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I. Name The deity of the Ammonites, Milcom, occurs three times in the MT: 1 Kgs. 11.5, 1 Kgs. 33; 2 Kgs. 23.13. The Greek translators of the Septuagint or/and other Greek recensions and versions (Syrian, Latin) have read Milcom (Μελχομ, Μελχολ, Μολχομ, Μολχολ, possible confusion of Μ and Λ in uncial writing) in seven other instances: 2 Sam. 12.30; 1 Chr. 20.2; Amos 1.15; Jer. 49(=30).1, Jer. 3; Zeph. 1.5; 1 Kgs. 11.7. In a number of cases, the Greek translations show how difficult the reading of the Hebrew prototype mlkm was; it could be vocalised and understood as Milcom or as “their king” ( malkā…

I. Name Lbʾt (fem. of lbʾ) occurs as a divine name or as a theophoric element in Canaanite personal names outside the Bible in the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium. The name of the deity, as part of a theophoric name ʿbdlbʾt, is engraved on five arrowheads found at el-Khadr, north-west of Bethlehem, and dated around 1100 bce, but two occurrences are wrongly engraved: ʿbdlbt (II) and ʿbdlʾt (IV). It is found also on cuneiform tablets of the LB II strata at Ugarit, ʿbdlbit (see Gordon 1965:no 321 III 38, p. 209 = KTU 4.63). The cult of the lioness deity is also attested in south-west Canaan …

I. Name The identification of a deity Lel in the West Semitic world is a very difficult subject for the historian of religions. The existence of the deity as such has been questioned and the meaning and etymology of the name are a matter of debate. The deity has been related to lyl-lylh ‘night’ (hence the conventional pronunciation ‘Lēl’) (Dietrich & Loretz 1980: 403), but also to the Akkadian lil(lu) known in Old and Standard Babylonian as a god and as a demon, meaning ‘fool, simple’ (Thureau-Dangin 1922, but cf. Krebernik 1987:20). The god has to be distinguished from lilû, fem. lilîtu (fr…