Beʹlial (Hebrew).

The worthless or lawlèss one, i.e. the devil. Milton, in his pandemonium, makes him a very high and distinguished prince of darkness. (Paradise Lost.)

“What concord hath Christ with Belial?”—2 Cor. vi. 15.

“Belial came last—than whom a spirit more lewd

Fell not from heaven, or more gross to love

Vice for itself.”

Milton: Paradise Lost, book i. 490–2.

Sons of Belial. Lawless, worthless, rebellious people. (See above.)

“Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial.”—1 Sam. ii. 12.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Beʹlial (Hebrew).

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