" Etymologically this
derivation is extremely far-fetched, and from every point of
view impossible: the name of a god is only assumed by those who
are his worshippers. In Hebrew antiquity Baal and El are
interchangeable and used indifferently; Jehovah Himself is spoken
of up to the times of the prophet Hosea as the Baal, i.e., the
lord. This is distinctly proved by a series of proper names in
the families of Saul and David, Ishbaal, Meribaal, Baaljada, to
which we may now add the name Jerubbaal given to the conqueror of
Midian. If then even in the time of the kings Baal was by no means
simply the antipode of Jehovah, whence the hostile relation of the
two deities, which Jerubbaal displays by the acts he does, although
he praises the great Baal by wearing his name? The view, also,
that the Ashera was incompatible with the worship of Jehovah,
does not agree with the belief of the earlier age; according to
Deuteronomy xvi. 21, these artificial trees must have stood often
enough beside the altars of Jehovah. The inserted passage itself
betrays in a remarkable manner that its writer felt this sort of
zeal for the legitimate worship to be above the level of the age
in question.
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