Baal Peor
Baal-peor
(Hebrews Ba’al Peor’, , lord of Peor, or sometimes only , Peor, respectively represented in the Sept. by and appears to have been properly the idol of the Moabites (Num 25:1-9; Deu 4:3; Jos 22:17; Psa 106:28; Hos 9:10); but also of the Midianites (Num 31:15-16). It is the common opinion that this god was worshipped by obscene rites, and from the time of Jerome downward it has been usual to compare him to Priapus (see Sickler, in Augusti’s Theol. Blatt. 1, 193 sq.). Selden and J. Owen (De Diis Syris, 1:5; Theologoumena, 5:4) seem to be the only persons who have disputed whether any of the passages in which this god is named really warrant such a conclusion. The narrative (Numbers 25) seems clearly to show that this form of Baal-worship was connected with licentious rites. The least that the above passages express is the fact that the Israelites received this idolatry from the women of Moab, and were led away to eat of their sacrifices (comp. Psa 106:28); and it is possible for that sex to have been the means of seducing them into the adoption of their worship, without the idolatry itself being of an obscene kind. It is also remarkable that so few authors are agreed even as to .the general character of these rites. Most Jewish authorities (except the Tarnum of Jonathan on Numbers 25) represent his worship to have consisted of rites which are filthy in the extreme, but not lascivious (see Braunius, De Vestit. Sacerd. 1:7, for one of the fullest collections of Jewish testimonies on this subject). Without laying too much stress on the rabbinical derivation of the word , hiatus, i.e. aperire hymenem virgineum, we seem to have reason to conclude that this was the nature of the worship. This is, moreover, the view of Creuzer (2. 411), Winer, Gesenius, Furst, and almost all critics. The reader is referred for more detailed information particularly to Creuzer’s Symbolik and Movers’ Phonizier. The identification of Baal with the sun SEE BAAL, as the generative power of nature confirms the opinion of the lascivious character of this worship. Peor is properly the name of a mountain SEE PEOR, and Baal-Peor was the name of the god worshipped there. Some identify this god with CHEMOSH SEE CHEMOSH (q.v.). SEE BAALIM.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Baal-peor
lord of the opening, a god of the Moabites (Num. 25:3; 31:16; Josh. 22:17), worshipped by obscene rites. So called from Mount Peor, where this worship was celebrated, the Baal of Peor. The Israelites fell into the worship of this idol (Num. 25:3, 5, 18; Deut. 4:3; Ps. 106:28; Hos. 9:10).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Baal-Peor
BAAL-PEOR.The local deity of Mt. Peor (Deu 4:3 b, Num 25:6). In Deu 4:3 b and Hos 9:10 it is perhaps the name of a place.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Baal-Peor
This was the famous, or rather infamous dunghill idol of Moab; and which they tempted the Israelites worship. The Psalmist mournfully speaks of it, (Psa 106:18) “they joined themselves unto Baal-peor, and ate the offerings of the dead.” (Num 25:1-3; Hos 9:10) From what this prophet saith of their shame; and from the impure name of this strumpet idol; there is reason to believe that the greatest indecency was joined with idolatry, in the, worship of this Baal-peor.
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Baal-Peor
ba-al-peor. See BAAL. (1).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Baal-Peor
H1187
An idol of Moab.
Num 25:3; Num 25:5; Deu 4:3; Psa 106:28; Hos 9:10
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Baal Peor
Peor is supposed to have been a part of Mount Abarim; and Baal was the great idol or chief god of the Phoenicians, and was known and worshipped under a similar name, with tumultuous and obscene rites, all over Asia. He is the same as the Bel of the Babylonians. Baal, by itself, signifies lord, and was a name of the solar or principal god. But it was also variously compounded, in allusion to the different characters and attributes of the particular or local deities who were known by it, as Baal Peor, Baal Zebub, Baal Zephon, &c. Baal Peor, then, was probably the temple of an idol belonging to the Moabites, on Mount Abarim, which the Israelites worshipped when encamped at Shittim; this brought a plague upon them, of which twenty-four thousand died, Numbers 35. Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, to whom Solomon erected an altar, 1Ki 11:7, is supposed to have been the same deity. Baal Peor has been farther supposed by some to have been Priapus; by others, Saturn: by others, Pluto; and by others again, Adonis. Mr. Faber agrees with Calmet in making Baal Peor the same with Adonis; a part of whose worship consisted in bewailing him with funeral rites, as one lost or dead, and afterward welcoming, with extravagant joy, his fictitious return to life. He was in an eminent degree the god of impurity. Hosea, speaking of the worship of this idol, emphatically calls it that shame, Hos 9:10. Yet in the rites of this deity the Moabite and Midianite women seduced the Israelites to join.