Milkom

from "Oedipus Aegyptiacus" by Athanasius Kirchner, Rome, 1652

מלכם


"Milkom, the abomination of the Beney Amon" according to 1 Kings 11:5 and 33, 2 Kings 23:13.

An Ammonite deity then, but connected to the Yehudit MILCHAMAH (מלכםה) = "war", which is also connected to the Yehudit LECHEM (לכם) = "bread" (what else are most wars really about?), and with MILKOM (מלכום) yet another variant upon the archetypal corn-god (in whose name, let us be honest, most wars are fought), and with MILKAH. Also connected with MOLOCH - though Moloch stems from a different root, HALACH = "to go", in its Hiphil form, "to lead" - who was worshipped in pre-Yeru-Shala'im, and with Melkart, who was the principal deity of the Phoenicians, and connected especially with Hera-Kles, or Hercules.

Leviticus 26:30/31 has a variation, Malkam (מַלְכָּֽם), but the "abominations" are the same, and indeed this text describes them somewhat more explicitly:

"And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas." 

The same variation appears in Zephaniah 1:5.

The principal abomination was the sacrifice of the firstborn, in a manner not all that different from the Nazi ovens - the only difference was that the children were not gassed first. The illustration above makes further verbal description unnecessary. But notice the name of the hill, adjacent to the left shoulder of the crematorigod.

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