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I. Name In Ps. 68.5[ Ps. 4] Yahweh is referred to as the rōkēb bāʿărābôt. Though often translated as ‘rider through the steppe’ (based on the meaning ‘steppe’ of Hebr ʿărābâ), the expression is thought to reflect the Ugaritic epithet rkb ʿrpt, ‘Rider upon the clouds’, traditionally given to Baal. II. Identity In the mythological texts of Ras Shamra the god Baal repeatedly gets the epithet rkb ʿrpt. It is rendered with slight nuances as ‘Rider of the Clouds’, ‘Rider on the Clouds’, ‘Who mounts the Clouds’. Epithets based on the root rkb, ‘to ride’, occur quite frequently in con…

I. Name The name baʿal is a common Semitic noun meaning ‘lord, owner’. Applied to a god it occurs about 90 times in the OT. The LXX transcribes Βααλ, Vulgate Baal, plural Βααλιμ and Baalim. Though normally an appellative, the name is used in Ugaritic religion as the proper name of a deity. Also in the Bible, the noun occurs as the name of a specific Canaanite god. II. Identity According to Pettinato the noun baʿal was originally used as a divine name. It is attested as such already in third millennium texts. The mention of dba4- alx in the list of deities from Abu Ṣalabikh (R. D. Biggs, Inscription fr…

I. Name The name Baal Zebub occurs only four times in the OT ( 2 Kgs. 1.2, 2 Kgs. 3, 2 Kgs. 6, 2 Kgs. 16). In 2 Kgs. 1 an accident of Ahaziah, the king of Israel, and his consulting the oracle of the god Baal Zebub of Ekron is described. For etymological reasons, Baal Zebub must be considered a Semitic god; he is taken over by the Philistine Ekronites and incorporated into their local cult. Zebub is the collective noun for ‘flies’, also attested in Ugaritic (W. H. van Soldt, UF 21 [1989] 369–373: dbb), Akkadian ( zubbu), post-biblical Hebrew, Jewish Aramaic (דיבבא), Syriac ( debbaba) and in other Sem…

I. Name The name El, ʾēl, il( u), is, with the exception of Ethiopic, common Semitic and originally means God. Etymologically the origin of the appellative cannot be determined with certainty. Most likely, the noun can be derived from the verb ʾwl (the root ʾlh has also been suggested) ‘to be strong’ also ‘to be in front, dominate’ (Dahood 1958:74). The substantive (formed as a stative participle or adjective; Pope & Röllig, WbMyth. I:217–312) denotes ‘strength, force, power, might, mana’. Related to a personal god, the noun has as meaning ‘the strong one; mighty o…