I. Name

In the manner of other ancient peoples, the Hebrews regularly personified physical forces and abstract concepts: sometimes describing them mythically as divinities. This holds for some OT depictions of בליעל. In 2 Sam. 22.5 naḥălê bĕliyyaʿal ‘torrents of Belial’ in the sense of ‘treacherous waters’, are parallel to mišbĕrê māwet ‘Breakers of Death’: i.e., ‘deadly waves’. The personification of death (with môt cf. Ugaritic Mot, god of death) indicates here a similar personificati…