MOLECH, MOLOCH, OR MILCOM
A king, 1 Kings 11:5, 1 Kings 1:11 Acts 7:43; supposed also to be intended by Malcham, or "their king," in Jeremiah 49:1 Amos 1:15 Zephaniah 1:5, the name of a heathen deity, worshipped by the Ammonites. The Israelites also introduced the worship of this idol, both during their wanderings in the desert, and after their settlement in Palestine, 2 Kings 23:10 Ezekiel 20:26, Ezekiel 1:20. The principal sacrifices to Moloch were human victims, namely, children who were cast alive into the redhot arms of his statue. See Hinnom. Compare Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 1:20 Deuteronomy 12:31 Psalms 106:37, Psalms 1:106; Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 1:19; Jeremiah 1:32. According to some of these passages, Moloch would seem to be another name for Baal; and we find that the Phoenicians, whose chief god was Baal, and the Carthaginians their colonists, worshipped his image with similar horrid sacrifices, as the Romans did their god Saturn.