33 Bible Verses about Baal Worship, History
Most Relevant Verses
So Israel was joined together to Baal Peor, and {Yahweh became angry} with Israel. Yahweh said to Moses, "Take all {the leaders} of the people and kill them before the sun, so the fierce anger of Yahweh will turn from Israel." So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each [of you] kill his men who are joined together with Baal Peor."
And it happened, in the morning Balak took Balaam and took him up to Bamoth-Baal, and he saw from there the end of the nation.
Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did with [the case of] Baal Peor, for {each} man that followed after Baal Peor Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst.
They also attached themselves to Baal of Peor, and they ate sacrifices offered to [the] dead.
Like the grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like early ripened fruit on the fig tree in the first season, I saw your ancestors. They themselves came [to] Baal Peor, and they consecrated themselves to shame. And they became detestable things, like {the thing they love}.
They abandoned Yahweh the God of their ancestors, who brought them out from the land of Egypt. They {followed} other gods from the gods of the people who [were] around them; and they bowed down to them, and they provoked the anger of Yahweh. They abandoned Yahweh, and they served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
The {Israelites} did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They forgot Yahweh their God, and they served the Baals and the Asheroth.
But Jehoash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Will you rescue him? Whoever contends for him will be put to death by the morning. If he [is] a god, let him contend for himself because {his altar has been pulled down}." Thus, on that day he was called Jerub-Baal, {which means}, "Let Baal contend against him," because he had pulled down his altar.
And it happened, as soon as Gideon died, the {Israelites} returned and prostituted [themselves] after the Baals, and they made for themselves Baal-Berith as god.
And again, the {Israelites} did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, and the gods of the {Ammonites} and Philistines; they abandoned Yahweh and did not serve him.
So the {Israelites} removed the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and they served Yahweh alone.
So they cried out to Yahweh and said, 'We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yahweh and have served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hand of our enemies and we will serve you!'
Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe of Gilead said to Ahab, "{As Yahweh lives}, the God of Israel before whom I stand, there shall surely not be dew nor rain these years {except by my command}."
But Ahab son of Omri did evil in the eyes of Yahweh more than all who were before him. {If it wasn't enough that he went} after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he also took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal the king of the Sidonians. He went and served Baal and bowed down to him. And he built an altar to Baal in the house of Baal which he had built in Samaria.read more.
Ahab also made the sacred pole, and {he continued to provoke} Yahweh the God of Israel more than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
He said, "I did not throw Israel into confusion; rather you and the house of your father [have] by forsaking the commands of Yahweh when you went after the Baals! So then, send [word] and assemble all of Israel to me on Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at the table of Jezebel."
He served Baal and bowed down to him; and he provoked Yahweh the God of Israel according to all that his father did.
Then Jehu assembled all of the people and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will worship him greatly. So then, summon to me all of the prophets of Baal and all of his servants and his priests; no man should fail to come, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come shall not live!" Now Jehu was acting with cunning in order to destroy the servants of Baal. Then Jehu said, "Sanctify a [solemn] assembly for Baal!" So they proclaimed [it].read more.
Jehu sent [word] through all of Israel, and all of the servants of Baal came; there did not remain a man who did not come. They came to the house of Baal so that the house of Baal was filled from {wall to wall}. He said to the one who [was] over the wardrobe, "Bring out clothing for all of the servants of Baal." So he brought the clothing out for them. Then Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Recab came [to] the temple of Baal, and he said to the servants of Baal, "Search and see that there is none of the servants of Yahweh here with you; only those who serve Baal." They came to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed for himself eighty men outside, and he said, "The man who lets [anyone] escape from the men who I am {entrusting to you}, {he will pay with his life}!" It happened that when he finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the royal guard and to the officers, "Come and kill them; let no man go free!" So {they put them to the sword}, and the royal guard and the officers threw them out, then they went up to the citadel of the temple of Baal. They brought out the stone pillars of the temple of Baal and burned {them}. So they broke down the stone pillars of Baal and destroyed the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine until this day. So Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. Only Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat [by] which he caused Israel to sin; [namely,] the calf-shaped idols of gold which [were in] Bethel and Dan.
