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382 Baal-Hazor Ba'al

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Shem

382

The context seems to favor on account of the shameful licentiousness into which many of the Israelites were there enBut all Ba'al-worship encouraged this sin; ticed. and Peor may not have been worse than many other shrines in this respect, though the evil there was In Hosea ix. 10 " Baal-peor " is certainly flagrant. the same as "Beth-peor," and is contracted from

other reasons, Mai-quart (" Fundarnente Israelitischer und Judischer Gesch." 1896, pp. 10 et seq.) supposes that " son of Achbor " is a duplicate of " son of Beor " (Gen. xxxvi. 32), and that "Baal-hanan" in the original text is given as the name of the father of the next king, Hadad. 2. Gederite who had charge of David's oliveand sycamore-trees in the low plains of Judah (I

for sensual indulgence.

Chron. xxvii.

"Beth-baal-peor."

A

J.

28).

F. Bu.

JR.

BAAL-HAZOR

degree of plausibility, been identified as the modern Tell 'Azur, east of Beth-el (see Ephraim). It is perhaps the same as Hazor, mentioned in Neh. xi. 33. J. JR. F. Bu.

BAAL-HERMON

(Judges

iii.

3;

Chron. v.

I

23): See Baai.-gad. j.

F. Bu.

jr.

BAAL KORE

(Klip ^?a, literally "the master reading ") Term applied to the person who reads the weekly portion from the Pentateuch usually the hazan, though not necessarily so (see Cantillation Hazan Music, Synagogal compare Dem:

—





bitz, "

j.



Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home, " pp.

70, 71, 262).

this idol consisted in



exposing that

McC.

The worship of part of the body

persons usually take the utmost care to It is related that on one occasion a strange conceal. ruler came to the place where Peor was worshiped, to sacrifice to him but when he heard of this silly practise, he caused his soldiers to attack and kill the worshipers of the god (Sifre, Num. 131 Sanh. 106«). The same sources mention various other facts concerning the cult, all of which give the impression that it still existed at the time of the Tannaim. That the statements of the Rabbis are not wholly imaginative and do not take their coloring from the rites of some heathen or antinomian-Gnostic sects is shown by the fact that the worship of Peor is ridiculed, but nowhere stigmatized as moral depravity, by the Rabbis, which latter might have been expected, had the assertions of the Rabbis been based on the Gnostic cults mentioned.

which

all





j.

F. L. C.

a.

J. F.

jr.

In Rabbinical Literature

A

place situated near Ephraim, where Absalom possessed an estate (II Sam. xiii. It was there that during a sheep-shearing fes23). tival Amnon was killed at the instigation of his stepbrother Absalom. Baal-hazor has, with some

his view,

L. G.

sr.

BAAL-PERAZIM A

place mentioned in the report of the battle between David and the Philistines in II Sam. v. 20 (compare I Chron. xiv. 11). The Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim, while David withdrew to the hill-fortress of Adul:

BAAL-MEON, BETH-BA AL-MEON, BEON A

BETH-MEON,

or city in the eastern part of the Jordan district, which is designated in

Numbers



(xxxii. 3, 38),

Joshua

and Chronand in Jere-

(xiii. 17),

icles (v. 8) as Israelitish (Reubenitish),

and Ezekiel (xxv. 9) as Moabitish. According to the inscription on the Moabite Stoxe (lines 9 30), this city was reconquered by King Mesha after it had become, under Omri, one of the cities of the Israelites. The site of Baal-meon, which

miah

(xlviii.

23)

declared by Eusebius to be at a distance of nine Roman miles from Heshbon, is marked by the ruins of Ma'in. The remains of buildings show the Roman style of architecture. In a number of houses the lower part is hewn out of the rock. As Eusebius uses the name " Baian " (" Onomastica Sacra," ed. Lagarde, ccxxxii. 40) for "Beon" (Num. xxxii. 3), the word has been connected with the sons is

B*an (I Mace. v. 4 et seq.), who were punished by Judas Maccabeus for their hostility toward the Jews. The name of this same Bedouin tribe occurs of

also in Arabic authors (Wellhausen, "I. J. G.," 3d ed., p. 277). j.

BAAL-PEOR Name

Peor was a mountain

in

of

a

Bu.

Canaanitish god.

Moah (Num.

xxiii.

28),

whence the special locality Beth-peor (Deut. iii. 29, It gave its name to the Ba'al etc.) was designated. who was there worshiped, and to whose service entrance into Canaan, was, for a

brief time, attracted (Num. xxv. 3, 5; Ps. cvi. 28). The god is himself also called " Peor " by abbrevia-

tion

(Num.

to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines. Consequently the place must have been situated in the valley of Rephaim but more definite information concerning it can not be found. One is tempted to connect it with Mount

Perazim j.

(Isa. xxviii. 21).

F. Bu.

jr.

BAAL-SHALISHA A

place mentioned in II Kings iv. 42, and in the Talmud (Sanh. 12a). Eusebius identifies it with Baithsarisa, 15 Roman miles to the north of Lydda. This, however, is uncertain, and there is much in favor of connecting Baal-shalisha with the ruins of Serisiyyah, lying on the western side of the mountains of Ephraim, or with the ruins of the cities Kefr Thilth, lying somewhat to the northeast. According to the Talmud (loc. cit.),

fruits ripened earlier at Baal-shalisha

xxxi. 16; Josh. xxii.

17).

It is

commonly

held that this form of Ba'al-worship especially called

than elsewhere

in Palestine,

Bibliography F.

jr.

Israel, before the

lam and thence proceeded

tine, p. 351 J.



G. A. Smith, Historical' Geography of PalesBuhl, Geographic des Alten Palllstina, p. 214.

F. Bu.

JR.

BA'AL SHEM

(q$j> $>jn



plural, "Ba'alei She-

mot," more correctly "Ba'alei Shem," i.e., Master of the Name) Designation cf certain people who were

supposed to work miracles through the name of God. This belief in the miraculous power of the Sacred Name is very old, having a history that covers more than two thousand years (compare Shem ha-Meforash and God, Names of); but the designation "Ba'al Shem" seems to have originated