[11] Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities, but inscriptions have shown that the name Ba'al was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations.

[12] The Hebrew Bible includes use of the term in reference to various Levantine deities, often with application towards Hadad, who was decried as a false god.

The feminine form is baʿalah (Hebrew: בַּעֲלָה;[23] Arabic: بَعْلَة), meaning 'mistress' in the sense of a female owner or lady of the house[23] and still serving as a rare word for 'wife'.

[24] Suggestions in early modern scholarship also included comparison with the Celtic god Belenus, however this is now widely rejected by contemporary scholars.

[17] Most modern scholarship asserts that this Baʿal—usually distinguished as "The Lord" (הבעל, Ha-Baʿal)—was identical with the storm and fertility god Hadad;[17][27][20] it also appears in the form Baʿal Haddu.

[21][28] Scholars propose that, as the cult of Hadad increased in importance, his true name came to be seen as too holy for any but the high priest to speak aloud and the alias "Lord" ("Baʿal") was used instead, as "Bel" was used for Marduk among the Babylonians and "Adonai" for Yahweh among the Israelites.

A minority propose that Baʿal was a native Canaanite deity whose cult was identified with or absorbed aspects of Adad's.

Baʿal is well-attested in surviving inscriptions and was popular in theophoric names throughout the Levant[29] but he is usually mentioned along with other gods, "his own field of action being seldom defined".

[30][d] The dry summers of the area were explained as Baʿal's time in the underworld, and his return in autumn was said to have caused the storms that revived the land.

[30] Thus, the worship of Baʿal in Canaan—where he eventually supplanted El as the leader of the gods and patron of kingship—was connected to the region's dependence on rainfall for its agriculture, unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, which focused on irrigation from their major rivers.

Anxiety about water availability for crops and trees increased the importance of his cult, which focused attention on his role as a rain god.

[38][f] Baʿal's conflict with Yammu is now generally regarded as the prototype of the vision recorded in the 7th chapter of the biblical Book of Daniel.

[37] As vanquisher of Mot, the Canaanite death god, he was known as Baʿal Rāpiʾuma (Bʿl Rpu) and regarded as the leader of the Rephaim (Rpum), the ancestral spirits, particularly those of ruling dynasties.

[37] From Canaan, worship of Baʿal spread to Egypt by the Middle Kingdom and throughout the Mediterranean following the waves of Phoenician colonization in the early 1st millennium BCE.

[51] He was worshipped as Baʿal Karnaim ("Lord of the Two Horns"), particularly at an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Bu Kornein ("Two-Horn Hill") across the bay from Carthage.

Many scholars believe that this describes Jezebel's attempt to introduce the worship of the Baʿal of Tyre, Melqart,[57] to the Israelite capital Samaria in the 9th century BCE.

The observers then followed Elijah's instructions to slay the priests of Baʿal,[60] after which it began to rain, showing Yahweh's mastery over the weather.

Other references to the priests of Baʿal describe their burning of incense in prayer[61] and their offering of sacrifice while adorned in special vestments.

Gideon's name Jerubaʿal was mentioned intact but glossed as a mockery of the Canaanite god, implying that he strove in vain.

[72] Brian P. Irwin argues that "Baal" in northern Israelite traditions is a form of Yahweh that was rejected as foreign by the prophets.

Baʿal Berith ("Lord of the Covenant") was a god worshipped by the Israelites when they "went astray" after the death of Gideon according to the Hebrew Scriptures.

... 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.

The prophet Elijah, incensed at this impiety, then foretold that he would die quickly, raining heavenly fire on the soldiers sent to punish him for doing so.

[89] Jewish scholars have interpreted the title of "Lord of the Flies" as the Hebrew way of calling Baʿal a pile of dung and his followers vermin,[90][91] although others argue for a link to power over causing and curing pestilence and thus suitable for Ahaziah's question.

[94][j][k][l] Outside of Jewish and Christian contexts, the various forms of Baʿal were indifferently rendered in classical sources as Belus (Ancient Greek: Βῆλος, Bē̂los).

An example is Josephus, who states that Jezebel "built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, which they call Belus";[57] this describes the Baʿal of Tyre, Melqart.

[m][n] John Milton's 1667 epic Paradise Lost describes the fallen angels collecting around Satan, stating that, though their heavenly names had been "blotted out and ras'd", they would acquire new ones "wandring o're the Earth" as false gods.

Baalim and Ashtaroth are given as the collective names of the male and female demons (respectively) who came from between the "bordering flood of old Euphrates" and "the Brook that parts Egypt from Syrian ground".