Belial belongs to the oldest and linguistically most productive figures in Jewish and Christian demonology. Unlike Bael or Paimon, whose lineage traces back through Phoenician and Oriental gods, Belial is rooted in Hebrew usage and in early Jewish apocalypticism.
From a moral abstract term, a named cosmic adversary emerged through the Qumran writings. In the Goetia he stands as the sixty-eighth spirit and is regarded as a king commanding eighty legions.
Among the figures of Jewish and Christian demonology, Belial is one of the oldest and most productive in linguistic terms. His roots lie in Hebrew usage and early Jewish apocalypticism, not in Phoenician or Oriental gods like Bael or Paimon.
The Qumran writings turned a moral abstract term into a named cosmic adversary. The Goetia lists him as the sixty-eighth spirit, a king commanding eighty legions.
Type: Demon, king-spirit of the Ars Goetia
Origin: Hebrew Bible, early Jewish apocalypticism
Rank: King, 68th spirit of the Goetia, command over 80 legions
Sources: Qumran writings, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Lemegeton
Related: Lucifer, Samael, Azazel, Mastema
The Belial tradition spans more than two millennia. In the Hebrew Bible, the word appears as a common noun without a personal form. The specifically demonological figure becomes tangible in the Qumran writings of the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE.
A literary resurgence follows in the late Middle Ages with the Liber Belial of around 1382, and the magical-occult elaboration finally appears in the Lemegeton of the 17th century.
The original sphere is ancient Israel and early Judaism in Palestine, attested above all in the texts of the Qumran community by the Dead Sea.
Through the New Testament, the name entered the Greek-speaking Christian world. In Latin-speaking Central Europe, Belial spread through early printing, and in the early modern period through the grimoires into present-day Western esotericism.
The most important group of sources is the Qumran writings, notably the War Scroll (1QM), the Community Rule (1QS), and the Hodayot. Additionally, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs and a single New Testament passage (2 Cor 6:15) are relevant.
For the later tradition, the Liber Belial by Jacobus de Theramo and the Lemegeton are authoritative. Academic research addresses Belial primarily in the context of Qumran studies and the Liber Belial tradition.
The name is linguistically disputed. The most widespread explanation divides the Hebrew beliyya’al (בְּלִיַּעַל) into the negation beli (without, not) and a second element. If this element is understood as ya’al in the sense of benefit, the meaning becomes without benefit or worthlessness.
Another reading connects the second component to the root for ascending and arrives at one who does not ascend, which has been interpreted as a designation for the underworld. The Septuagint frequently translates belial as paranomos (lawless) or asebes (godless).
In the New Testament the name appears in the form Beliar, with r instead of l. This phonetic variant is well attested and occurs in other early Jewish and early Christian texts as well.
In the Hebrew Bible the phrase bene beli’al, sons of Belial, designates violent, lawless men (Judg 19:22; 1 Sam 10:27), with no reference to any particular demon.
In early Judaism, Belial is not a being with a fixed physical form but a personal power conceived as the leader of darkness.
In the War Scroll he stands at the head of the enemy army; the Community Rule describes a limited reign of Belial in which darkness exercises power over the world and over the hearts of people. The Hodayot speak of the ropes and snares of Belial from which God rescues those who pray.
It is the Goetia that first assigns him a fixed visual form. There Belial appears as a king-spirit of particular prominence, described in the text as created immediately after Lucifer, placing him among the fallen angelic world.
The iconography shows two radiant angels on a fiery chariot, a visual form that echoes Ezekiel’s vision of the divine throne-chariot (Ezek 1) and connects Belial to the higher angelic orders.
In literary reception, Belial is frequently portrayed as the embodiment of deception and eloquent words without substance. John Milton’s Paradise Lost makes him one of the most eloquent fallen angels in the council of Hell, an elegant speaker who remains hesitant in action.
This portrayal has no historical basis but draws on the old Qumranic conception of Belial as the anti-prince of truth.
The following fields summarize the Goetia tradition on Belial and its roots in the history of religions.
Belial is rooted in Hebrew usage, where beliyya’al was initially a moral abstraction meaning destruction or wickedness. The figure became a personal power only in early Jewish apocalypticism, particularly in the Qumran writings. The Goetia describes him as created immediately after Lucifer, placing him within the world of fallen angels.
In the Goetia, Belial is a king-spirit commanding eighty legions and stands as the sixty-eighth spirit in the register. According to the Lemegeton he bestows dignities, senatorial ranks, and tokens of favour, and sends truthful answers to questions.
In the Qumran tradition his function is different: there he leads the sons of darkness as the adversary of the prince of light.
The Goetia does not describe Belial in animal form but as two radiant angels on a fiery chariot. This visual form draws on Ezekiel’s vision of the divine throne-chariot and emphasizes his proximity to the higher angelic orders. In the Qumran texts he remains without any description of form, a pure power figure of darkness.
A distinctive feature of the Goetia presentation is the requirement for offerings. Without an appropriate gesture, the text states, Belial will give no truthful information. This conditioning of magical practice is articulated particularly clearly for Belial in the Lemegeton and sets him apart from spirits who answer without preconditions.
The Belial sigil of the Goetia displays a geometrically complex pattern of lines and circles. Astrologically, Belial is associated with Aquarius; his element is Earth and his planet Saturn. In the Hermetic Renaissance he was assigned to one of the four infernal princes of the Earth region and linked to the inertia of matter.
