2 Kings 17:17

17:17 They passed their sons and daughters through the fire, ¹  and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry. ² 

2 Kings 23:10

23:10 The king ³  ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech. ⁴ 

Leviticus 18:21

18:21 You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, ⁵  so that you do not profane ⁶  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 ⁷  who gives any of his children ⁸  to Molech ⁹  must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 12:31

12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! ¹¹  For everything that is abhorrent ¹²  to him, ¹³  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, ¹⁴  anyone who practices divination, ¹⁵  an omen reader, ¹⁶  a soothsayer, ¹⁷  a sorcerer, ¹⁸ 

Deuteronomy 18:2

18:2 They ¹⁹  will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; ²⁰  the Lord alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them.

Deuteronomy 33:6

Blessing on Reuben

33:6 May Reuben live and not die,

and may his people multiply. ²¹ 

Psalms 106:37-38

106:37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ²² 

106:38 They shed innocent blood –

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

The land was polluted by bloodshed. ²³ 

Jeremiah 32:35

32:35 They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. ²⁴  Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do! It never even entered my mind to command them to do such a thing! So Judah is certainly liable for punishment.’ ²⁵ 

Ezekiel 16:21

16:21 you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ²⁶ 

Ezekiel 20:26

20:26 I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ²⁷  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ²⁸  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ²⁹ 

Ezekiel 20:31

20:31 When you present your sacrifices ³⁰  – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, ³¹  O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! ³² 

[17:17]  ¹ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[17:17]  ² tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering him.”

[23:10]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:10]  ⁴ sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.

[18:21]  ⁵ 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.

[18:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you shall not profane.” Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[20:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “or from the sojourner who sojourns”; NAB “an alien residing in Israel.”

[20:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “his seed” (so KJV, ASV); likewise in vv. 3-4.

[20:2]  ⁹ tn Regarding Molech and Molech worship see the note on Lev 18:21.

[20:2]  ¹⁰ 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).

[12:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you must not do thus to/for the Lord your God.”

[12:31]  ¹² tn See note on this term at Deut 7:25.

[12:31]  ¹³ tn Heb “every abomination of the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 27.

[18:10]  ¹⁴ 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.

[18:10]  ¹⁵ 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.

[18:10]  ¹⁶ 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).

[18:10]  ¹⁷ 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).

[18:10]  ¹⁸ 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.

[18:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he” (and throughout the verse).

[18:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “brothers,” but not referring to actual siblings. Cf. NASB “their countrymen”; NRSV “the other members of the community.”

[33:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “and [not] may his men be few” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV).

[106:37]  ²² tn The Hebrew term שֵׁדִים (shedim, “demons”) occurs only here and in Deut 32:17. Some type of lesser deity is probably in view.

[106:38]  ²³ sn Num 35:33-34 explains that bloodshed defiles a land.

[32:35]  ²⁴ sn Compare Jer 7:30-31; 19:5 and the study notes on 7:30. The god Molech is especially associated with the practice of child sacrifice (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10). In 1 Kgs 11:7 this god is identified as the god of the Ammonites who is also called Milcom in 1 Kgs 11:5; 2 Kgs 23:13. Child sacrifice, however, was not confined to this god; it was also made to the god Baal (Jer 19:5) and to other idols that the Israelites had set up (Ezek 16:20-21). This practice was, however, strictly prohibited in Israel (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut 12:31; 18:10). It was this practice as well as other pagan rites that Manasseh had instituted in Judah that ultimately led to Judah’s demise (2 Kgs 24:3-4). Though Josiah tried to root these pagan practices (2 Kgs 23:4-14) out of Judah he could not do so. The people had only made a pretense of following his reforms; their hearts were still far from God (Jer 3:10; 12:2).

[32:35]  ²⁵ tn Heb “They built high places to Baal which are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to cause their sons and daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech [a thing] which I did not command them and [which] did not go up into my heart [= “mind” in modern psychology] to do this abomination so as to make Judah liable for punishment.” For the use of the Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) to refer to the liability for punishment see BDB s.v. חָטָא Hiph.3 and compare the usage in Deut 24:8. Coming at the end as this does, this nuance is much more likely than “cause Judah to sin” which is the normal translation assigned to the verb here. The particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) that precedes it is here once again introducing a result and not a purpose (compare other clear examples in 27:10, 15). The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style and an attempt has been made to make clear that what is detestable and not commanded is not merely child sacrifice to Molech but child sacrifice in general.

[16:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and you gave them, by passing them through to them.” Some believe this alludes to the pagan practice of making children pass through the fire.

[20:26]  ²⁷ tn Or “gifts.”

[20:26]  ²⁸ sn This act is prohibited in Deut 12:29-31 and Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35. See also 2 Kgs 21:6; 23:10. This custom indicates that the laws the Israelites were following were the disastrous laws of pagan nations (see Ezek 16:20-21).

[20:26]  ²⁹ sn God sometimes punishes sin by inciting the sinner to sin even more, as the biblical examples of divine hardening and deceit make clear. See Robert B. Chisholm, Jr., “Divine Hardening in the Old Testament,” BSac 153 (1996): 410-34; idem, “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 11-28. For other instances where the Lord causes individuals to act unwisely or even sinfully as punishment for sin, see 1 Sam 2:25; 2 Sam 17:14; 1 Kgs 12:15; 2 Chr 25:20.

[20:31]  ³⁰ tn Or “gifts.”

[20:31]  ³¹ tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”

[20:31]  ³² tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”