Melqart A Phoenician deity and chief city god of Tyre, who by the second century bc was identified with the Greek/Roman Heracles/Hercules (Portier-Young, Apocalypse, 119). Melqart is a Phoenician translation of the Sumerian name Nergal, god of the underworld (COS 1:384).

Some scholars suggest Melqart is a manifestation of Baal, a “Baal-Melqart” introduced by the Phoenician Jezebel (Cundall and Morris, Judges and Ruth, 63; 1 Kgs 16:31–32; 18:17–19). Others identify the god of Ahab and Jezebel as Baal Shamem (Smith, Early History, 71) or a more local manifestation, a “Baal of Samaria” (Monson, “1 Kings,” 71). It is possible that Melqart is the “king of Tyre” against whom Ezekiel speaks (Ezek 28:1–19; compare Ezek 26:11).

On the Melqart Stele—found north of Aleppo, Syria in the ninth/eighth century bc—is an inscription in which Bar-Hadad (or Bir-Hadad), a king of Aram, honors a vow made to Melqart upon receiving Melqart’s help (Sparks, Ancient Texts, 469). However, current research suggests it is unlikely that this inscription refers to one of the biblical kings named “Ben-Hadad” (1 Kgs 15:16–22; 1 Kgs 20:1–34; 2 Kgs 8:7–15; 13:3, 24–25; 2 Chr 16:1–6; for further discussion, see this article: Ben-Hadad, son of Tabrimmon).