Editing Baal (section)

===Baʿal Berith===
{{main|Baʿal Berith}}
[[Baʿal Berith]] ("Lord of the [[Biblical covenant|Covenant]]") was a god worshipped by the [[Israelites]] when they "went astray" after the death of [[Gideon]] according to the [[Hebrew Scriptures]].<ref name=jdg8>{{bibleverse|Jgs.|8:33–34|HE}}.</ref> The same source relates that Gideon's son [[Abimelech (Judges)|Abimelech]] went to his mother's kin at [[Shechem]] and received 70 [[shekel]]s of [[silver]] "from the House of Baʿal Berith" to assist in killing his 70 brothers from Gideon's other wives.<ref>{{bibleverse|Jgs.|9:1–5|HE}}.</ref> An earlier passage had made Shechem the scene of [[Joshua]]'s covenant between all the [[tribes of Israel]] and "[[El (god)|El]] [[Yahweh]], our [[El (god)|god]] of [[Israelites|Israel]]"<ref>{{bibleverse|Josh.|24:1–25|HE}}.</ref> and a later one describes it as the location of the "House of El Berith".<ref>{{bibleverse|Jgs.|9:46|HE}}.</ref> It is thus unclear whether the false worship of the "Baʿalim" being decried<ref name=jdg8/> is the worship of a new idol or rites and [[henotheism|teachings]] placing Yahweh as a mere local god within a larger pantheon. The Hebrew Scriptures record the worship of Baʿal threatening [[Israelites|Israel]] from the time of the [[Judge (Judaism)|Judges]] until the [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|monarchy]].{{sfnp|Smith|2002|loc=Ch.&nbsp;2}} However, during the period of Judges such worship seems to have been an occasional deviation from a deeper and more constant worship of Yahweh:
{{blockquote|Throughout all the stories of Judges the popular faith in YHWH runs as a powerful current. This faith raises the judges, and inspires poets, prophets, and Nazirites. ... Worship of Baals and Ashtoreths has been schematically interspersed between these chapters, but no trace of a vital, popular belief in any foreign gods can be detected in the stories themselves. Baal prophets appeared in Israel centuries later; but during the age of the judges when Israel is supposed to have been most deeply affected by the religion of Canaan, there are no Baal priests or prophets, nor any other intimation of a vital effect of polytheism in Israel’s life.<ref>[[Yehezkel Kaufmann]], ''The Religion of Israel: From Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile'' (1972), p.138-139:</ref>}}

The [[Deuteronomist]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Deut.|4:1–40|HE}}</ref> and the present form of [[Book of Jeremiah#Composition|Jeremiah]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Jer.|11:12–13|HE}}</ref> seem to phrase the struggle as [[monolatry]] or [[monotheism]] against [[polytheism]]. Yahweh is frequently identified in the Hebrew scriptures with [[Elyon|El Elyon]], however, this was after a conflation with El in a process of religious [[syncretism]].{{sfn|Smith|2002|page=8}} ''’El'' ({{langx|he|אל}}) 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.{{sfn|Smith|2002|page=8, 135}} 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.{{sfn|Smith|2002|page=9}}

[[File:Beelzebub.png|right|150px|thumb|alt=Paris, 1825|"Beelzebub" in the 1863 edition of [[Jacques Collin de Plancy]]'s ''[[Dictionnaire Infernal]]''.]]
{{anchor|Baal Zebub|Baʿal Zebub}}