Baal-zephon
Epithet of the storm god Ba'al
Baʽal Zephon (Hebrew: בעל צפון, romanized: Baʿal Ṣəp̄on, lit. 'Lord of Ṣafon'; Akkadian: Bēl Ḫazi (dIM ḪUR.SAG); Ugaritic: 𐎁𐎓𐎍 𐎕𐎔𐎐, romanized: Baʿlu Ṣapuni; Hurrian: Tešub Ḫalbağe; Ancient Egyptian: 𓃁𓏮𓂋𓏤𓃫𓍑𓄿𓊪𓏲𓈖𓄿𓌙𓈉, romanized: bꜥr ḏꜣpwnꜣ), also transliterated as Baal-zephon, was an epithet of the Canaanite storm god Baʿal (lit. "Lord") in his role as lord of Jebel Aqra, called "Mount Zaphon" in antiquity. He is identified in Ugaritic texts as Hadad.
Because of the mountain's importance in the Biblical narrative and location, Zephon (Hebrew: צפון, romanized: ṣap̄on) came to metonymously signify "north" in Hebrew. The name is, therefore, sometimes given in translation as Lord of the North.
Baʿal Zephon was equated with the Greek god Zeus Kasios and later with the Roman Jupiter Casius.
Because Baʿal Zephon was considered a protector of maritime trade, sanctuaries were constructed in his honor around the Mediterranean Sea by his Canaanite and Phoenician devotees. "Baal-zephon" thereby became a placename—most notably mentioned in the Book of Exodus as the location where the miraculous Passage of the Red Sea happened during the Exodus.
God
The name Baʿal Zaphon never appears in the mythological texts discovered at Ugarit. Instead, it occurs in guides to ritual and in letters, where it is used to differentiate this form of Baʿal from others such as Baʿal Ugarit.
“Baal-zephon” enters the record as epithet of the storm god Ba'al. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Baal-zephon, Epithet and storm can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4837129. VIAF identifies the subject as 13154327861326850595. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baal-zephon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.