And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again,.... from God, and the pure worship of him, to idolatry:and went a whoring after Baalim; the gods of the Phoenicians and Canaanites, the several Baals of other nations, the lords many which they served; these they committed spiritual whoredom with; that is, idolatry: particularlyand made Baalberith their god; which was the idol of the Shechemites, as appears from a temple being built at Shechem for it, Jud 9:4 and had its name either from Berytus, a city of Phoenicia, of which Mela and Pliny make mention, and where this Baal might be first worshipped; it was fifty miles from Sidon, and was in later times a seat of learning ; of this city was Sanchoniatho, a Phoenician historian, who is said to receive many things he writes about the Jews from Jerombalus, supposed to be Jerubbaal, or Gideon;See Gill on "Jud 6:32" and who tells us, that Cronus or Ham gave this city to Neptune and the Cabiri, and who also relates that Beruth is the name of a Phoenician deity.
Though it may be rather this idol had its name from its supposed concern in covenants, the word "Berith" signifying a covenant; and so the Targum and Syriac version call him the lord of covenant; and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions are,"and they made a covenant with Baal, that he should be their god;''as if he had his name from hence; though rather from his presiding over covenants, as Janus is said to do, and from his avenging the breach of them, and rewarding those that kept them; the same with Jupiter Fidius Ultor, and Sponsor with the Romans, and Horcius with the Greeks.
De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 12. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 20. Eunapius in Vita Proaeresii, p. 117. Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 1. p. 38. Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 1. p. 36. Servius in Virgil. Aeneid.
l. 12. "Latonaeque genus", &c. Vid. Liv. Hist. l. 8. c. 5, 6. Vid. Kipping. Antiqu. Roman. l. 1. c. 1. p. 48. Pausan. Eliac. 1. sive. l. 5. p. 336.