1 Kings 11:5

Ashtoreth (or, Astarte). — The goddess of the Zidonians, and possibly the Hittites, corresponding to Baal, the great Tyrian god, and representing the receptive and productive, as Baal the active and originative, power in Nature. As usual in all phases of Natureworship, Ashtoreth is variously represented, sometimes by the moon, sometimes by the planet Venus (like the Assyrian Ishtar, which seems a form of the same name) — in either case regarded as “the queen of heaven.” (See Jeremiah 44:17; Jeremiah 44:25). There seems, indeed, some reason to believe that the name itself is derived from a root which is found both in Syriac and Persian, and which became aster in the Greek and astrum in Latin, and has thence passed into modern European languages, signifying a “star,” or luminary of heaven. With this agrees the ancient name, Ashterôth-Karnaîm (or, “the horned Ashteroth”)of a city in Bashan (Genesis 14:5; Deuteronomy 1:4; Joshua 13:12). This place is the first in which the name Ashtoreth is used in the singular number, and expressly limited to the “goddess of the Ziaonians.” In the earlier history we hear not unfrequently of the worship of the “Ashtaroth,” that is, of the “Ashtoreths,” found with the like plural Baalim, as prevalent in Canaan, and adopted by Israel in evil times (see Judges 2:13; Judges 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:3; 1 Samuel 12:10; 1 Samuel 31:10); and the worship of the Asherah (rendered “groves” in the Authorised version), may perhaps refer to emblems of Astarte. In these cases, however, it seems not unlikely that the phrase, “Baalim and Ashtaroth,” may be used generally of the gods and goddesses of various kinds of idolatry. The worship of the Tyrian Ashtoreth, as might be supposed from the idea which she was supposed to represent, was one of chartered license and impurity.

Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. — The name Milcom (like the Malcham of Jeremiah 49:1; Jeremiah 49:3) is probably only a variety of the well-known Molech, which is actually used for it in 1 Kings 11:7. The name “Molech” (though here connected expressly with the Ammonite idolatry) is a general title, signifying only “king” (as Baal signifies “lord”), and might be applied to the supreme god of any idolatrous system. Thus the worship of “Molech,” with its horrible sacrifice of children “passing through the fire,” is forbidden in Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2, evidently as prevailing among the Canaanite races (comp. Psalms 106:37). Again, we know historically that similar sacrifice of children, by the same horrible rite, was practised by the Carthaginians in times of great national calamity — the god being in that case identified with Saturn, the star of malign influence. By comparison of Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 19:5, it is very evident that this human sacrifice to Molech is also called “a burnt-offering to Baal;” and if Molech was the “fire-god,” and Baal the “sun-god,” the two deities might easily be regarded as cognate, if not identical. It is notable that, in this place, while Ashtoreth is mentioned, there is no reference to any worship of the Phœnician Baal as such; possibly the Ammonite Molech-worship may have occupied its place. In any case, as the worship of Ashtoreth was stained with impurity, so the Molech-worship was marked by the other foul pollution of the sacrifice of human blood.

Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites. — The name Chemosh probably means “the Conqueror,” or “Subjugator,” and indicates a god of battles. He is again and again described as the god of the Moabites who are called “the people of Chemosh” (see Numbers 21:29; Jeremiah 48:7; Jeremiah 48:13; Jeremiah 48:46); and the Moabite Stone speaks of the slain in war as an offering to Chemosh, and even refers to a deity, “Ashtar-Chemosh,” which looks like a conjunction of Chemosh, like Baal, with Ashtoreth. In Judges 11:24, Jephthah refers to Chemosh as the god of the Ammonite king, an expression which may indicate a temporary supremacy of Moab over Ammon at that time, through which the name “Chemosh” superseded the name “Milcom” as descriptive of the Supreme Power. In the history, moreover, of the Moabite war against Jehoram (2 Kings 3:26) it seems that to Chemosh, as to Molech, human sacrifice was offered.

Probably, in actual practice the various worships of the Tyrians and Canaanites, the Ammonites and the Moabites might run into each other. Unlike the awful and exclusive reverence to the Lord Jehovah, the devotion of polytheistic systems readily welcomes strange gods into its Pantheon. Polytheism is also apt to pass into what has been called “Henotheism,” in which, of many gods each is for the moment worshipped, as if he stood alone, and concentrated in himself the whole attributes of deity. The generality and similarity of meaning in the names, Baal (“lord”), Molech (“king”), and Chemosh (“conqueror”), seem to point in this direction. Still, these worships are described as taking, in Jerusalem, distinct forms and habitations, which continued till the days of Josiah (2 Kings 23:13), no doubt disused and condemned in days of religious faithfulness, such as those of Jehoshapliat and Hezekiah, but revived, and associated with newer idolatries, in days of apostasy.