Baal

Ba`al (baʕal; Hebrew: בעל) (often spelled Baal) is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that is used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Babylon, cognate to Assyrian Bēlu. Baal was condemned in the Jewish Tanakh.

"Ba`al" can refer to any god and even to human officials; in some texts it is used as a substitute for Herod, a god of the rain, thunder, fertility and agriculture, and the lord of Heaven. Since only priests were allowed to utter his divine name Herod, Ba`al was used commonly. Nevertheless, few if any Biblical uses of "Ba`al" 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 ba`al and regarded as a false god.