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 from thy seed thou shalt not give to pass over to Molech, and thou shalt not profane the name of thy God: I am Jehovah.
And to the sons of Israel thou shalt say, A man, a man from the sons of Israel, and from the stranger sojourning in Israel which shall give of his seed to Molech, dying, he shall die: the people of the land. shall stone him with stones. And I will give my face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people; for he gave from his seed to Molech, in order to defile my holy place and to profane my holy name. read more. And if the people of the land, hiding, shall hide their eyes from that man in his giving his seed to Molech, so as not to put him to death; And I set my face against that man and against his family, and I cut him off, and all committing fornication after him to commit fornication after Molech, from the midst of their people.
And Solomon will go after Ashtaroth the god of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Then Solomon will build a height for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the mountain which is upon the face of Jerusalem, and for the king, the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
Because they forsook me and worshiped to Ashtaroth the god of Zidon, and to Chemosh, god of Moab, and to Milcom, god of the sons of Ammon, and they went not in my way to do the straight in mine eyes, and my laws and my judgments as David his father.
And he defiled Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, for a man not to cause his son and his daughter to pass through in fire to the king.
And the heights which were before Jerusalem which were from the right to the mount of destruction which Solomon king of Israel built to Ashtaroth the abomination of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and to Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon the king defiled.
Ye lifted up the tent of your king and the statue of your images, the star of your God which he made for you.
And those worshiping upon the roofs to the army of the heavens, and worshiping, swearing to Jehovah, and swearing to Malcham;
And ye took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, types which ye made to worship them: and I will transplant 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 from thy seed thou shalt not give to pass over to Molech, and thou shalt not profane the name of thy God: I am Jehovah.
And to the sons of Israel thou shalt say, A man, a man from the sons of Israel, and from the stranger sojourning in Israel which shall give of his seed to Molech, dying, he shall die: the people of the land. shall stone him with stones. And I will give my face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people; for he gave from his seed to Molech, in order to defile my holy place and to profane my holy name. read more. And if the people of the land, hiding, shall hide their eyes from that man in his giving his seed to Molech, so as not to put him to death; And I set my face against that man and against his family, and I cut him off, and all committing fornication after him to commit fornication after Molech, from the midst of their people.
Wo to thee, Moab! thou wert destroyed, O people of Chemosh: he gave his sons escaping, and his daughters, into captivity to the king of the Amorites, Sihon.
And it was when many evils and afflictions shall find him, and this song testified before him for a witness: for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouth of his seed; for I knew his formation which he did this day, before I shall bring him to the land which I sware And Moses will write this song in that day, and will teach it to the sons of Israel read more. And he will command Joshua the son of Nun, and will say, Be strong and active: for thou shalt bring in the sons of Israel to the land which I sware to them, and I will be with thee. And it shall be when Moses finished to write the words of this law upon a book until he finished them; And Moses will command the Levites lifting up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, saying, Take the book of this law and put it at the side of the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and it was there for a witness against thee. For I knew thy rebellion and thy hard neck: behold, in my yet living with you this day, ye were rebelling against Jehovah; and much more after my death.
Shalt thou not inherit what Chemosh thy god will give thee to inherit? and all which Jehovah our God drove out from our face, we will inherit it.
And the people which were in it he brought forth, and he will put at the saw and at the threshing-sledge of iron, and at axes of iron, and caused them to pass over through the brick-kiln: and thus he will do to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. And David will turn back, and all the people, to Jerusalem.
And Solomon will go after Ashtaroth the god of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Then Solomon will build a height for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the mountain which is upon the face of Jerusalem, and for the king, the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
And he will take his son, the firstborn, which shall reign in his stead, and bring him up a burnt-offering upon the wall: and there will be great anger against Israel, and they will remove from him and turn back to the land.
And he defiled Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, for a man not to cause his son and his daughter to pass through in fire to the king.
And he defiled Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, for a man not to cause his son and his daughter to pass through in fire to the king.
And the heights which were before Jerusalem which were from the right to the mount of destruction which Solomon king of Israel built to Ashtaroth the abomination of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and to Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon the king defiled.
And he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and he will burn his sons in fire according to the abomination of the nations which Jehovah dispossessed from before the sons of Israel.
And they will sacrifice their sons and their daughters to lords. And they will pour out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters which they sacrificed to the images of Canaan: and the land will be polluted with bloods.
And they built the heights of Baal to burn their sons with fire, burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I spake not, and it came not up upon my heart.
And they will build the heights of Baal which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through to Molech, which I commanded them not; and it came not up upon my heart to do this abomination to cause Judah to sin.
To the sons of Ammon, thus said Jehovah: Is there no sons to Israel? none inheriting to him? Wherefore did their king inherit Gad, and his people dwelt in his cities?
Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai was laid waste: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird yourselves with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro in the walled places; for their king shall go into captivity, his priests and his chiefs together.
