Lectionary Calendar
Friday, March 29th, 2024
Good Friday
There are 2 days til Easter!
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Bible Encyclopedias
Anammelech

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Anamim
Next Entry
Anan
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

(Heb., Anamme'lek, עֲנִמֶּלֶךְ , Sept. Ἀνημέλεχ, Vulg. Anamelech) is mentioned, together with Adrammelech, as a god whom the people of Sepharvaim, who colonized Samaria, worshipped by the sacrifice of children by fire (2 Kings 17:31). No satisfactory etymology of the name has been discovered. The latter part of the word is the Hebrews for king, but as the former part is not found in that language (unless it be for the Arabic sanam, a statue, Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 1052), the whole is probably foreign. Reland (De vet. ling. Persarum, § 9) renders it king of grief (from the Persic); but Hyde (Rel. vet. Persar. p. 131) understands it as referring (from עֲנָאּ i. q. שׂן, sheep) to. the Arabian constellation Cepheus, containing the shepherd and the sheep. Benfey (Monatsnamen einiger alter Volker, p. 188) proposes the name of the Persian goddess Ananit or that of the Ized Aniran as containing the first part of the title Anammelech. So Rawlinson (Herodotus, 1, 498), who understands the female power of the sun to be meant, derives it from the name of the Asssyrian goddess Anunit. Other conjectures are still more fanciful. The same obscurity prevails as to the form under which the god was worshipped. The Babylonian Talmud states that his image had the figure of a horse; but Kimechi says that of a pheasant or quail (Carpzov's Apparatus, p. 516). (See ADRAMMELECH).

Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Anammelech'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tce/​a/anammelech.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
adsFree icon
Ads FreeProfile