2 Chronicles 28:3

28:3 He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire, ¹  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ²  whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.

Leviticus 18:21

18:21 You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, ³  so that you do not profane ⁴  the name of your God. I am the Lord!

Leviticus 20:2

20:2 “You are to say to the Israelites, ‘Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel ⁵  who gives any of his children ⁶  to Molech ⁷  must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 12:31

12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! ⁹  For everything that is abhorrent ¹⁰  to him, ¹¹  everything he hates, they have done when worshiping their gods. They even burn up their sons and daughters before their gods!

Deuteronomy 18:10

18:10 There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, ¹²  anyone who practices divination, ¹³  an omen reader, ¹⁴  a soothsayer, ¹⁵  a sorcerer, ¹⁶ 

Deuteronomy 18:2

18:2 They ¹⁷  will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; ¹⁸  the Lord alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them.

Deuteronomy 21:6

21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹⁹  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ²⁰ 

Deuteronomy 23:10

23:10 If there is someone among you who is impure because of some nocturnal emission, ²¹  he must leave the camp; he may not reenter it immediately.

Jeremiah 7:31-32

7:31 They have also built places of worship ²²  in a place called Topheth ²³  in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! ²⁴  7:32 So, watch out!” ²⁵  says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley ²⁶  the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room. ²⁷ 

Ezekiel 23:37

23:37 For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and their sons, whom they bore to me, ²⁸  they have passed through the fire as food to their idols. ²⁹ 

Ezekiel 23:39

23:39 On the same day they slaughtered their sons for their idols, they came to my sanctuary to desecrate it. This is what they have done in the middle of my house.

¹ sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice (NEB “burnt his sons in the fire”; NASB “burned his sons in the fire”; NIV “sacrificed his sons in the fire”; NRSV “made his sons pass through fire”). For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.

² tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

³ tn Heb “And from your seed you shall not give to cause to pass over to Molech.” Smr (cf. also the LXX) has “to cause to serve” rather than “to cause to pass over.” For detailed remarks on Molech and Molech worship see N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NCBC), 87-88; P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 259-60; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 333-37, and the literature cited there. It could refer to either human sacrifice or a devotion of children to some sort of service of Molech, perhaps of a sexual sort (cf. Lev 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10, etc.). The inclusion of this prohibition against Molech worship here may be due to some sexual connection of this kind, or perhaps simply to the lexical link between זֶרַע (zera’) meaning “seed, semen” in v. 20 but “offspring” in v. 21.

⁴ tn Heb “and you shall not profane.” Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

⁵ tn Heb “or from the sojourner who sojourns”; NAB “an alien residing in Israel.”

⁶ tn Heb “his seed” (so KJV, ASV); likewise in vv. 3-4.

⁷ tn Regarding Molech and Molech worship see the note on Lev 18:21.

⁸ tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning (see instead סָקַל, saqal), but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (רָגָם, ragam; see HALOT 1187 s.v. רגם qal.a, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 136).

⁹ tn Heb “you must not do thus to/for the Lord your God.”

¹⁰ tn See note on this term at Deut 7:25.

¹¹ tn Heb “every abomination of the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 27.

¹² tn Heb “who passes his son or his daughter through the fire.” The expression “pass…through the fire” is probably a euphemism for human sacrifice (cf. NAB, NIV, TEV, NLT). See also Deut 12:31.

¹³ tn Heb “a diviner of divination” (קֹסֵם קְסָמִים, qosem qÿsamim). This was a means employed to determine the future or the outcome of events by observation of various omens and signs (cf. Num 22:7; 23:23; Josh 13:22; 1 Sam 6:2; 15:23; 28:8; etc.). See M. Horsnell, NIDOTTE 3:945-51.

¹⁴ tn Heb “one who causes to appear” (מְעוֹנֵן, mÿ’onen). Such a practitioner was thought to be able to conjure up spirits or apparitions (cf. Lev 19:26; Judg 9:37; 2 Kgs 21:6; Isa 2:6; 57:3; Jer 27:9; Mic 5:11).

¹⁵ tn Heb “a seeker of omens” (מְנַחֵשׁ, mÿnakhesh). This is a subset of divination, one illustrated by the use of a “divining cup” in the story of Joseph (Gen 44:5).

¹⁶ tn Heb “a doer of sorcery” (מְכַשֵּׁף, mikhashef). This has to do with magic or the casting of spells in order to manipulate the gods or the powers of nature (cf. Lev 19:26-31; 2 Kgs 17:15b-17; 21:1-7; Isa 57:3, 5; etc.). See M. Horsnell, NIDOTTE 2:735-38.

¹⁷ tn Heb “he” (and throughout the verse).

¹⁸ tn Heb “brothers,” but not referring to actual siblings. Cf. NASB “their countrymen”; NRSV “the other members of the community.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “slain [one].”

²⁰ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

²¹ tn Heb “nocturnal happening.” The Hebrew term קָרֶה (qareh) merely means “to happen” so the phrase here is euphemistic (a “night happening”) for some kind of bodily emission such as excrement or semen. Such otherwise normal physical functions rendered one ritually unclean whether accidental or not. See Lev 15:16-18; 22:4.

²² tn Heb “high places.”

²³ tn Heb “the high places of [or in] Topheth.”

²⁴ tn Heb “It never entered my heart.” The words “to command such a thing” do not appear in the Hebrew but are added for the sake of clarity.

²⁵ tn Heb “Therefore, behold!”

²⁶ tn Heb “it will no longer be said ‘Topheth’ or ‘the Valley of Ben Hinnom’ but ‘the valley of slaughter.’

²⁷ tn Heb “And they will bury in Topheth so there is not room.”

²⁸ sn The Lord speaks here in the role of the husband of the sisters.

²⁹ tn Heb “they have passed to them for food.” The verb is commonly taken to refer to passing children through fire, especially as an offering to the pagan god Molech. See Jer 32:35.