Tool Beta
The Gods of the Bible
Every named divine being in Scripture, what the text calls it, and what the ancient world thought it was.
Baal-peor
The local version of Baal tied to an incident where Israel ate meals offered to the dead.
Numbers 25:3, in every translation this tool compares.
The local Baal of a place called Peor. Psalm 106 says Israel ate sacrifices offered to the dead there, which puts this nearer to a cult of the dead than to ordinary idol worship.
The local Baal of Peor, tied to the incident at Shittim. Psalm 106:28 says Israel ate sacrifices offered to the dead, which connects this cult to the Rephaim material more than to ordinary idolatry. The name Peor comes from a root meaning "open wide," used of the mouth of the netherworld in Isaiah 5:14, and it fits the Ugaritic picture of Baal going down into Mot's gullet (KTU 1.5 v:4) as well as the funerary character of the neighboring Transjordanian place names, Obot ("spirits of the dead") and Abarim ("those who have crossed over").
H1187, 12 occ
- Numbers 25:3,5
- Deuteronomy 4:3
- Psalm 106:28
- Hosea 9:10
- Numbers 31:16
- Joshua 22:17
- DDD s.v. "Baal of Peor," 147
- Spronk, *Beatific Afterlife in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East*
