BAAL
(bay' uhl) HEBREW: BAAL
"lord"
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The deity most commonly worshiped by the ancient Canaanite peoples, Baal was a god of fertility and also of storms. The Hebrew word baal simply means "lord" and is often used to mean owner, master, husband, or even man. But as a religious term, Baal was the title given the god Hadad - although in the Bible, Baal is always used in place of the god's proper name. By calling their deity Baal instead of Hadad, the Canaanites emphasized their belief that their god was lord and owner of the land and its people. He supplied them with the rain that made the land fertile and thus bestowed life and prosperity on all the people. Therefore, they spoke of him as "the prince, the lord (Baal) of the earth."
In Canaanite mythology, Baal was part of an extended pantheon. The distant high god was the creator El, a name that means "god." El's brother was Dagon, god of grain, and Baal was Dagon's son. Baal's sister and wife, Anath, played an important role in the story of his rise to power.
According to the myth, Baal gained his preeminence in Canaanite worship by overcoming forces that sought to destroy the equalibrium and security of the world. The first of Baal's feats was a battle with the god of waters, Yam, sometimes called Prince Sea and other times Twisting Serpent. When Prince Sea demanded Baal's submission, even the gods in El's council were intimidated by the ruler of the chaotic seawaters. Using divine weapons, Baal was able to rout and defeat Prince Sea, and the cry went up, "Hail, Baal the Conquerer!" In celebration of this great victory, a temple was built for Baal the Conquerer.
But the myths tell of an even stronger challenge to Baal from El's son Mot, or Death, a being whose strength lay in his ability to induce sterility and famine. When even Baal, the protector of human life, had to surrender to the power of Mot, the gods mourned, "Baal is dead: what will happen to the peoples?" Indeed, their fate was a deadly drought that lasted until Anath, by her love for Baal, was able to wrest her brother-husband from the grip of Mot and return him to life. And with him, al nature blossomed anew. In the agricultural society of Canaan, the people saw these myths played out in the cycles of nature and celebrated them in seasonal festivals.
In the Bible, Baal is seen as a rival to Israel's God. Not surprisingly, nearly every refernce to Baal in the Scriptures in negative, bearing witness to the harsh fact that the Israelites were continually attracted to his worship. Indeed, Ahab and Jezebel made Baal the principal deity of Israel for a time. Even in more orthodox Judah, the prophet Jeremiah noted, Jerusalem's altars, where incense was burned to Baal, were "as many as the streets" (Jeremiah 11:13).
Israel's Baal:
There is some evidence in the Old Testament that Israel's God, Yahweh, was also known as Baal. One of the "mighty men" (1 Chronicles 12:1) who joined David at Ziklag was Saul's kinsman Bealiah, whose name means "Yahweh is Baal." Some 300 years later Hosea declared that the Lord, in renewing his covenant with Israel, demanded, "you will call me, 'My husband,' and no longer will you call me, 'My Baal'" (Hosea 2:16).
{E2 Dictionary of Biblical People}