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Molech, Moloch, or Milcom

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

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A king, 1 Kings 11:5,7 Acts 7:43; supposed also to be intended by Malcham, or "their king," in Jeremiah 49:1 Amos 1:15 Zephaniah 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, 2 Kings 23:10 Ezekiel 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 Leviticus 18:21 20:2 Deuteronomy 12:31 Psalm 106:37,38 Jeremiah 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.