page_title: Moloch
section_title: Name
hierarchical_section_title: Moloch / Name
caption_attribution_description: English: "Babylonian cylinder seal representing the sacrifice of a child. (Hematite cylinder seal originally from the collection of the duke of Luynes) The drawing from Menant (1883) was also used to illustrate the topic "Moloch" in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. עברית: גליל בבלי שבו מוצגת הקרבת ילד
context_page_description: Moloch is the biblical name of a Canaanite god associated with child sacrifice, through fire or war.
  The name Moloch results from a dysphemic vocalisation in the Second Temple period of a theonym based on the root mlk, "king". There are a number of Canaanite gods with names based on this root, which became summarily associated with Moloch, including biblical Malkam "Great King", which appears to refer to a god of the Ammonites, as well as Tyrian Melqart and others.
  Rabbinical tradition depicted Moloch as a bronze statue heated with fire into which the victims were thrown. This has been associated with reports by Greco-Roman authors on the child sacrifices in Carthage to Baal Hammon. Archaeological excavations since the 1920s have produced evidence for child sacrifice in Carthage as well as inscriptions including the term MLK, either a theonym or a technical term associated with sacrificial rites.
  In interpretatio graeca, the Phoenician god was identified with Cronus, due to the parallel mytheme of Cronus devouring his children.
context_section_description: Biblical Hebrew מלך (mlk)  usually stands for מֶלֶךְ‎ melek "king" (Akkadian malku), but when vocalized as מֹלֶךְ‎ mōlek in the Masoretic Text, it has been traditionally understood as a proper name. While the received Masoretic text dates to the Middle Ages, the existence of the form Ancient Greek: Μολοχ (Molokh, whence Vulgate Moloch) in the Septuagint establishes that the distinction dates to the Second Temple period.
  Moloch has been traditionally interpreted as the name of a god, possibly a god surnamed "the king" (cf. adon "lord", baʿal "master"), but pejoratively mispronounced as Molek instead of Melek, using the vocalisation of Hebrew בּשֶׁת‎ bosheth "shame",
  distinguishing it from the title of melek "king", written identically in the consonantal text, which is also frequently given to Yahweh.
  Thus, in Psalm 5:3, the מלכי mlk-y ("my mlk") of the Hebrew text is vocalized מַלְכִּי malk-ī and translated  ὁ βασιλεύς μου ("my king") in the Septuagint; by contrast, in Amos 5:26, מלככם mlk-km ("your (plural) mlk") is vocalized מַלְכְּכֶם malk-chem ("your king") but translated Μολοχ ὑμῶν ("your Moloch") in the Septuagint.
  The name of the god of the Ammonites is also given as מַלְכָּם malkam, rendered as Milcom in KJV. In 1 Kings 11:7, לְמֹלֶךְ שִׁקֻּץ בְּנֵי עַמֹּֽון‎ (KJV: "for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon"), the Septuagint has τῷ βασιλεῖ αὐτῶν εἰδώλῳ υἱῶν Αμμων ("for their king, idol of the sons of Ammon"), while in 1 Kings 11:33 לְמִלְכֹּם אֱלֹהֵי בְנֵֽי־עַמֹּון‎ (KJV: "Milcom the god of the children of Ammon") is translated  τῷ βασιλεῖ αὐτῶν προσοχθίσματι υἱῶν Αμμων  ("for their king, the abomination of the sons of Ammon").
caption: Babylonian cylinder seal representing child sacrifice.
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