Baʿal Berith () and El Berith () are titles of gods (or one god), worshiped in Shechem, in ancient Canaan, according to the Bible. The term for "covenant" () appears also in Ugaritic texts (second millennium BCE) as brt (), in connection with Baʿal, and perhaps as Beruth in Sanchuniathon's work. In the Bible Judges is the only Biblical book that mentions Baʿal Berith and El Berith. It is not clear whether they are actually one god, nor whether they are separate forms of Baʿal and El. Scholars suppose that he or they may have been worshipped for connections to fertility and vegetation, based on . Also unclear is what covenant or covenants are referred to by the name Berith. According to Yehezkel Kaufmann, "Baal-berith and El-berith of Judges 9:4,46 is presumably YHWH", as "ba'al was an epithet of YHWH in earlier times". Elsewhere, some of the Shechemites are called "men of Hamor"; this is compared to "sons of Hamor", which in the ancient Middle East referred to people who had entered into a covenant sealed by the sacrifice of a hamor, an ass. "Children of Hamor" or "sons of Hamor" itself appears in Genesis and Joshua, in both of which, as in Judges, Hamor is called the father of Shechem. Genesis also features a man named Hamor who ruled in the area of Shechem and had a son named Shechem. Proposed relation to Berouth In his euhemeristic account of the Phoenician deities, Sanchuniathon says that a certain Elioun, called also "the Most High", and a female named Berouth or Beruth dwelt in the neighbourhood of Byblos, on the coast of present-day Lebanon. They had two children—a male called Epigeius/Autochthon/Sky and a daughter called Earth. Because of the latter pair's beauty, the sky and the earth, respectively, were named after them. According to Sanchuniathon it is from Sky and Earth that El and various other deities are born, though ancient texts refer to El as creator of heaven and earth. A relationship with Hebrew bərīt ("covenant") or with the city name Beirut have both been suggested for Beruth. However, Robert R. Stieglitz showed how Berouth is best connected to bʾrôt, a name for the primordial sea, tehom. Rabbinic literature Rabbinic tradition equates Baʿal Berith with Beelzebub, "the lord of flies," the god of Philistine Ekron (). He was worshipped in the shape of a fly; and Jewish tradition states that