Hebrew word · H1191

בַּעֲלָת

ba'alat

Baalath

A proper name. It is the feminine of ba'al ('lord, master, owner, husband'), so it means 'Lady' or 'Mistress'. In Canaanite and Phoenician religion Ba'alat ('the Lady') was a title for goddesses, the best known being the Lady of Byblos.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Baalath = "mistress"

a town in Dan

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Joshua 19:44

Range of meaning

A proper name. It is the feminine of ba'al ('lord, master, owner, husband'), so it means 'Lady' or 'Mistress'. In Canaanite and Phoenician religion Ba'alat ('the Lady') was a title for goddesses, the best known being the Lady of Byblos. A town with this name probably once had a shrine to such a goddess, or was named after one.

Against the English

English versions transliterate it as 'Baalath', so the meaning 'Lady/Mistress' and its religious overtones are hidden from the English reader.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kings 9:18 and 2 Chronicles 8:6 list Baalath among the towns Solomon built or fortified, next to Gezer and Beth-horon. That suggests it lay in this same western lowland region. Josephus (Antiquities 8.152) mentions a 'Baleth' near Gezer. Its exact location is unknown. Several Canaanite place names contain Ba'al or Ba'alah (for example Baalah, which is Kiriath-jearim), so it must not be confused with the others.

Similar words

Where it appears

Joshua · 1

  1. Joshua 19:44 וּבַעֲלָֽת׃ and Baalath

    Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath,

    Here: A town of Dan whose name means 'Lady' or 'Mistress', the feminine form of ba'al ('lord, owner'). Solomon later fortified a town of this name (1 Kings 9:18). The large pause mark (silluq) and the end-of-verse mark close the verse, but the list carries on into verse 45.

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 9:18 בַּעֲלָ֛ת Baalath

    Baalath, and Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 8:6 בַּעֲלָ֗ת Baalath

    as well as Baalath, all the store cities that belonged to Solomon, and all the cities for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.