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NAMES, it seems best at present to regard ‘Baal-zebub’ as a caconymic (‘lord of the fly/flies/) for
an original ‘Baal-zebul’…”

And again on page 639 “Aitken … suggested that Beelzebul as “lord of the heaven’ was IN
FACT A SKY GOD. Gaston…, who had the advantage of working with the new material from Ug-
arit as well as the four occurrences of zebul in the Dead Sea Scrolls…, arrived at a similar con-
clusion stressing that zebul can mean either ‘the temple’ or ‘heaven.” Gaston…further noted that
the chief rival of the Hellenistic period was the heavenly Baal (Gk Zeus Olumpios, Aram
b’lsmyn).’

Taking all of this into consideration, Baal-zebul would therefore mean “Lord of the Lofty
Abode,” which would take it right back to the temple of E-Saggil, signifying “the house of the
RAISING OF THE HEAD.

Getting back to “desolation,” Jeremiah speaks of this thing of “desolation” again in Chapter
50 --

The word which Jahwah spoke against Babel, the land of the Chaldeans (astrologers),
through the prophet Jeremiah:

Declare among the nations, make proclamation; keep nothing back, spread the news:

Babel shall be taken, Bel shall be put to shame, Marduk shall be broken. Her idols shall
be put to shame, her false gods shall be shattered.

Encyclopedia Biblica (1899 AD -- page 411 – Note 2) links Bel with the Tower of Ba-
bel: “In a Babylonian hymn, we find the god Bel identified with the ‘great mountain whose top
reaches heaven.’” (Page 412) “King Nebuchadnezzar restored ‘The Temple of the Seven Lights
of heaven and earth’ (i.e. Temple of Belus.)”

Scribner’s Dictionary of the Bible – 1900 AD (Volume 3) gives additional insight on the
god Marduk. (On page 552) “Nimrod is none other than the god Merodach.” Again on page 347,
“Merodach - A Babylonian-Assyrian deity is mentioned as a separate name but once in the Old
Testament in Jeremiah 50. The Babylonian pronunciation of the name was Mar-u-duk. On the side
of astronomy Maruduk is identified with Jupiter (same as Zeus) of the Romans. In later times
he…was the patron deity of the City of Babylon. In his inscriptions, Nebuchadnezzar speaks of
Marduk as ‘the great lord’ (Bel), ‘the exalted governor,’ ‘king of the heavens and the earth,’ ‘the
supreme god!’”

On page 552 under the subject of Nimrod, it continues: “Merodach was, first of all KING
OF BABYLON, and remained patron god of the city practically to the last. Merodach was re-
garded by the Babylonians…as a “Mighty Hunter”…!…he was regarded in later times in his na-
tive country as a great builder also!…(he was) looked upon by the Babylonians as the BUILDER
OF BABYLON, and the…Creation Story…attributes to him the completion of E-sagila, the great
temple-tower in that city, which was certainly a type of the tower of Babel, even if it were not that
erection itself.” There is no question that this “mighty hunter” and builder of Babylon is referring

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