BEELSEPHON (Hebr. Ba'al Şéphôn). — A locality on the Isthmus of Suez toward the Red Sea, not more precisely identified, near which the Hebrews encamped before their departure from Egypt (Ex. 14:2 and 9; Num. 33:7). BA'ALBEK (v.) and şéphôn (“north”) = “Ba'al of the north,” where a sanctuary to him stood.
This place of worship was due to Semites coming from the south: either Phoenician seafarers who wished to beseech the god for a favorable wind from the north, against the adverse southwesterly wind (Marucchi), or other Semites who, coming from Sinai by the caravan route, found at that point a fortified place dedicated to an Egyptian divinity and named it after their own (Bourdon).