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Person · Ammon

Baalis

King living at the time of Divided Monarchy

Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, sent Ishmael to assassinate Gedaliah the governor.

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Baalis was the king of the Ammonites during the time of the Babylonian exile. He is mentioned in Jer.40.14 in connection with a plot to assassinate Gedaliah, the governor appointed by the Babylonians over the remnant of Judah. According to the text, Johanan warned Gedaliah that Baalis had sent a man named Ishmael to kill him. Gedaliah did not believe the warning and was subsequently murdered by Ishmael, causing the remaining Jews to flee to Egypt out of fear. This incident reveals that Baalis was opposed to the Babylonian-appointed governor and was willing to use violence to disrupt the fragile peace in Judah after the exile. The Ammonites, led by Baalis, were long-time enemies of Israel and may have seen Judah's weakened state as an opportunity to gain power in the region.

Bible dictionary

Baalis Easton Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897)

King of the Ammonites at the time of the Babylonian captivity (Jer. 40:14). He hired Ishmael to slay Gedaliah who had been appointed governor over the cities of Judah.

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Baalis Smith Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1863)

king of the Ammonites at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. (Jeremiah 40:14) (B.C. 588.)

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Baalis Hitchcock Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary (1869)

a rejoicing; a proud lord

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Baalis Hastings Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible (1898)

BA'ALIS (son of exaltation), a king of the Ammonites. Jer 40:14.

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Baalis Schaff Schaff’s Dictionary of the Bible

BA'ALIS (son of exaltation), a king of the Ammonites. Jer 40:14.

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Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.

Where Baalis appears

1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H1185

Jeremiah1

Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.