In the Hebrew Bible, the massebah is generally associated with Canaanite religion.

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.