2 Corinthians 6:15

Belial This word, derived from two Hebrew ones signifying -of no profit," was used in the O.T. (e.g. Deuteronomy 13:13; 1 Samuel 2:12) in the phrase -child," -son" or -daughter of Belial," to signify a worthless person, and generally (as in Deuteronomy 15:9, in the Hebrew) as a substantive signifying worthlessness. It seems to have been personified among the later Jews (some such personification seems clearly indicated by the language of the Apostle), and to have become a synonym for Satan. Similarly we find the idea of Belial presented in Judges 19:22 personified by Milton in Paradise Lost, Book I. 490. But we must guard against importing the imaginations of the poet into the interpretation of the Scriptures.