Yahweh was an ancient Levantine deity, and national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Though no consensus exists regarding the deity's origins, scholars generally contend that Yahweh emerged as a "divine warrior" associated first with Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman, and later with Canaan. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age, if not somewhat earlier.
Elohim, the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ, is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly the God of Israel in the majestic plural. In other verses it refers to the singular gods of other nations or to deities in the plural.
Nisroch was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a god of Assyria in whose temple King Sennacherib was worshiping when he was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer.
Baal-Gad was a Canaanite town at the foot of Mount Hermon. It is mentioned in the Bible three times, all of them in the Book of Joshua. In all cases, it is described as the northernmost point of Joshua's conquests. The name may relate to Gad, a Semitic deity of fortune, but more likely simply refers to Baal with the epithet “of fortune”.
Anammelech, according to the Hebrew Bible, was a Syrian and Mesopotamian deity worshipped alongside Adrammelech. He is a lunar deity and is said to have been worshipped at Sepharvaim, an Assyrian town. Although some scholars have related him to the Mesopotamian god Anu based on the belief that his name means "Anu is king", more recent scholarship understands the initial element of the name represents the masculine counterpart of the goddess Anat, as attested in Amorite personal names.
Horonaim is a city in Moab, mentioned in two Hebrew Bible oracles against the nation of Moab: in the Book of Jeremiah, and in the Book of Isaiah,. In 2 Samuel, an addition from the Septuagint text is sometimes translated as Horonaim, although it possibly derives from as little as a preposition.
In ancient Canaanite religion, Ba'al Hermon was the titular local deity of Mount Hermon. The mountain was inhabited by the Hivites.
A god worshiped in pre-Islamic South Arabia. Salman may have been the same as a West Semitic god called Shalman/Shalaman, which some scholars believe survives as a theophoric element in the names Solomon and Shalmaneser. The deity is also attested in texts from Ugarit, Palmyra, Hatra, and North and South Arabia.
Teraphim is a word from the Hebrew Bible found only in the plural of uncertain etymology. Despite being plural, teraphim may refer to singular objects. Teraphim is explained in classical rabbinical literature as meaning "disgraceful things", but this is dismissed by modern etymologists. Many Bible translations into English translate it as idols or household god(s); its exact meaning is more specific than this but unknown precisely.
Baalath is the name of either one or two towns in the Hebrew Bible. Its name is the female form of Baal.
Shalim is a pagan god in Canaanite religion, mentioned in inscriptions found in Ugarit. William F. Albright identified Shalim as the god of the dusk and Shahar as the god of the dawn. In the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Venus is represented by Shalim as the Evening Star and Shahar as the Morning Star. His name derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root Š-L-M.
The Heavenly host refers to the stars of the sky or army of the heavens in the ancient near East.
In ancient Egyptian religion, a menat was a necklace closely associated with the goddess Hathor.
Gad was the name of the pan-Semitic god of fortune, usually depicted as a male but sometimes as a female, and is attested in ancient records of Aram and Arabia. Gad is also mentioned in the bible as a deity in the Book of Isaiah, as having been worshipped by a number of Hebrews during the Babylonian captivity. Gad apparently differed from the god of destiny, who was known as Meni. The root verb in Gad means cut or divide, and from this comes the idea of fate being meted out.
A biblical name, Baal-meon, meaning Lord of Dwelling, was the name of a town of Reuben, that some have identified as modern-day Ma`in in Jordan. It was allegedly the birthplace of the prophet Elisha. It appears in the stela of Mesha, king of Moab, who seized it in the 9th century.
Adon literally means "lord." Adon has an uncertain etymology, although it is generally believed to be derived from the Ugaritic ad, “father.”
The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (DDD) is an academic reference work edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter W. van der Horst which contains academic articles on the named gods, angels, and demons in the books of the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint and Apocrypha, as well as the New Testament and patristic literature. Its first edition (Brill) appeared in 1995 and was chosen by Choice magazine of the American Library Association as Best Reference Work of 1996. The second extensively revised edition appeared in 1999, under the auspices of the Faculty of Theology of Utrecht University. An electronic edition appeared in 2001. Advisors included Hans Dieter Betz, André Caquot (1923–2004), Jonas C. Greenfield (1926–1995), Erik Hornung Professor of Egyptology at Basel University, Michael E. Stone of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Manfred Weipert of the University of Heidelberg.
"I Am that I Am" is a common English translation of the Hebrew phrase אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה – also "I am who (I) am", "I will become what I choose to become", "I am what I am", "I will be what I will be", "I create what(ever) I create", or "I am the Existing One".
Ilib was an Ugaritic god most likely regarded as a primordial deity. As a generic term, the word ilib seemingly also referred to spirits of ancestors. The god and the concept were most likely connected with each other. Ilib's role has been compared to that played by deities such as Alalu in Hurrian religion or ancestors of Enlil, for example Enmesharra, in Mesopotamian religion. Offerings to him are mentioned in a number of Ugaritic texts.
Papyrus Amherst 63 is an ancient Egyptian papyrus from the third century BC containing Aramaic texts in demotic script. The 35 texts date to the eighth and seventh centuries BC. One of these, a version of Psalm 20, provides an "unprecedented" extrabiblical parallel to a text from the Hebrew Bible. It syncretizes abundantly, including the names Yaho and Bethel, and mentions a khnh, a word meaning priestess of Yaho.
