[stephanos]

And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. (Hosea 2:16-17 KJV)

I've been having email coorespondence with a man that thinks that we are calling JEHOVAH Ba'al every time we use the word "Lord". This is what he wrote me just today.

The Hebrew word for "Lord" is "Ba'al", PERIOD. Every Hebrew dictionary says this. Yahuweh has no interests in owning men-He simply wants a personal relationship with us. If we want to continue down this road, we will have to deal with religious men taking "Ywhw" and replacing it with "DN", which most claim is "adon". Keep in mind that it can just as easily be "edon", and that is where the fun begins. Either way, replacing God's personal and proper name 7000 times in the text that He inspired with anything else, is blasphemous. We must agree on this. I have always known that the religions of Lord/Baal/Halal/Satan/Allah (Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman Mythology, Constantine's Christianity, Rabbinical Judaism, and Muhammad's Islam) and the religions of man (socialism, fascism, communism, and secular humanism) are remarkably similar in that they all are designed to put man in control. But by examining every use of ba'al in Scripture, I found some interesting evidence. Of the 82 occurrences of the first version of ba'al used in the Old Covenant, the Authorized Version translates the word as "man" 25 times, "owner" 14 times, "husband master, man given, adversary, babbler, and confederate " the remainder. The word means "lord," a "foreign or false god" a "citizen ruler," and a "master of dreams." So in Baal, we have man as the owner and master of a confederacy that relies upon manmade and adversarial babble.
The second version of ba'al appears 16 times and is translated "marry, husband, dominion, and wife." It's chilling in a religious context because it means "to marry, to possess, to rule over, and to own." From time immemorial, religions have existed to form a bond between clerics and kings, enabling them to possess power, to rule over others, and to own whatever they covet.

The third and fourth form of Ba'al is "the supreme male divinity of the Phoenicians/Canaanites. Baal = Lord." The singular form, Baal, appears 62 times and the plural, Baalim, is used 18 times. If you are serving the Lord, as the religions of Rabbinic Judaism, Constantinian Christianity, and Islam are wont to do, you are serving Ba'al.

Of the two words which precede Lord/Baal in the Hebrew dictionaries, baiy means "grave and ruin," and baiyr means "beast." Ba'el, which follows, means "chancellor, owner, and lord." Ba'al Bariyth and Ba'al Gad signify "lord of the covenant" in reference to the religious relationship the Philistines had established with Lord/Baal, and "Lord of Fortune," a city noted for Lord/Baal worship.

H1186 בּעל מעון

ba‛al me‛ôn

BDB Definition:

Baal-meon = "lord of the habitation"



H1187 בּעל פּעור

ba‛al pe‛ôr

BDB Definition:

Baal-peor = "lord of the gap"



H1189 בּעל צפון

ba‛al tsephôn

BDB Definition:

Baal Tsphon or Baal-zephon = "lord of the north"

So is there any truth to what he's saying? I don't believe the KJB is errant, but all I've found on this subject thus far is what http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/vi...tter=B&artid=2 says

The wide-spread and primitive Semitic root ("ba'al") may be most nearly rendered in English by "possess." The term "Ba'al," therefore, which is usually explained as meaning "lord," is properly "possessor" or "owner," and is so used in a great variety of applications in common Hebrew speech. Thus we read of the "ba'al" of a house, of land, of goods, of a woman (that is, as a husband). It is also generalized so far as to be a mere noun of relation. Thus a "ba'al of dreams"is a dreamer; a "ba'al of anger" is an angry man; a "ba'al of wings" is a bird; a "ba'al of edges" is two-edged; "ba'alim of a covenant" are allies; "ba'als of an oath" are conspirators. Further, a "ba'al" may be the owner of animals (Isa. i. 3; Ex. xxi. 28 et seq.), but not of men as slaves or subjects, for the phrase in Isa. xvi. 8, the "ba'alim" of the nations, implies dominion over regions rather than over people. "Ba'al" in Hebrew is therefore essentially different from "adon," which implies personal sway and control. When any divinity is called "ba'al" or "a ba'al," the designation must be understood to imply not a ruler of men, but a possessor or controller of certain things. On the other hand, the Assyrian (Babylonian) "bēl," originally the same word, implies especially lordship over men, though it is also, as in all north-Semitic languages, used as a mere noun of relation. In Arabic "ba'al," as applied to persons, is confined to the meaning of "husband."

Peace and Love,
Stephen