In early Judaism, Belial stands alongside further names for the anti-divine power, including Satan, Mastema, Azazel, and Sammael. These names do not consistently designate the same clearly defined person but overlap depending on the text. In the Goetia, Lucifer is ranked immediately above him; the later kabbalistic interpretation connects him to Samael.
In Christianity, Belial largely merged with the figure of the devil but retained enough individual profile to survive as a distinct name in certain textual genres. Early Christian writings such as the Ascension of Isaiah use Beliar as a designation for the anti-divine power, sometimes with eschatological and antichristian traits.
A remarkable later career was made by Belial in the late Middle Ages through the Liber Belial, a Latin legal treatise by Jacobus de Theramo from the late 14th century.
In it, Belial sues Christ in the name of Hell for having seized souls during his descent into the underworld. Moses and Solomon appear as counsel. The work became one of the earliest printed books in German.
In early modern demonology, the grimoires classified Belial among the hierarchies of infernal princes. The Pseudomonarchia Daemonum by Johann Weyer and the Ars Goetia list him as a powerful king with a fixed number of spirit legions under his command.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa names him in De occulta philosophia (1533) as responsible for false idolatry and diabolical disputes. These systematizations are scholarly constructions of the early modern period, not continuations of the ancient tradition, yet they have shaped the modern image of Belial.
The Crowley-Mathers edition of the Goetia (1904) popularized him in contemporary esotericism, and the Joseph Peterson edition (2001) made him philologically accessible. Crowley interprets Belial as personified resistance to the will, a psychological reading taken up in modern chaos magic.
Religious studies research regards this as a modern self-interpretation with little connection to the Jewish-Christian Belial tradition. Those who encounter Belial today mostly meet this late, literarily refined figure rather than the Belial of the Qumran texts.
The figure of Belial is embedded in a network of religious-historical connections. In Persian Zoroastrianism, Aeshma Daeva, the spirit of wrath who obscures truth, fulfils a structurally similar function.
The Mesopotamian Lamashtu tradition knows beings that break promises through seductive eloquence. In the Hindu context, the Asura Vritra corresponds to the Belial topos by blocking the flow of life through deceptive promises.
These parallels are not causal chains, but they reveal a recurring pattern in the phenomenology of religion: resistance to the sacred as seductive verbal power rather than brute terror. Within Jewish mysticism itself, the figure transforms once more.
Lurianic Kabbalah assigns Belial to the realm of Sitra Achra, the other side, and understands him as a structural force in the cosmic drama of restoring the shattered vessels of light. The Hasidic tradition ultimately interprets Belial-like forces primarily as inner obstacles on the spiritual path.
The protective practice described here represents a religious-studies classification of historical traditions. iWell Guard draws on this cultural-historical lineage of wearable protective objects and represents a contemporary form of it. More about the iWell Guard →
Belial belongs to the oldest figures in Jewish and Christian demonology and is rooted in Hebrew usage as well as in early Jewish apocalypticism. From a moral abstract term, a named cosmic adversary emerged through the Qumran writings, where he leads the sons of darkness. In the Goetia, Belial stands as the sixty-eighth spirit and is regarded as a king commanding eighty legions.
The name is linguistically disputed. The most widespread explanation divides the Hebrew beliyya'al into the negation beli and a second element, understood as benefit, yielding the meaning without benefit or worthlessness. Another reading connects the second component to the root for ascending, which has been interpreted as a designation for the underworld. In the New Testament the name appears in the form Beliar, with r instead of l.
The Goetia is the first to assign Belial a fixed visual form. It describes him not in animal shape but as two radiant angels on a fiery chariot, a visual form that echoes Ezekiel’s vision of the divine throne-chariot and connects him to the higher angelic orders. The text describes Belial as created immediately after Lucifer. A distinctive feature is the requirement for offerings, without which he will give no truthful information according to the text.
The most important group of sources is the Qumran writings, notably the War Scroll, the Community Rule, and the Hodayot. Additionally, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs and a single New Testament passage in 2 Cor 6:15 are relevant. For the later tradition, the Liber Belial by Jacobus de Theramo from the late 14th century and the Lemegeton of the 17th century are authoritative. Academic research addresses Belial primarily in the context of Qumran studies and the Liber Belial tradition.
Against its influence, cross-cultural tradition names these protective means:
Recommended protective means
The simplest protective means in this collection: 41 layers of fine gold 999, platinum, silver and silicon, manufactured in Ruhla, Thuringia. It requires no activation, is bound to no person, and is effective within a radius of around 50 meters, even without being worn.
Ishum, the fire god and night watchman of Mesopotamia. Origin, the torch, his moderating role in ...
Sasabonsam, the hairy forest fiend of the Akan in Ghana. Origin, the iron teeth and hooked feet, ...
Dakuwaqa, the shark god and sea guardian of Fiji. Origin, the battle with the octopus and protect...
The Nixe in German folk belief: origin, legendary motifs such as the wet hem, and traditional pro...
La Sayona, the avenging female spirit of Venezuela. Origin, the dying mother's curse, the punishm...
The Gwyllion, the eerie female mountain spirits of Wales. Origin, warding off with iron and their...
