Reference: Moloch
Easton
king, the name of the national god of the Ammonites, to whom children were sacrificed by fire. He was the consuming and destroying and also at the same time the purifying fire. In Am 5:26, "your Moloch" of the Authorized Version is "your king" in the Revised Version (comp. Ac 7:43). Solomon (1Ki 11:7) erected a high place for this idol on the Mount of Olives, and from that time till the days of Josiah his worship continued (2Ki 23:10,13). In the days of Jehoahaz it was partially restored, but after the Captivity wholly disappeared. He is also called Molech (Le 18:21; 20:2-5, etc.), Milcom (1Ki 11:5,33, etc.), and Malcham (Zep 1:5). This god became Chemosh among the Moabites.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
"You are not to make any of your children pass through [the fire] to Molech. Do not profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.
"Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the country are to stone him. I will turn against that man and cut him off from his people, because he gave his offspring to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name. read more. But if the people of the country look the other way when that man gives any of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will turn against that man and his family, and cut off from their people both him and all who follow him, prostituting themselves with Molech.
Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites on the hill across from Jerusalem.
For they have abandoned Me; they have bowed the knee to Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways to do right in My eyes and to carry out My statutes and My judgments as his father David did.
He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.
The king also defiled the high places that were across from Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the detestable idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
But you have taken up Sakkuthyour king and Kaiwanyour star god, images you have made for yourselves.
those who bow in worship on the rooftops to the heavenly host; those who bow and pledge loyalty to the Lord but also pledge loyalty to Milcom;
No, you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship. So I will deport you beyond Babylon!
Fausets
(Jer 49:1 MOLOCH or melech, "king" of the people. Malcham, Am 5:26, Milcom, 1Ki 11:5,7, though originally the same as Moloch, assumed a modified character in time.) (See MALCHAM; MILCOM.) Ammon's god, related to Moab's god Chemosh. The "fire god", worshipped with human sacrifices, purifications, and ordeals by fire, habitually, as other idols were occasionally; also with mutilation, vows of celibacy and virginity, and devotion of the firstborn. The old Canaanite "Moloch" is always written with the article the Moloch; to him children were sacrificed in Topher in the valley of the children of Hinnom. But Milcom's high place was on the Mount of Olives, and human sacrifices were not offered as they were to Moloch (2Ki 23:10,13.) Josiah defiled the sanctuaries of both. Milcom was related to Chemosh, which is called the god of Ammon in Jg 11:24, though elsewhere the god of Moab (Nu 21:29).
Tophet appears again in Zedekiah's reign as the scene of child immolation to Moloch (Jer 32:35.) God sternly forbade any letting their seed pass through the fire to Moloch (Le 18:21; 20:2-5) on pain of death, which the people should execute; otherwise God Himself would. The passing through the fire may have been sometimes only a fire baptism for purification of the dross of the body; but Ps 106:37-38, shows that often expiatory human sacrifice was perpetrated, "they sacrificed their sons and daughters to "devils" (shedim, "destroyers", as Moloch was), and shed innocent blood ... unto the idols of Canaan" (compare 2Ch 28:3; Jer 19:5). In this respect Moloch answered to Baal the Phoenician sun god, to whom also human burnt offerings were sacrificed; also to Chemosh, to whom Mesha sacrificed his son (2Ki 3:27; Mic 6:7; Eze 16:20; 23:39). Kimchi (on 2Ki 23:10) represents Moloch as a hollow brass humanlike body, with ox's head, and hands stretched forth to receive.
When it was thoroughly heated the priests put the babe into its hands, while "drums" (tophim from whence came Tophet) were beat to drown the infant cries, lest the parent should relent. The image was set within seven chapels: the first was opened to any one offering fine flour; the second to one offering turtle doves or young pigeons; the third to one offering a lamb; the fourth to one offering a ram; the fifth to one offering a calf; the sixth to one offering an ox; the seventh to one offering his son. Compare Am 5:26 margin, sikut of Moloch, "the covert god." Ac 7:43, "the tabernacle of Moloch" (like the sacred tent of the Carthaginians: Diodorus 20:65), the shrine in which the image was concealed; containing also possibly the bones of sacrificed children used for magic. The portable model "tabernacle" (compare Demetrius' silver shrines of Diana, Ac 19:24) was small enough to escape Moses' notice. Amos calls Moloch "your Moloch" I am not your king but he, though ye go through the form of presenting Me offerings.
