🔼The name Baalath: Summary
- Meaning
- Mistress
- Etymology
- From the verb בעל (ba'al), to be lord.
🔼The name Baalath in the Bible
There are two towns named Baalath in the Bible:
🔼Etymology of the name Baalath
The name Baalath comes from the verb בעל (ba'al):
בעל
The verb בעל (ba'al) means to exercise dominion over; to own, control or be lord over. The ubiquitous noun בעל (ba'al) means lord, master and even husband, and its feminine counterpart בעלה (ba'ala) means mistress or landlady.
God is obviously called 'lord' all over the Bible and the sin of the Baal priests (1 Kings 18:40) was not that they called upon some other deity but rather their incessant howling of the word 'lord' without any further responsibility or effects (see Matthew 7:21 and 11:4-5).
Our name is either a contracted version of the not occurring name בעלות, Baaloth, which is the plural of the feminine noun בעלה (ba'ala), meaning mistress. Or it is the same as that noun, but spelled in a form of Hebrew that is older than the Hebrew in which the Bible was written.
🔼Baalath meaning
For a meaning of the name Baalath, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads the singular Mistress, and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes the singular Lady. BDB Theological Dictionary does not translate this name but does list it under בעל. BDB also doesn't call this name a plural, as it does with Baaloth.