82. Why Did 'the Wicked Kings of Judah Let Their Sons Pass through Fire?

It was a heathen form of worship to Molech, Mil-corn or Chemosh, which the Israelites had borrowed or adapted from the Moabites and Ammonites. Human sacrifices were made in high places to Molech. The chief interpreters Jarchi, Kimchi and Maimonides wrote that in the worship of Molech, the children were not burned, but were made to pass before two burning pyres as a purificatory rite. It is quite clear, however, that in many cases lives were actually sacrificed (see Psalm 106:37,38; Jer. 7:31). It was assumed that by this rite the victims were purged from dross of the body and attained union with the deity.