BAAL-BERITH, the god of the Shechemites. Bochart conjectures, that Berith is the same as Berit, the daughter of Venus and Adonis, who was given in marriage to Bacchus; and that she gave her name to the city of Berith in Phoenicia, and became afterwards the goddess of it. Baal-berith signifies Lord of the covenant, and may be taken for the god who presides over alliances and oaths, in like manner as the Greeks had their Zeus-genee, and the Romans their Deus Fidius, or Jupiter Pifius. The idolatrous Israelites, we are told, made Baal-berith their god, Judg. viii. 33.