Baal

Baal is a title meaning "lord" or "master" in Semitic languages. In the ancient Near East, it designated several deities worshipped by Canaanites and related cultures rather than a single god. The most widely referenced Baal in later sources is Baal Hadad, a storm and fertility deity.

In Ugaritic texts from Ras Shamra (c. 14th–13th centuries BCE), Baal is a principal god within the Canaanite pantheon, linked to weather, rain, and agriculture. Myths describe his combat with Yam, the sea, and Mot, the god of death; Anat and other deities support him, and his cult is associated with several city-centre rites.

In the Hebrew Bible, Baal is a generic name for non-Yahwistic fertility or weather deities; prophets denounce Baal worship and depict contests such as Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. The phrase Baal Zebub appears as a deity at Ekron, and Baal-Peor refers to a Moabite cult leading to Israelite apostasy.

The term Baal often appears in compound names (Baal-Zebub, Baal-Berith). After major reforms, Baal worship was suppressed in Judah and Israel, but the concept continued in inscriptions and place-names, illustrating the proliferation of localized Baals across the Levant. The name Baal also remains in modern Semitic languages as a word for "owner" or "lord."