And thou wilt take thy sons and thy daughters which thou didst bear to me, and thou wilt sacrifice them for these to eat From thy fornication is it small?
And saying, Ah, Lord Jehovah, they say to me, Does he not use parables?
And in their slaughtering their sons to their blocks, and they will come to my holy place in that day to profane it; and behold, thus they did in the midst of my house.
For the calves of the house of vanity they shall fear dwelling in Shomeron: for his people mourned over it, and his priests will exult over it, for its glory, for it was removed from it
Ye lifted up the tent of your king and the statue of your images, the star of your God which he made for you.
Ye lifted up the tent of your king and the statue of your images, the star of your God which he made for you.
Will Jehovah delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousands of torrents of oil? shall I give my first-born my transgression? the fruit of my belly, the sin of my soul?
And I stretched out my hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, with the name of the obscurations with the priests
And ye took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, types which ye made to worship them: and I will transplant you beyond Babylon.
For a certain Demetrius by name, a silversmith, making the silver temples of Diana, furnished no little work to artificers;
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 from thy seed thou shalt not give to pass over to Molech, and thou shalt not profane the name of thy God: I am Jehovah.
And to the sons of Israel thou shalt say, A man, a man from the sons of Israel, and from the stranger sojourning in Israel which shall give of his seed to Molech, dying, he shall die: the people of the land. shall stone him with stones. And I will give my face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people; for he gave from his seed to Molech, in order to defile my holy place and to profane my holy name. read more. And if the people of the land, hiding, shall hide their eyes from that man in his giving his seed to Molech, so as not to put him to death; And I set my face against that man and against his family, and I cut him off, and all committing fornication after him to commit fornication after Molech, from the midst of their people.
Thou shalt not do so to Jehovah thy God; for every abomination of Jehovah which he hated they did to their gods; for also their sons and their daughters they will burn in fire to their gods.
There shall not be found in thee him causing his son or his daughter to pass through in fire, divining divinations, practicing magic, and taking omens and a sorcerer,
Then Solomon will build a height for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the mountain which is upon the face of Jerusalem, and for the king, the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
And he will turn back and build the heights which Hezekiah his father destroyed; and he will raise up altars to Baal, and make a statue as did Ahab king of Israel; and he will worship to all the army of the heavens, and serve' them. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah where Jehovah said, In Jerusalem I will put my name. read more. And he will build altars to all the army of the heavens in the two enclosures of the house of Jehovah. And he caused his sons to pass through in fire, and he practiced magic, and took auguries, and made necromancy and a wizard spirit: he multiplied to do evil in the eyes of Jehovah to irritate.
And they will pour out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters which they sacrificed to the images of Canaan: and the land will be polluted with bloods.
For tophet was set in order from yesterday; also it was prepared; for the king, he made deep, he made broad, its pile fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah as a torrent of pitch burned upon it
And they built heights to Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire; which I commanded not, and it came not upon my heart.
And they built heights to Tophet which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire; which I commanded not, and it came not upon my heart. For this, behold, the days coming, says Jehovah, and it shall no more be said, Tophet, and The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: and they buried in Tophet, from not being place.
And they built the heights of Baal to burn their sons with fire, burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I spake not, and it came not up upon my heart.
And they built the heights of Baal to burn their sons with fire, burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I spake not, and it came not up upon my heart. For this, behold, the days coming, says Jehovah, and it shall no more be called to this place Tophet, and The valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter.
For this, behold, the days coming, says Jehovah, and it shall no more be called to this place Tophet, and The valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter. And I emptied out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I caused them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them seeking their soul: and I gave their carcasses for food to the fowls of the heavens and to the beasts of the earth. read more. And I set this city for a desolation, and for hissing: every one passing over it shall be astonished and shall hiss over all her blows. And I caused them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each the flesh of his neighbor shall they eat in the straitness and in the distress which their enemies, and they seeking their souls, shall press upon them. And break the bottle before the eyes of the men going with thee, And say to them, Thus said Jehovah of armies: According to this will I break this people and this city, as he will break the potter's vessel which shall not be able to be healed any more: and in Tophet shall they bury, from not a place to bury. Thus will I do to this place, says Jehovah, and to its inhabitants, and to give this city as Tophet: And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah were defiled as the place of Tophet to all the houses which they burnt incense upon their roofs to all the army of the heavens, and pouring out libations to other gods And Jeremiah will come from Tophet where Jehovah sent him there to prophesy; and he will stand in the enclosure of the house of Jehovah and say to all the people,
And thou wilt take thy sons and thy daughters which thou didst bear to me, and thou wilt sacrifice them for these to eat From thy fornication is it small? And thou wilt slaughter my sons and give them in causing them to pass through for them.
Ye lifted up the tent of your king and the statue of your images, the star of your God which he made for you.
And ye took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, types which ye made to worship them: and I will transplant you beyond Babylon.