duringIron Age IIA, the 10th–9th centuries BCE, Gath in the Elah Valley becamethe dominant Philistine center and the biblical tradition recounting theborder disputes between the Philistines and the Israelites accordingly shiftsfrom the Sorek Valley to the Elah Valley.

Baal was also worshipped by the Canaanites and became the bugbear of the Yahweh followers, though early Israelites were clearly not the diehard monotheists that modern Jews tend to assume. They apparently adored quite the pantheon, including Baal. But Baal was especially irksome, it seems; his name appears dozens of times in the Bible, never in a good way; to this day, Israel has cities named after the god.