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Baal was especially recognized as the god of fertility. The Old Testament records that
Baal was “the god” of the Canaanites. The Israelites worshiped Baal during the time of
the judges (Judg. 6:25-32) and of King Ahab. Elijah stood as the opponent of the Baal
priests at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:21ff.). Many cities made Baal a local god and
honored him with special acts of worship: Baal-peor (Num. 25:5), Baal-berith at
Shechem (Judg. 8:33), Baal-zebub (2 Kings 1:2-16) at Ekron, Baal-zephon (Num. 33:7),
and Baalhermon (Judg. 3:3).
Among the prophets, Jeremiah and Hosea mention Baal most frequently. Hosea
pictured Israel as turning to the baals and only returning to the Lord after a time of
despair (Hos. 2:13, 17). He says that the name of
0
will no longer be used, not even
with the meaning of “Lord” or “master,” as the association was contaminated by the
idolatrous practices: “And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me
Ishi; and shalt call me no more Ba-a-li [
]. For I will take away the names of Ba-a-
lim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name” (Hos. 2:16-
17). In Hosea’s and Jeremiah’s time, the
idols were still worshiped, as the peoples
sacrificed, built high places, and made images of the
(plural).
In the Septuagint, the word
is not uniformly translated:
$
(“lord, owner”);
(“man, husband”); the simple transliteration; and
!
The
KJV
has these
translations: “Baal, man, owner, husband, master.”
BAND, ARMY
$
(
$ $%
, 1416), “band (of raiders); marauding band; raiding party; army; units
(of an army); troops; bandits; raid.” The 33 occurrences of this noun are distributed
throughout every period of biblical Hebrew. Basically, this word represents individuals or
a band of individuals who raid and plunder an enemy. The units that perform such raids
may be a group of outlaws (“bandits”), a special unit of any army, or an entire army.
Ancient peoples frequently suffered raids from their neighbors. When the Amalekites
“raided” Ziklag, looting and burning it while taking captive the wives and families of the
men who followed David, he inquired of God, “Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I
overtake them?” (1 Sam. 30:8). In this case, the “raiding band” consisted of the entire
army of Amalek. This meaning of
$
occurs for the first time in Gen. 49:19: “… A
troop shall overcome him.” Here the word is a collective noun referring to all the “band
of raiders” to come. When Job described the glory of days gone by, he said he “dwelt as a
king in the army [
NASB
, “troops”]” (Job 29:25). When David and his followers were
called a |gedud,they were being branded outlaws—men who lived by fighting and raiding
(1 Kings 11:24).
In some passages,
$
signifies a smaller detachment of troops or a military unit or
division: “And Saul’s son had two men that were captains of bands” (2 Sam. 4:2). God
sent against Jehoiakim “units” from the Babylonian army—“bands of the Chaldees, and
bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon
…” (2 Kings 24:2).
The word can also represent individuals who are members of such raiding or military
bands. The individuals in the household of Izrahiah, the descendant of Issachar, formed a