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| Moloch - from "Oedipus Aegyptiacus" by Athanasius Kirchner, Rome, 1652 |
Known in English as Moloch, in Yehudit he was usually Ha Melech = "the king", from the Pi'el form of the root HALACH, "to go" - in other words, "the leader".
Primarily, to the inhabitants of Kena'an and the immediate region anyway, he was a sun-idol of the Beney Amon (Ammonites), worshipped in Gey Hinnom, the valley of Hinnom in Shalem (one of the hill-villages of pre-Yeru-Shala'im) as well as in Yeru-Shala'im itself later on, with human sacrifices (cf 2 Kings 23:17).
Also called Milkom and Malkam, his statue was made of brass, with a human form but the head of an ox - the Yehudit Aleph; hollow inside, he was heated from below, and the children who were being sacrificed were placed in his arms (cf Diodorus 20:14 for the same description of Carthaginian Saturn). Hence Malchut = "kingdom".
Also a name given to humans, usually priests or kings, clearly denoting which god or gods they were intended by their parents to follow: Malki-Ram (מַלְכִּירָ֥ם) in 1 Chronicles 3:18, Malki-Shu'ah (מַלְכִּישׁוּעַ) in 1 Samuel 14:49 & 31:2; 1 Chronicles 8:33, 9:39 & 10:2, Malki-El in Genesis 46:17 and Numbers 26:45, Malki-Yah (מַלְכִּיָּה) in Ezra 10:31 and Nehemiah 3:11 (and many other references); and the non-Yehudit Malki-Tsedek, the king of Shalem with whom Av-Ram made a pact in Genesis 14. Malki-Ram is an equivalent of Av-Ram (Abram): "Moloch is Great". Malki-Shu'ah is more complex, as it appears to be a reduction from a root rather than a full root; possible a statement of wealth, but more likely from the same source that yields Yehoshu'a and meaning "Moloch is my Saviour". Malki-El, like Malki-Yah, is a compound, the former of Moloch with El, the latter of Moloch with Yah. The female Melechet ha-Shamayim is known as "the Queen of Heaven"; a very different concept from, but often confused with, the Shechinah, she is an equivalent of Venus, Astarte, i.e. the moon worshipped by the Beney Yisra-El in their version of the triple goddess.
Leviticus 18:21: prohibits the sacrifice of children to Moloch.
1 Kings 11:7: despite the Levitical prohibition (but Leviticus was probably not written till long after him, despite orthodox belief that it was handed down by Mosheh), King Shelomoh (Solomon) built a high place for Chemosh (כמוש), "the abomination of Mo-Av", and for Molech (מלך), "the abomination of the Beney Amon, on the hill that is before Yeru-Shala'im". Chemosh was the national god of the Beney Mo-Av (Moabites) and the Beney Amon (Ammonites) (cf Numbers 21:29; Judges 11:24; Jeremiah 48:7), probably an equivalent of Mars, the god of war. 2 Kings 23:10 makes clear that the hill in question was Tophet (תפת); Bamat Tophet (במת תפת), to give it its full name, was almost certainly a tumulus rather than a natural hill; Tophet means (or perhaps came to mean?) "to spit upon".
Leviticus 18:21: prohibits the sacrifice of children to Moloch.
1 Kings 11:7: despite the Levitical prohibition (but Leviticus was probably not written till long after him, despite orthodox belief that it was handed down by Mosheh), King Shelomoh (Solomon) built a high place for Chemosh (כמוש), "the abomination of Mo-Av", and for Molech (מלך), "the abomination of the Beney Amon, on the hill that is before Yeru-Shala'im". Chemosh was the national god of the Beney Mo-Av (Moabites) and the Beney Amon (Ammonites) (cf Numbers 21:29; Judges 11:24; Jeremiah 48:7), probably an equivalent of Mars, the god of war. 2 Kings 23:10 makes clear that the hill in question was Tophet (תפת); Bamat Tophet (במת תפת), to give it its full name, was almost certainly a tumulus rather than a natural hill; Tophet means (or perhaps came to mean?) "to spit upon".
2 Kings 23:10 ff also tells us that King Yoshi-Yahu (יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ - Josiah), who was almost certainly responsible for the Book of Leviticus, destroyed the site to prevent the sacrifice of children. It is probably no coincidence that the site of the Temple to YHVH is also traditionally the site of the Akeda (the non-sacrifice of Yitschak in Genesis 22), which event brought to an end the practice of child sacrifice amongst the Beney Yisra-El. That the Moloch practices were sun-cultic is confirmed in 2 Kings 23:11. That Shelomoh was not only the king to worship the sun on Mount Tophet is confirmed in the following verse, where Yoshi-Yahu has the altars of Kings Achaz (אָחָז - Ahaz) and Menasheh (מְנַשֶּׁה) likewise destroyed. The shrines to Ashterot and Asherah were similarly destroyed.
That his worship has never fully died out, that it has, rather, been absorbed into the cult of YHVH, is best evidenced by the special service at the New Year known as Ha Melech (המלך), and by the immensely long liturgical poem sung at Yom Kippur, known as Avinu Malkeynu (אבינו מלכנו). The notion of god as King specifically (and most ironically) originates with Moloch.
Copyright © 2020 David Prashker
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The Argaman Press
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