God similarly complains of their mocking Him with worship, while worshipping idols, Eze 20:49. Moses was aware of their clandestine unfaithfulness in general, while not knowing the particulars (De 31:21-27). The Latin Saturn corresponds; to the Phoenician Saturn relatives were offered in an emergency (Sanchoniathon). So the Carthaginians, when besieged by Agathoeles, sacrificed to him 200 noble children (Diod. Siculus, 20:14) by placing them one by one in his hands in such a manner that each fell into a pit of fire. Moloch's priests took precedence of the princes, "Chemarim" (Jer 49:3; 2Ki 23:5; Ho 10:5; Zep 1:4).(See CHEMARIM.) Hercules' priest, like Moloch himself, was called Melchart, "king of the city." Adrammelech, the Sepharvaite fire god, is related to Moloch. In 2Sa 12:31 for the Hebrew margin reading malbeen, "brick-kiln," the Hebrew text has Malkeen, "David led through Malkan," i.e. through the place where the Ammonites had burned their children to Moloch. He made their sin their mode of punishment; as they had done to the children, so he did to them.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
"You are not to make any of your children pass through [the fire] to Molech. Do not profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.
"Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the country are to stone him. I will turn against that man and cut him off from his people, because he gave his offspring to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name. read more. But if the people of the country look the other way when that man gives any of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will turn against that man and his family, and cut off from their people both him and all who follow him, prostituting themselves with Molech.
Woe to you, Moab! You have been destroyed, people of Chemosh! He gave up his sons as refugees, and his daughters into captivity to Sihon the Amorite king.
And when many troubles and afflictions come to them, this song will testify against them, because their descendants will not have forgotten it. For I know what they are prone to do, even before I bring them into the land I swore [to give them]." So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites. read more. The Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun, "Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I swore to them, and I will be with you." When Moses had finished writing down on a scroll every single word of this law, he commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord's covenant, "Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the Lord now, while I am still alive, how much more [will you rebel] after I am dead!
Isn't it true that you may possess whatever your god Chemosh drives out for you, and we may possess everything the Lord our God drives out before us?
He removed the people who were in the city and put [them to work] with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, and to labor at brickmaking. He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then he and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.
Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites on the hill across from Jerusalem.
So he took his firstborn son, who was to become king in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the city wall. Great wrath was on the Israelites, and they withdrew from him and returned to their land.
He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.
He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.
The king also defiled the high places that were across from Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the detestable idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
He burned incense in the Valley of Hinnom and burned his children in the fire, imitating the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.
They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood- the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; so the land became polluted with blood.
They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.
They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through [the fire] to Molech-something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!
About the Ammonites, this is what the Lord says: Does Israel have no sons? Is he without an heir? Why then has Milcomdispossessed Gad and his people settled in their cities?
Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated; cry out, daughters of Rabbah! Clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and lament; run back and forth within your walls, because Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials.
"You even took your sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them to these images as food. Wasn't your prostitution enough?
Then I said, "Ah, Lord God , they are saying of me: Isn't he [just] posing riddles?"
On the same day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary to profane it. Yes, that is what they did inside My house.
The residents of Samaria will have anxiety over the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its idolatrous priests rejoiced over it; the people will mourn over it, over its glory. It will certainly depart from them.
But you have taken up Sakkuthyour king and Kaiwanyour star god, images you have made for yourselves.
But you have taken up Sakkuthyour king and Kaiwanyour star god, images you have made for yourselves.
Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the child of my body for my own sin?
I will stretch out My hand against Judah and against all the residents of Jerusalem. I will cut off from this place every vestige of Baal, the names of the pagan priests along with the priests;
No, you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship. So I will deport you beyond Babylon!
For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen.
Hastings
Morish
Mo'loch
See MOLECH
Smith
Mo'loch.
