Baali

Ba'ali (Hebrews Badli', בִּעֲלַי, my lord, Sept. Βααλείμ), a colder and more distant title for husband, which the prophet reproaches the Jewish Church for hitherto applying to Jehovah, instead of the more endearing term Ishi (my man, i.e. husband), which he predicts she would be emboldened to employ when freed from her idolatries (Ho 2:16). Some have supposed from this that the Jews had even borrowed the term Baal from the surrounding nations as expressive of sovereign deity, and so applied it to Jehovah; but this is not likely. SEE BAAL.