- Moloch
-
/moh"lok, mol"euhk/, n.1. a deity whose worship was marked by the propitiatory sacrifice of children by their own parents. II Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35.2. anything conceived of as requiring appalling sacrifice: the Moloch of war.3. (l.c.) a spiny agamid lizard, Moloch horridus, of Australian deserts, that resembles the horned lizard.Also, Molech (for defs. 1, 2).[ < LL (Vulgate) Moloch < Gk (Septuagint) Móloch < Heb Molekh, var. of melekh king]
* * *
Ancient Middle Eastern deity to whom children were sacrificed.The laws given to Moses by God expressly forbade the Israelites to sacrifice children to Moloch, as the Egyptians and Canaanites did. A shrine to Moloch outside the walls of Jerusalem was destroyed during the reign of Josiah the reformer.* * *
▪ ancient godalso spelled Molech,a deity to whom child sacrifices were made throughout the ancient Middle East. The name derives from combining the consonants of the Hebrew melech (“king”) with the vowels of boshet (“shame”), the latter often being used in the Old Testament as a variant name for the popular god Baal (“Lord”).The laws given to Moses by God expressly forbade the Jews to do what was done in Egypt or in Canaan. “You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God” (Lev. 18:21). Contemporary scholars now debate whether the Hebrews did initiate their children to Moloch by fire or whether the law is a prohibition against the possibility that they might take up this custom.Later kings Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3) and Manasseh (2 Kings 21:6), having been influenced by the Assyrians, worshiped Moloch at the hilled site of Topheth, outside the walls of Jerusalem. This site flourished under Manasseh's son King Amon but was destroyed during the reign of Josiah, the reformer. “And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Moloch” (2 Kings 23:10).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
