בְּלִיָּא, a Hebrew word which signifies a wicked worthless man, one who is resolved to endure no subjection. Thus the inhabitants of Gibeah, who abused the Levite's wife (Judges xix. 22.), have the name of Belial given them. Hophni and Phineas, the high priest Eli's sons, are likewise called sons of Belial (1 Sam. ii. 12.), upon account of the several crimes they had committed, and the unbecoming manner in which they behaved themselves in the temple of the Lord. Sometimes the name Belial is taken to denote the devil. Thus St Paul says (Cor. vi. 15.) "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" Whence it appears, that in his time the Jews, under the name of Belial, commonly understood the devil in the places where this term occurs in the Old Testament.