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BELIAL*, BELIAR*
Common Hebrew noun meaning “baseness,” “worthlessness,” “wickedness,” or “lawlessness.” Belial, however, is often rendered as a proper noun. Thus, such translations as “sons of Belial” appear (Jgs 19:22; 1 Sm 2:12, KJB), “daughter of Belial” (1 Sm 1:16), or “children of Belial” (Dt 13:13; Jgs 20:13). Newer translations generally prefer the common noun form and give such readings as “worthless rabble” or simply “worthless” and the like (Dt 13:13; Jgs 19:22; 20:13; 1 Sm 1:16; 2:12; 10:27; Prv 6:12). One possible exception to this rule is found in Nahum 1:15, which some scholars think should be rendered as “Belial,” a personalized designation of the Assyrian conqueror who had been a threat to the southern kingdom of Judah.
Intertestamental literature often used “Belial” as a proper noun and thus prepared the way for its NT usage. In the NT the term appears once as “Belial” (or Beliar in 2 Cor 6:15) and is identified with Satan, the personification of all that is evil. Noncanonical writings of the NT period commonly used it as a name for Satan or the Antichrist.