Malki-El

מלכיאל


The root is Melech (מלך) = "king", from the same root that gives Moloch (מלוך), the 
Phoenician sun-god.

Genesis 46:17 and Numbers 26:45 name him as a son of Beriah (בְּרִיעָה), himself a son of Asher, though it is possible that Beriah is a modification of Beri-Yah by the Redactor to conceal the goddess. If so, the linking of El and Yah names is interesting in furthering the suggestion that Yah may in fact have been a name for the "wife" of El at some stage of the cultic intermarriages, in their roles as sun-god and moon-goddess. This is endorsed by references to Malki-Yah (מלכיה) and Malki-Yahu (מלכיהו), in Ezra 10:31; Nehemiah 3:11, 8:4 and 10:3; also 1 Chronicles 9:12 and 24:9 (et al) - these being the names of two sacred kings - but it is also undermined by the fact that the texts which name Malki-Yah and Malki-Yahu are themselves of the epoch of the Redactor, and are clearly not trying to expurgate the name of the goddess; indeed, the English translations linked above all phoneticise Malki-Yah and Malkijah, precisely to emphasise the name of the goddess.

The more famous heteronym is Malki-Tsedek (מלכיצדק), the king of Shalem - which is to say the sacred priest-king ruling the city in the name of its god Moloch - who is erroneously said to have been a priest of YHVH (Genesis 14:18, Psalm 110:4), and whose name was changed to Adoni-Tsedek when David appointed him as joint High Priest at the time of the capture of Yevus and the establishment of Yeru-Shala'im as the capital; the name was later abbreviated to Tsadok, whence the English Sadducees.

There is also a Malki-Ram (מלכירם) in 1 Chronicles 3:18, meaning "great king", an epithet for the sun-god in his capacity as head of the pantheon; and Malki-Shu'ah (מלכישוע), a son of Sha'ul in 1 Samuel 14:49 and 31:2; this name reappears in its more correct hyphenated form (מלכי-שוע) in 1 Chronicles 8:33, 9:39 and 10:2its meaning is "god of riches", a figurative epithet for the sun's rays.

Malkom (מלכום) appears in Jeremiah 49:1, Amos 1:15 and 1 Chronicles 8:9 as an Amonite idol, though some English translations misread Malkom as Malkam or even Malcham, and render it as "their king". The same name appears as Milkom - מלכום) in 1 Kings 11:5 and 2 Kings 23:13.

Finally there is Melechet Ha Shamayim (מלכת השמים) - the Queen of Heaven - which appears in Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17. Yirme-Yahu tells us that "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven", a description of her either as the moon-goddess or as Ashterot, the goddess of the love-planet Venus. 

Ha Molechet (מלכת) appears in 1 Chronicles 7:18 with the same meaning, and the surprising additional information that she was the sister of Menasheh; she was the mother of Ish-Hod (אִישְׁה֔וֹד), Avi-Ezer (אֲבִיעֶ֖זֶר) and Machlah (מַחְלָֽה), the latter of which may be a variation on Machalat, the sister of Nevayot (נביות) bat Yishma-El whom Esav married.



Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
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