Leviticus 20:1-7
Any man <0376> [Whosoever.]
gives <05414> [giveth.]
[Moloch. Molech.]
The Rabbins describe this idol as made of brass sitting upon a throne of the same metal, in the form of a man, with the head of a calf, adorned with a royal crown, and his arms extended as if to embrace any one. When they offered any children to him, they heated the statue by a great fire kindled within, and the victim was put into his arms, and thus consumed. Others relate, that the idol, which was hollow, was divided into seven compartments within; in one of which they put flour, in the second turtles, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and the seventh a child; which were all burnt together by heating the statue inside. The account which Diodorus (l. xx.) gives of the statue of Saturn, to which the Carthaginians, descendants of the Canaanites, sacrificed their children, is very similar. For they had a brazen stature of Saturn, stretching out his hands towards the ground, in such a manner that the children placed within them tumbled down into a pit full of fire. To this account Milton alludes, in Paradise Lost, B. 1. 392.
people <05971> [the people.]
will set .................... given <05414> [I will set.]
defiled <02930> [to defile.]
profaned <02490> [profane.]
however ....... shut <05956> [hide.]
death <04191> [and kill.]
set <07760> [I will.]
clan <04940> [against his.]
prostitution .... prostitution <02181> [whoring.]
spirits <0178> [familiar.]
prostitution <02181> [go.]
cut ... off <03772> [cut him.]
In the days of Moses, superstition was almost the {sensus communis} of the human race, which then made severe punishment necessary: by means of the Christian dispensation such errors are now exploded, the cultivation of philosophy and natural history having harmonised and contributed their feebler share of light, so that we no longer have to deplore mischiefs occasioned by the silly curiosity attempting to unfold future events.
