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Bible Lexicons
Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary Hebrew Lexicon
Strong's #4432 - מֹלֶךְ
- Brown-Driver-Briggs
- Strong
Molech = “king”
1) the god of the Ammonites and Phoenicians to whom some Israelites sacrificed their infants in the valley of Hinnom
- Book
- Word
מֹלֶךְ always with art. הַמֹּלֶךְ (“king”) Moloch, an idol of the Ammonites, who was also at various times worshipped by the Israelites in the valley of Hinnom, who offered human sacrifices to him, Leviticus 18:21, 20:2, seq.; 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:10. Also called מִלְכֹּם and מַלְכָּם, which see. Aqu., Symm., Theod., Vulg. Μολόχ, Moloch. According to the rabbins, his statue was of brass, with a human form, but the head of an ox; it was hollow within, and heated from below, and the children to be sacrificed were cast into its arms; and in like manner is the statue of Saturn among the Carthaginians described by Diodorus, xx. 14, compare Münter, Religion der Karthager, p. 19, and my observations on the religion of the Pœni, in Gruber’s Encyclop. vol. xxi. p. 99. The Moloch of the Ammonites and the Saturn of the Carthaginians both represented the planet Saturn, which was regarded by the Phœnicio-Shemitic nations as a κακοδαίμων, to be appeased by human sacrifices. Compare my Comment. on Isa. ii. 343; compare 327, seq.
