Deuteronomy 12:30-31

12:30 After they have been destroyed from your presence, be careful not to be ensnared like they are; do not pursue their gods and say, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do the same.” 12:31 You must not worship the Lord your God the way they do! ¹  For everything that is abhorrent ²  to him, ³  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, ⁴  anyone who practices divination, ⁵  an omen reader, ⁶  a soothsayer, ⁷  a sorcerer, ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 18:2

18:2 They ⁹  will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; ¹⁰  the Lord alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them.

Deuteronomy 16:3

16:3 You must not eat any yeast with it; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, symbolic of affliction, for you came out of Egypt hurriedly. You must do this so you will remember for the rest of your life the day you came out of the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 17:17

17:17 Furthermore, he must not marry many ¹¹  wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold.

Deuteronomy 21:6

21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ¹²  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ¹³ 

Isaiah 57:5

57:5 you who practice ritual sex ¹⁴  under the oaks and every green tree,

who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 7:31

7:31 They have also built places of worship ¹⁶  in a place called Topheth ¹⁷  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! ¹⁸ 

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. ¹⁹  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.’ ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 16:20-21

16:20 “‘You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them ²¹  as food for the idols to eat. As if your prostitution not enough, 16:21 you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ²² 

Ezekiel 20:26

20:26 I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ²³  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ²⁴  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ²⁵ 

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, ²⁶  they have passed through the fire as food to their idols. ²⁷ 

Ezekiel 23:47

23:47 That army will pelt them with stones and slash them with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses. ²⁸ 

[12:31]  ¹ tn Heb “you must not do thus to/for the Lord your God.”

[12:31]  ² tn See note on this term at Deut 7:25.

[12:31]  ³ tn Heb “every abomination of the Lord.” See note on the word “his” in v. 27.

[18:10]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “he” (and throughout the verse).

[18:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “brothers,” but not referring to actual siblings. Cf. NASB “their countrymen”; NRSV “the other members of the community.”

[17:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “must not multiply” (cf. KJV, NASB); NLT “must not take many.”

[21:6]  ¹² tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.

[57:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.

[57:5]  ¹⁵ sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[7:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “high places.”

[7:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the high places of [or in] Topheth.”

[7:31]  ¹⁸ 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.

[32:35]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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.

[16:20]  ²¹ sn The sacrifice of children was prohibited in Lev 18:21; 20:2; Deut 12:31; 18:10.

[16:21]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Or “gifts.”

[20:26]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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.

[23:37]  ²⁶ sn The Lord speaks here in the role of the husband of the sisters.

[23:37]  ²⁷ 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.

[23:47]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”