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
And thou shall not give any of thy seed to make them pass through [the fire] to Molech, neither shall thou profane the name of thy God. I am LORD.
Moreover, thou shall say to the sons of Israel, Whoever he is of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who gives of his seed to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone h I also will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. read more. And if the people at the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all who play the harlot after him, to play the harlot with Molech, from among their people.
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab on the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon. And they have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
And the king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh th
Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god {Remphan (LXX/NT)}, your images which ye made to yourselves.
and those who worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and those who worship, who swear to LORD and swear by Malcam,
And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, the images that ye made to worship them. And 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
And thou shall not give any of thy seed to make them pass through [the fire] to Molech, neither shall thou profane the name of thy God. I am LORD.
Moreover, thou shall say to the sons of Israel, Whoever he is of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who gives of his seed to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone h I also will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. read more. And if the people at the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all who play the harlot after him, to play the harlot with Molech, from among their people.
Woe to thee, Moab! Thou are undone, O people of Chemosh. He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to Sihon king of the Amorites.
And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness, for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. For I know their imagination which t So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the sons of Israel. read more. And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a command, and said, Be strong and of good courage, for thou shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with thee. And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of LORD, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against LORD, and how much more after my death?
Will thou not possess that which Chemosh thy god gives thee to possess? So whomever LORD our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.
And he brought forth the people that were in it, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln. And thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. And Dav
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab on the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
Then he took his eldest son who should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
And the king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh th
Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom LORD cast out before the sons of Israel.
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood.
and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither did it come into my mind.
And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind, that th
Concerning the sons of Ammon. Thus says LORD: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people dwell in the cities thereof?
Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste. Cry, ye daughters of Rabbah. Gird you with sackcloth. Lament, and run to and fro among the fences. For Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his rulers together.
Moreover thou have taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou have borne to me, and thou have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter,
Then I said, Ah lord LORD! They say of me, Is he not a speaker of parables?
For when they had slain their sons to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it, and, lo, thus they have done in the midst of my house.
The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-aven. For the people of it shall mourn over it, and the priests of it, who rejoiced over it for the glory of it, because it has departed from it.
Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god {Remphan (LXX/NT)}, your images which ye made to yourselves.
Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god {Remphan (LXX/NT)}, your images which ye made to yourselves.
Will LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, [or] with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
And I will stretch out my hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, [and] the name of the Chemarim with the priests,
And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, the images that ye made to worship them. And I will deport you beyond Babylon.
For a certain silversmith named Demetrius who makes silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little work to 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
And thou shall not give any of thy seed to make them pass through [the fire] to Molech, neither shall thou profane the name of thy God. I am LORD.
Moreover, thou shall say to the sons of Israel, Whoever he is of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, who gives of his seed to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone h I also will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. read more. And if the people at the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all who play the harlot after him, to play the harlot with Molech, from among their people.
Thou shall not do so to LORD thy God. For every abomination to LORD, which he hates, they have done to their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
There shall not be found with thee anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, a psychic, he who practices augury, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,
Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab on the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. And he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of LORD, of which LORD said, In Jerusalem I will put my name. read more. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of LORD. And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practiced augury, and used enchantments, and dealt with psychics, and with sorcery. He wrought much evil in the sight of LORD to provoke him to anger.
and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood.
For a Topheth is prepared of old, yea, it is made ready for the king. He has made it deep and large. The pile of it is fire and much wood. The breath of LORD kindles it, like a stream of brimstone.
And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.
And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days come, says LORD, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place [to bury].
and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither did it come into my mind.
and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither did it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days come, says LORD, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter.
Therefore, behold, the days come, says LORD, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter. And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. And I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. And I will give their dead bodies to be food for read more. And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing. Everyone who passes by it shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues of it. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. And they shall eat each one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, s Then thou shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with thee, and shall say to them, Thus says LORD of hosts: Even so I will break this people and this city, as a potter's vessel is broken, that cannot be made whole again. And they shall bury in Topheth till there be no place to bury. Thus I will do to this place, says LORD, and to the inhabitants of it, even making this city as Topheth. And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out dr Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of LORD's house, and said to all the people,
Moreover thou have taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou have borne to me, and thou have sacrificed these to them to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through [the fire] to them?
Yea, ye have borne the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god {Remphan (LXX/NT)}, your images which ye made to yourselves.
And ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, the images that ye made to worship them. And I will deport you beyond Babylon.