliada), are concerned it is not certain whether they simply allude to the Canaanite god Baûal, or are intended to equate Yahweh with Baûal, or have no connection to Baûal.
It was the program of Jezebel, in the 9th century BCE, to introduce into Israel's capital city of Samaria her Phoenician worship of Baal as opposed to the worship of Yahweh that made the name anathema to the Israelites. Eshbaÿal became Ish-bosheth and Meribaÿal became Mephibosheth, but other possibilities also occurred. Gideon's name Jerubaÿal was mentioned intact but glossed as a mockery of the Canaanite god, implying that he strove in vain. Direct use of Baÿali continued at least as late as the time of the prophet Hosea, who reproached the Israelites for doing so.
Brad E. Kelle has suggested that references to cultic sexual practices in the worship of Baal, in Hosea 2, are evidence of an historical situation in which Israelites were either giving up Yahweh worship for Baal, or blending the two. Hosea's references to sexual acts being metaphors for Israelite "apostasy".
Brian P. Irwin argues that "Baal" in northern Israelite traditions is a form of Yahweh that was rejected as foreign by the prophets. In southern Israelite traditions, "Baal" was a god that was worshipped in Jerusalem. His worshippers saw him as compatible or identical with Yahweh and honored him with human sacrifices and fragrant meal offerings. Eventually, the Chronicler(s) disapproved of both "Baals" whilst the Deuteronomists used "Baals" for any god they disapproved of.
Likewise, Mark S. Smith believes Yahweh was more likely to be inspired by Baal rather than El, since both are stormy divine warriors and lack the pacifistic traits of El according to the Ugaritic texts and Hebrew Bible.
Baÿal Berith ("Lord of the Covenant") was a god worshipped by the Israelites when they "went astray" after the death of Gideon according to the Hebrew Scriptures. The same source relates that Gideon's son Abimelech went to his mother's kin at Shechem and received 70 shekels of silver "from the House of Baÿal Berith" to assist in killing his 70 brothers from Gideon's other wives. An earlier passage had made Shechem the scene of Joshua's covenant between all the tribes of Israel and "El Yahweh, our god of Israel" and a later one describes it as the location of the "House of El Berith". It is thus unclear whether the false worship of the "Baÿalim" being decried is the worship of a new idol or rites and teachings placing Yahweh as a mere local god within a larger pantheon. The Hebrew Scriptures record the worship of Baÿal threatening Israel from the time of the Judges until the monarchy. However, during the period of Judges such worship seems to have been an occasional deviation from a deeper and more constant worship of Yahweh:
The Deuteronomist and the present form of Jeremiah seem to phrase the struggle as monolatry or monotheism against polytheism. Yahweh is frequently identified in the Hebrew scriptures with El Elyon, however, this was after a conflation with El in a process of religious syncretism. âÂÂEl () became a generic term meaning "god", as opposed to the name of a worshipped deity, and epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone, while Baal's nature as a storm and weather god became assimilated into Yahweh's own identification with the storm. In the next stage the Yahwistic religion separated itself from its Canaanite heritage, first by rejecting Baal-worship in the 9th century, then through the 8th to 6th centuries with prophetic condemnation of Baal, sun-worship, worship on the "high places", practices pertaining to the dead, and other matters.
Baÿal Zebub (, <small></small> "Fly-Lord") occurs in the first chapter of the Second Book of Kings as the name of the Philistine god of Ekron. In it, Ahaziah, king of Israel, is said to have consulted the priests of Baÿal Zebub as to whether he would survive the injuries from his recent fall. The prophet Elijah, incensed at this impiety, then foretold that he would die quickly, raining heavenly fire on the soldiers sent to punish him for doing so. Jewish scholars have interpreted the title of "Lord of the Flies" as the Hebrew way of calling Baÿal a pile of dung and his followers vermin, although others argue for a link to power over causing and curing pestilence and thus suitable for Ahaziah's question. The Septuagint renders the name as Baälzeboúb () and as "Baÿal of Flies" (, Baäl muian). Symmachus the Ebionite rendered it as Beëlzeboúl (), possibly reflecting its original sense. This has been proposed to have been BâÂÂl Zbl, Ugaritic for "Prince Baal".
Outside of Jewish and Christian contexts, the various forms of Baÿal were indifferently rendered in classical sources as Belus (, BÃÂÃÂlos). An example is Josephus, who states that Jezebel "built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, which they call Belus"; this describes the Baÿal of Tyre, Melqart. Herrmann identifies the Demarus/Demarous figure mentioned by Philo Byblius as Baÿal.
Baÿal Hammon, however, was identified with the Greek Cronos and the Roman Saturn as the Zabul Saturn. He was probably never equated with Melqart, although this assertion appears in older scholarship.
Beelzebub or Beelzebul was identified by the writers of the New Testament as Satan, "prince" (i.e., king) of the demons.
John Milton's 1667 epic Paradise Lost describes the fallen angels collecting around Satan, stating that, though their heavenly names had been "blotted out and ras'd", they would acquire new ones "wandring o're the Earth" as false gods. Baalim and Ashtaroth are given as the collective names of the male and female demons (respectively) who came from between the "bordering flood of old Euphrates" and "the Brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground".
The Quran mentions that Prophet Elias (Elijah) warned his people against Baÿal worship.
According to some medieval Islamic scholars, the context of the verse above tells of Ilyas and the inhabitants of the town of Baalbek who worshipped Baal.
According to Tabari, baal is a term used by Arabs to denote everything which is a lord over anything.
Al-Thaÿlabë offers a more detailed description about Baal; accordingly it was an idol of gold, twenty cubits tall, and had four faces.
The trilateral root, (bÃÂ, ayn, lam) baÿl occurs seven times in the QurâÂÂan with its common Semitic usage of âÂÂowner, husband,â particularly husband. For example, Sarah, wife of Abraham refers to her husband using the term.
On January 30, 2026, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) released a portion of the Epstein files that mention the word "Baal". Some online claims attach the worship of Baal to satanic rituals and the occult, and link it to allegations involving American financer and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; however, the released materials provide no clear evidentiary basis for that inference. The appearance is said to be consistent with financial-document field text and, in at least one widely circulated example, appears to be an optical character recognition (OCR) or scanning artifact in which "Bank Name" is misread as "Baal. name".
On February 11th 2026, during the yearly celebration of the Iranian Revolution anniversary in Iran, at 11:33 AM (resembling the masonic holy numbers), several effigies of Baal along with several obelisks were set to fire simultaneously in several cities in Iran. They were made of natural rubber and cardboard days before the Performance. These words were said before performing the act:<blockquote>âÂÂWe, the monotheists of the world, by the help of God, will bring down the worshipers of Baal, the worshipers of Satan, and the arrogant oppressors.âÂÂ</blockquote>This act was said by its performers to symbolise how Muslims reject demon Gods and their worshippers and to also note that even though paganism and worshipping of demons and idols is believed publicly to be forfeit, many top leaders, especially in the west, still practice it.
A month later, on 13th March 2026 Shi'ite Muslims burned an effigy of Baal bearing Israeli symbols during a gathering marking the annual Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) in Baghdad, Iraq.