BEELSEPHON (Hebr. Ba'al Şêphôn). — A locality on the Isthmus of Suez near the Red Sea, not better identified, where the Hebrews encamped before their departure from Egypt (Ex. 14:2 and 9; Num. 33:7). The name derives from Ba'al (q.v.) and şâphôn ("north") = "Ba'al of the north," of which there was a sanctuary there.
This place of worship was due to Semites coming from the south: either Phoenician sailors, who may have sought from the god a favorable wind from the north, against the adverse one from the southwest (Marucchi), or other Semites who, coming from Sinai by the caravan route, finding at that point a fortified place dedicated to an Egyptian deity, named it after their own (Bourdon).