Also 4 Belsebub, 4–6 Belsabub, -bbe, 1–9 Belzebub. [a. L. Beëlzebūb, used in the Vulgate to render both the Gr. βεελζεβούβ of the received text of the N. T. (for which early MSS. have βεελζεβούλ), and the Heb. basal-z’būb ‘fly-lord,’ mentioned in 2 Kings i. 2, as ‘the god of Ekron,’ which Aquila had also reproduced in Gr. as βεελζεβούβ, though the LXX rendered it βάαλ μυῑαν. The relation between the Heb. and Gr. words is not settled. The earlier Eng. translations, and the Douay, followed the Vulgate in identifying them in form, but the Geneva Bible of 1560, followed by the ‘Authorized’ of 1611, represent the O. T. word more exactly as Baal-zebub. From the N. T. designation of Beelzebub as ‘prince of demons,’ the word became at an early period one of the popular names of the Devil. Milton used it as the name of one of the fallen angels.] The Devil; a devil; also transf.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xii. 24. In Belzebub ðone aldormenn diobla.
c. 975. Rushw. G., ibid. Belzebub þæt is aldor deofla.
c. 1000. Ags. G., ibid. Þurh Belzebub deofla ealdre.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 55. Loke weo us wið him misdon þurh beelzebubes swikedom.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. II. 130. A bastarde y-bore Of Belsabubbes kynne.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 51. Ye be a baby of Belsabubs bowre.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 291. He holds Belzebub at the staues end as well as a man in his case may do.
1759. Law, Lett. Import. Subj., 193. To crucify the Christ of God, as a beelzebub and blasphemer.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), I. 124. This fly is truly a beelzebub and perhaps … the prototype of the Philistine idol worshipped under that name and in the form of a fly.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. xiii. His old troopers, the Satans and Beelzebubs who had shared his crimes (i. e. of Claverhouse).
