Baal, or Baʻal, is a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. It was applied to gods, particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad. The term is used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to various Levantine deities, often decried as false gods, and this usage was carried over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the form Beelzebub in demonology.