The same as Molech. MOLECH
See Molech
Watsons
MOLOCH, ????, signifies king. Moloch, Molech, Milcom, or Melchom, was a god of the Ammonites. The word Moloch signifies "king," and Melchom signifies "their king." Moses in several places forbids the Israelites, under the penalty of death, to dedicate their children to Moloch, by making them pass through the fire in honour of that god, Le 18:21; 20:2-5. God himself threatens to pour out his wrath against such offenders. There is great probability that the Hebrews were addicted to the worship of this deity, even before their coming out of Egypt; since the Prophet Am 5:26, and after him St. Stephen, reproach them with having carried in the wilderness the tabernacle of their god Moloch, Ac 7:43. Solomon built a temple to Moloch upon the Mount of Olives, 1Ki 11:7; and Manasseh a long time after imitated his impiety, making his son pass through the fire in honour of Moloch, 2Ki 21:3-6. It was chiefly in the valley of Tophet and Hinnom, east of Jerusalem, that this idolatrous worship was paid, Jer 19:5-6, &c. Some are of opinion that they contented themselves with making their children leap over a fire sacred to Moloch, by which they consecrated them to some false deity: and by this lustration purified them; this being a usual ceremony among the Heathens on other occasions. Some believe that they made them pass through two fires opposite to each other, for the same purpose. But the word ?????, "to cause to pass through," and the, phrase "to cause to pass through the fire," are used in respect to human sacrifices in De 12:31; 18:10; 2Ki 16:3; 21:6; 2Ch 28:3; 33:6. These words are not to be considered as meaning in these instances literally to pass through, and that alone. They are rather synonymous with ????, to burn, and ???, to immolate, with which they are interchanged, as may be seen by an examination of Jer 7:31; 19:5; Eze 16:20-21; Ps 106:38. In the later periods of the Jewish kingdom, this idol was erected in the valley south of Jerusalem, namely, in the valley of Hinnom, and in the part of that valley called Tophet, ???, so named from the drums ???? ???, which were beaten to prevent the groans and cries of children sacrificed from being heard, Jer 7:31-32; 19:6-14; Isa 30:33; 2Ki 23:10. The place was so abhorrent to the minds of the more recent Jews, that they applied the name ge hinnom or gehenna to the place of torments in a future life. The word gehenna is used in this way, namely, for the place of punishment beyond the grave, very frequently in oriental writers, as far as India. There are various sentiments about the relation that Moloch had to the other Pagan divinities. Some believe that Moloch was the same as Saturn, to whom it is well known that human sacrifices were offered; others think it was the same with Mercury; others, Venus; others, Mars, or Mithra. Calmet has endeavoured to prove that Moloch signified the sun, or the king of heaven.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
"You are not to make any of your children pass through [the fire] to Molech. Do not profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.
"Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the country are to stone him. I will turn against that man and cut him off from his people, because he gave his offspring to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name. read more. But if the people of the country look the other way when that man gives any of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will turn against that man and his family, and cut off from their people both him and all who follow him, prostituting themselves with Molech.
You must not do the same to the Lord your God, because they practice for their gods every detestable thing the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
No one among you is to make his son or daughter pass through the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery,
At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites on the hill across from Jerusalem.
He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also worshiped the whole heavenly host and served them. He would build altars in the Lord's temple, where the Lord had said, "Jerusalem is where I will put My name." read more. He built altars to the whole heavenly host in both courtyards of the Lord's temple. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a great amount of evil in the Lord's sight, provoking [Him].
They shed innocent blood- the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; so the land became polluted with blood.
Indeed! Topheth has been ready for the king for a long time now. His funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, kindles it.
They have built the high places of Tophethin the Valley of Hinnomin order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.
They have built the high places of Tophethin the Valley of Hinnomin order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought. "Therefore, take note! Days are coming"-the Lord's declaration-"when [this place] will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a cemetery, because there will be no other burial place.
They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.
They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought. "Therefore, take note! The days are coming"-[this is] the Lord's declaration-"when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
"Therefore, take note! The days are coming"-[this is] the Lord's declaration-"when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who want to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land. read more. I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and scoff because of all its wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other's flesh in the siege and distress that their enemies, those who want to take their life, inflict on them. "Then you are to shatter the jug in the presence of the people traveling with you, and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter's jar that can never again be mended. They will bury in Topheth until there is no place left to bury. I will do so to this place"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord-"and to its residents, making this city like Topheth. The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth-all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to the whole heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods." Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the Lord's temple, and proclaimed to all the people,
"You even took your sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them to these images as food. Wasn't your prostitution enough? You slaughtered My children and gave them up when you passed them through [the fire] to the images.
But you have taken up Sakkuthyour king and Kaiwanyour star god, images you have made for yourselves.
No, you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship. So I will deport you beyond Babylon!