“Baalim?” #2

Monday, February 24, 2025

“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:…” (Judges 2:11 KJV).

The Authorized Version features “Baalim” some 18 times, but what is it exactly?

“For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them” (2 Chronicles 33:3). “And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them” (2 Chronicles 34:4). “How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;…” (Jeremiah 2:23).

“But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:…” (Jeremiah 9:14). “And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD” (Hosea 2:13). “For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name” (Hosea 2:17). “As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images” (Hosea 11:2).

Having scanned all references, we now possess a few clues as to the identity of “Baalim.” Read Judges 8:33 again: “…and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith [!] their god.” Judges 10:6 again: “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods [!] of Syria, and the gods [!] of Zidon, and the gods [!]  of Moab, and the gods [!] of the children of Ammon, and the gods [!] of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.” Hosea 2:17 again: “For I will take away the names [!] of Baalim out of her mouth….”

“Baalim” is connected to widespread idolatry….