page_title: Baal
section_title: Semitic religion
hierarchical_section_title: Baal / Semitic religion
caption_attribution_description: English: Baal, right arm raised. Bronze figurine, 14th-12th centuries, found in Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit). Français&#160;: Baal, main droite levée. Figurine en bronze, XIVe-XIIe siècles. Découvert à Ras Shamra (ancienne cité d'Ugarit). العربية: تمثال برونزي للإله بعل وهو يرفع ذراعه اليمنى، يرقى للقرن الرابع عشر - القرن الثاني عشر قبل الميلاد وهو من مكتشفات رأس شمرا (مملكة أوغاريت قديماً) قرب اللاذقية.
context_page_description: Baal, properly Baʽal, was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "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 Baʿal was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations.
  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. That use was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the form Beelzebub in demonology.
caption: Bronze figurine of a Baal, 14th–12th century BCE, found at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) near the Phoenician coast. Musée du Louvre.
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