MOLECH, MOLOCH, OR MILCOM
MOLECH, MOLOCH, OR MILCOM
A king, 1Ki 11:5,7 Mal 7:43 ; supposed also to be intended by Malcham, or “their king,” in Jer 49:1 1Sa 1:15 Zep 1:5, the name of a heathen deity, worshipped by the Ammonites. The Israelites also introduced the worship of this idol, both during their wanderings in the desert, and after their settlement in Palestine, 2Ki 23:10 Eze 20:26,31 . The principal sacrifices to Moloch were human victims, namely, children who were cast alive into the redhot arms of his statue. See HINNOM. Compare Lev 18:21 20:2 Deu 12:31 Psa 106:37,38 Jer 7:31 19:2-6 32:35. According to some of these passages, Moloch would seem to be another name for Baal; and we find that the Phoenicians, whose chief god was Baal, and the Carthaginians their colonists, worshipped his image with similar horrid sacrifices, as the Romans did their god Saturn.