Molech; Moloch

Molech (also Moloch; Hebrew Molek) was the deity to whom child sacrifice was practiced in Canaan and occasionally in Israel, condemned throughout the OT as the most extreme form of apostasy and abomination. The name is probably a deliberate Hebrew distortion of the Semitic root mlk (king), with the vowels of the word boshet (shame) substituted — a technique also applied to the name Baal. Worship of Molech (also called Milcom, the national deity of Ammon — 1 Kings 11:5) was practiced in the Valley of Hinnom (Topheth) south of Jerusalem, where children were 'passed through fire' — a phrase understood throughout the tradition as indicating actual immolation as sacrificial offering (Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5; 2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 32:35).

Mosaic law prohibited Molech worship in the strongest terms: 'You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech' (Lev. 18:21), with the death penalty for violators (Lev. 20:2-5). Despite this, the practice penetrated Israel: Solomon built a high place for Molech on the Mount of Olives (1 Kings 11:7); Kings Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3) and Manasseh (2 Kings 21:6) are explicitly said to have burned their sons in the fire. Josiah's reform defiled the Topheth to prevent further child sacrifice there (2 Kings 23:10). Jeremiah repeatedly condemns the practice as something God never commanded and that 'did not come into his mind' (Jer. 7:31; 19:5; 32:35). The Valley of Hinnom, defiled by this history, became in late OT and NT tradition the image of eschatological judgment — Gehenna — giving the site a doubled theological significance in the teaching of Jesus.