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“Sacrificed to Molech”

Leviticus 18:21
Cultural referenceSettledGod
You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. (Leviticus 18:21 BSB)
* A god linked with child sacrifice by fire; the practice recurs as Israel's darkest sin (Jeremiah 32:35), and the valley where it happened, Ge-Hinnom, gave its name to 'Gehenna,' hell.

What it sounds like today

A ban on an obscure foreign ritual.

The cultural key

Molech (or Milcom) was a deity associated with the sacrifice of children by fire, a practice attested among Israel's Canaanite and Phoenician neighbors. The Law treats it as the ultimate abomination, and tragically Israel did fall into it, in the Valley of Hinnom (Topheth) just outside Jerusalem, under kings like Ahaz and Manasseh. That valley's name, Ge-Hinnom, passed into Greek as Gehenna, the New Testament word translated 'hell', so the place of Israel's most horrific sin became the very image of final judgment.

Recovered meaning

The one line Israel must never cross is the burning of its own children before a god. The valley where they crossed it anyway became so byword for horror that its name became the Bible's word for hell.

Parallels: Jeremiah 32:35; 2 Kings 23:10
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