Wednesday, 19 November 2025

Mount Peor

The deity Baal was an ancient major god in the Fertile Crescent down to both sides of the Jordan River and Dead Sea: initially under the name Dumuzi, thereafter Hadad, Baal and, much later, Tammuz.[i]

Baal simply means Master or Lord (even in Hebrew), and, baal” also means husband (as in Hebrew).[ii]

And the deity Baal/Dumuzi/Hadad/Tammuz was a husband, married to the powerful goddess Inanna/Ishtar/Asherah/Astarte.

They were both fertility gods: he the god of rain; controlling agriculture and grass for herds[iii], and she the goddess of reproductive fertility in animals and humans.[iv]

So their marriage would be celebrated with a great, long festival at the start of Spring[v]: when plants begin to grow again and sheep[vi] and other animals give birth.

 

Baal Myth

According to the Baal Myth Cycle, soon after the marriage, Baal was swallowed by the open mouth of his arch rival, the deity Mot -- literally the god Death.

He was taken to the underworld of the living dead and there ate some of their mud food.

He was then rescued by his sister Anat and emerged from Mot's mouth -- with the agreement that he return to the underworld annually during the summer: due to having eaten the mud of the underworld.[vii] 

This explains why Baal, the rain god, only acts, i.e., rains, in the autumn through early spring in the Near East.


Baal Temple at Mount Peor

Now, Baal was worshipped far and wide.  Even in Carthage as “Baal Hammon”.[viii]

And when his worship and temple at a particular, special elevated site became renowned, the place name became hyphenated with the word Baal.[ix] 

For example, the UNESCO heritage site at Mt. Hermon, the highest mountain peak on the east Mediterranean, is known in the Bible as “Baal-Hermon”,[x] and    at Mount Sapon as “Baal-Zaphon”. [xi]


So why is the Baal worshipped here in Moab given an epithet?

The answer is fairly obvious.  Baal emerges from Mot's great mouth and returns to the netherworld through that same mouth.

In the land of the Moabites, 60 km south of modern Amman near the Dead Sea, is a volcanic formation called the Shihan Basalt Group[xii], including the extinct Shihan volcano. [xiii]

And on one side, the rock formation drops in the shape of a gigantic open mouth.[xiv] 

 

As Jastrow’s dictionary notes, the word Peor means to open or reveal.

Namely:

  פִּיעוּר, פִּעוּר  m. (פָּער) uncovering one’s self, obscene worship of the idol Peor. Snh. 106ᵃ; Yalk. Num. 771 פעור. V. פְּעִירָה.[xv]

 

And as Jastrow also points out, the name Baal Peor means:

  

                    בַּעַל פְּעוֹר(n-pr-m) x-pn

1.     Baal-peor = "lord of the gap"

2.     the deity worshipped at Peor with probable licentious rite[xvi]

 

I.e., Baal of the open mouth.   

This, I suggest, is the location which is referred to as Baal Peor in the account of Num. ch. 25: with its elevated volcano and huge side, mouth-like crater.

 A perfect setting, easily linked to the Baal -- Mot myth.

 A most holy and sacred site which would attract pagan worshippers en masse to its temple festivals.

Especially in the early spring, for a celebration of the marriage of Baal and his wife, Asherah.

 


[v] This is in line with the documented 12 days Spring New Years celebrations in Mesopotamia and Babylon.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagmuk and  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akitu

[x] https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6432/  BIbl;e citations: Judges 3.3, 1 Chronicles 5z: 23.

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