BAAL-BERITH, the god of the Shechemites. Bochart conjectures, that Berith is the same as Beroe, 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 Phœnicia, 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 Zoe opaios, and the Romans their Deus Fiducius, or Jupiter Pifius. The idolatrous Israelites, we are told, made Baal-berith their god, Judg. viii. 33.