The worship of Baʿal Hammon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage.

Classical sources relate how the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Baʿal Hammon.

Scholars tend to see Baʿal Hammon as more or less identical with the god El, who was also generally identified with Cronus and Saturn.

In Carthage and North Africa Baʿal Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baʿal Qarnaim (" Lord of Two Horns ") in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein (" the two-horned hill ") across the bay from Carthage.

Some identified Moloch with Milcom, with the Tyrian god Melqart, with Ba ‘ al Hammon to whom children were purportedly sacrificed, and with other gods called " Lord " ( Baʿal ) or ( Bel ).

The worship of Baʿal Hammon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage.

In Carthage and North Africa Baʿal Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baʿal Qarnaim (" Lord of Two Horns ") in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein (" the two-horned hill ") across the bay from Carthage.

Greco-Roman sources report that the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Baʿal Hammon.

In the Bronze Age, Hadad ( or Haddad or Adad ) was especially likely to be called Baʿal ; however, Hadad was far from the only god to have that title.

He was the god of Tyre and was often called the Baʿal of Tyre.

Baʿal Hammon's female cult partner was Tanit.

He was probably not ever identified with Baʿal Melqart, although one finds this equation in older scholarship.

:: At first the name Baʿal was used by the Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the two religions developed, the name Baʿal was given up in Judaism as a thing of shame, and even names like Jerubbaʿal were changed to Jerubbosheth: Hebrew bosheth means " shame ".

The judge Gideon was also called Jerubaʿal, a name which seems to mean ' Baʿal strives ', though the Yahwists ' explanation in is that the theophoric name was given to mock the god Baʿal, whose shrine Gideon had destroyed, the intention being to imply: " Let Baʿal strive as much as he can ... it will come to nothing.

Either " Baʿal " was here a title for El, or the covenant of Shechem perhaps originally did not involve El at all, but some other god who bore the title Baʿal.

as it became clear that Baʿal was the title of numerous local gods and not necessarily a single deity in origin.

" Baʿal " can refer to any god and even to human officials.

Nevertheless, few if any Biblical uses of " Baʿal " refer to Hadad, the lord over the assembly of gods on the holy mount of Heaven, but rather refer to any number of local spirit-deities worshipped as cult images, each called baʿal and regarded in the Hebrew Bible in that context as a " false god ".

Because more than one god bore the title " Baʿal " and more than one goddess bore the title " Baʿalat " or " Ba ` alah ," only the context of a text can indicate of which Baʿal ' lord ' or Baʿalath ' Lady ' a particular inscription or text is speaking.

One theory is that the people of each territory or in each wandering clan worshipped their own Baʿal, as the chief deity of each, the source of all the gifts of nature, the mysterious god of their fathers.

He would be the patron of all growth and fertility, and, by the use of analogy characteristic of early thought, this Baʿal would be the god of the productive element in its widest sense.

But it is also possible that such rites were performed to a local Baʿal Lord and a local ʿAshtart without much concern as to whether they were the same as that of a nearby community or how they fitted into the national theology of Yahweh who had become a ruling high god of the heavens, increasingly disassociated from such things, at least in the minds of some worshippers.

A reminiscence of Baʿal as a title of a local fertility god ( or referring to a particular god of subterraneous water ) may occur in the Talmudic Hebrew phrases field of the Baʿal and place of the Baʿal and Arabic ba ' l used of land fertilised by subterraneous waters rather than by rain.

Examples of the storm god vs. sea serpent trope in the Ancient Near East can be seen with Baʿal vs. Yam ( Canaanite ), Marduk vs. Tiamat ( Babylonian ), and Atum vs. Nehebkau ( Egyptian ) among others, with attestations as early as the 2nd millennium as seen on Syrian seals.

Examples of the storm god vs. sea serpent trope in the Ancient Near East can be seen with Baʿal vs. Yam ( Canaanite ), Marduk vs. Tiamat ( Babylonian ), and Yahweh vs. Leviathan ( Jewish ) among others.

Baʿal ( Biblical Hebrew,, usually spelled Baal in English ) is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning " master " or " lord " that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant and Asia Minor, cognate to Akkadian Bēlu.

Baʿal ul bayt in modern Levantine Arabic is widely used to mean the head of the household, literally ' Master of the House ' and has a somewhat jocular, semi-mocking connotation.

Some scholars claim it is uncertain whether " Baʿal " the Lord in Kings 10: 26 refers to Melqart.

The sense of competition between the priestly forces of Yahweh and of Baʿal in the ninth century is nowhere more directly attested than in, where, Elijah the prophet offering a sacrifice to Yahweh, Baʿal's followers did the same.

Since Baʿal simply means ' master ', there is no obvious reason for which it could not be applied to Yahweh as well as other gods.

mentions the name Beʿaliah ( more accurately b < sup > e </ sup >‘ alyâ ) meaning " Yahweh is Baʿal.

Certainly some of the Ugaritic texts and Sanchuniathon report hostility between El and Hadad, perhaps representing a cultic and religious differences reflected in Hebrew tradition also, in which Yahweh in the Tanach is firmly identified with El and might be expected to be somewhat hostile to Baʿal / Hadad and the deities of his circle.

Baʿal Hadad is associated with the goddess " Virgin " Anat, his sister and lover.

Another theory is that the references to Baʿals and ʿAshtarts ( and Asherahs ) are to images or other standard symbols of these deities, statues, and icons of Baʿal Hadad, ʿAshtart, and Asherah set-up in various high places as well as those of other gods, the author listing the most prominent as types for all.

The identification of Baʿal as a sun-god in historical scholarship came to be abandoned by the end of the 19th century

Baʿal in the Hebrew text did not light his followers ' sacrifice, but Yahweh sent heavenly fire to burn Elijah's sacrifice to ashes, even after it had been soaked with water.

# REDIRECT Baʿal # Baʿal of Carthage

This might show that at some period Baʿal and El were used interchangeably ; even in the same name applied to the same person.

El and Baʿal are often associated with the bull in Ugaritic texts, as a symbol both of strength and fertility.

" And they brought out the pillars ( massebahs ) of the house of the Baʿal and burned them.

And they pulled down the pillar ( massebah ) of the Baʿal and pulled down the house of the Baʿal and turned it into a latrine until this day.

The Priests of Baʿal are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible numerous times, including a confrontation with the Prophet Elijah (), the burning of incense symbolic of prayer (), and rituals followed by priests adorned in special vestments () offering sacrifices similar to those given to honor the Hebrew God.