Then Jehoiada {made} a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that the people should be as a people for Yahweh, and [also a covenant] between the king and the people. Then all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down, and its altars and its images they broke completely into pieces. Mattan the priest of Baal they killed in front of the altars. Then the priest put guards over the house of Yahweh.
Plead with your mother, plead-- because she [is] not my wife, and I [am] not her husband. Let her put away her whoring {from before her}, and her adultery from between her breasts. Lest I strip her naked and expose her like the day when she was born; I will make her like the desert and turn her into parched land; I will kill her with thirst. And I will not have pity on her children, because [they are] children of whoredom.read more.
Because their mother was unfaithful; she who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said: "I will go after my lovers, the ones who give [me] my bread, my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink." Therefore, Look! I [am] going to hedge her path {with thorns}, and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall [against] her, and she will not find her paths. Then she will pursue {her lovers}, but she will not overtake them; she will seek them and not find [them]; and she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband because [it was] better for me then than now." But she did not know that [it was] I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and who gave her silver in abundance, and gold which they made into a Baal. Therefore I will take again my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, [which were] to cover her nakedness. And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand. And I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals; and I will lay waste to her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, "They [are] my payment for prostitution, which my lovers gave to me." I will make them a forest, and the wild animals of the field will devour them. {I will punish her} [for] the days of the Baals, to whom she burns incense, and she decked herself [with] her ornamental ring and jewelry, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me --a declaration of Yahweh.
When I called them, they went from my face. They sacrificed to the Baals, and they sacrificed to idols.
When Ephraim spoke, [there was] terror; he was exalted in Israel, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
Ahaz [was] twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh like David his ancestor. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made molten idols for the Baals.
The priests did not say, 'Where [is] Yahweh?' and those who handle the law did not know me, and the shepherds have {rebelled against me}, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and they went after [things which] do not profit.
Will you steal? Will you murder? And will you commit adultery? And will you swear {falsely}? And will you make a smoke offering to the Baal? And will you go after other gods whom you have not known?
And I said to her, "{You must remain as mine} for many days, and you will not play the whore; {you will not belong} to a man, and I [will] belong to you."
The {Israelites} did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and {they served} the Baals. They abandoned Yahweh the God of their ancestors, who brought them out from the land of Egypt. They {followed} other gods from the gods of the people who [were] around them; and they bowed down to them, and they provoked the anger of Yahweh. They abandoned Yahweh, and they served Baal and the Ashtaroth.read more.
So {the anger of Yahweh was kindled} against Israel, and he gave them into the hand of plunderers; and they plundered them, and he sold them into the hand of their enemies from all sides. They were unable to withstand their enemies any longer.
When the men of the city got up early in the morning, look, the altar of Baal and the Asherah that [was] beside it [were] cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. {And they said to one another}, "Who did this thing?" So they searched and inquired, and they said, "Gideon son of Jehoash did this thing." And the men of the city said to Jehoash, "Bring out your son so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah that [was] beside it."read more.
But Jehoash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Will you rescue him? Whoever contends for him will be put to death by the morning. If he [is] a god, let him contend for himself because {his altar has been pulled down}." Thus, on that day he was called Jerub-Baal, {which means}, "Let Baal contend against him," because he had pulled down his altar.
But she did not know that [it was] I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and who gave her silver in abundance, and gold which they made into a Baal.
And you will take up Sikkuth, your king, and Kaiwan, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.
For the number of your towns are your gods, Judah, and the number of the streets of Jerusalem [are the] altars you have set up to the shameful things, to make smoke offerings to Baal.
Because they have forsaken me, and they have defaced this place, and they have made smoke offerings in it to other gods whom they have not known, they, nor their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah, and they have filled up this place [with the] blood of [the] innocent, and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire, burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I ordered not, and it did not come to my {mind}. "{Therefore} look, days [are] about to come," {declares} Yahweh, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, {but} the Valley of the Slaughter.
But what does the divine response say to him? "I have left for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal."
