" The other term, chaphurperoth, rendered ' moles' in Isa. ii, 20, is rather a descriptive periplirase than an ap- pellative. It might be literally rendered 'the dig- holes.' The Sept. has adopted a different construction :
' his idols . . . which he had made for the purpose
of bowing down to the vanities, to the bats.' Perhaps the words may be taken generically, of any creatures which burrow in ruined and desolate places. Travellers describe the ruins of Babylon ' as perforated throughout with cavities which are inhabited by doleful creatures.' Buckingham speaks of the 'dens of wild beasts,' the ' quantities of porcupine quills' in the cavities, and the numbers of bats and owls {Trav. ii, 30). 'These sou- terrains,' observes Sir Robert Ker Porter, ' are now the refuge of jackals and other savage animals' {Trav. ii, 342). ' The mound,' says major Keppel, ' was full of large holes . . . strewed with the carcasses and skele- tons of animals recently killed' {Nar. i, 180). The total and final degradation of idols, and their removal out of sight and remembrance, we may understand by the phrases employed" (Fairbalrn).
Mole, Francois Ren^, a French comedian, de- mands our notice for his impious conduct during the great French Revolution. Mole, who was born at Paris in 1734, had made his debut on the stage in 1754, and gained great notoriety as an actor after 17(50. He had a kind heart and lovely disposition, and therefore be- came a favorite with aU who knew him. But he was as blasphemous as he was kind-hearted; and, without a hope of a hereafter, he sought openly to bring reproach upon the cause of God. During the progress of the Revolution he became an associate of the Jacobins, and impiously officiated in the church of St. Roch as the priest of the goddess of Reason. He died in 1802.
Mo'lech (Heb. Mo'lel; ~^^, ^ing, always with the art. T|352fl, except in 1 Kings xi, 7; Sept. cipx^v in Lev. xvill, 21; xx, 2, 3, 4; MtX^wv v. r. (iaaikivQ in 1 Kings xi, 7; Mo\6x 6 f3aai\ivg in Jer. xxxii, 35; and simply MoXo^ in 2 Kings xxiii, 10, as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion everywhere render; Vulg. Moloch), called also Moloch (Amos v, 25 ; Acts vii, 43), MILCO^[ (1 Kings xi, 5, 33; 2 Kings xxiii, 13), Malcham (Zeph. i, 5), and Melcom (marg. Jer. xlix, 1, 3, text " their king"), is chiefly found in the Old Tes- tament as the national god of the Ammonites, to whom children were sacrificed by fire.
1. The Name.— The root of the word IMolech is the same as that of T\?_'0, me'lek, or "king," and hence he is identified with Malcham (" their king") in 2 Sam. xii, 30 ; Zeph. i, 5, the title by which he was known to the Israelites, as being invested with regal honors in his character as a tutelary deity, the lord and master of his people. Our translators have recognised this iden- tity in their rendering of Amos v, 26 (where " your Moloch" is literally " your king," as it is given in the
margin), following the Greek in the speech of Stephen, in Acts vli, 43. Dr. Geiger, in accordance with his theory that the worship of jMolech was far more widely spread among the Israelites than appears at first sight from the Old Testament, and that many traces are ob- scured in the text, refers " the king," in Isa. xxx, 33, to that deity : " For Tophet is ordained of old ; yea, for the king it is prepared." Again, of the Israelitlsh nation, personified as an adulteress, it is said, " Thou wentest to the king with oil" (Isa. Ivii, 9) ; Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, forbade Amos to prophesy there, " for it is the king's chapel" (Amos vll, 13) ; and in both these in- stances Dr. Geiger would find a disguised reference to the worship ofMolech {Urschrift, etc., p. 299-308).
Traces of the root from which Molech is derived are to be found in the Miiichus, Malica, and JMalcander of the Phoenicians; with the last mentioned ma}' be com- pared Adrammelech, the fire-god of Sepharvalm. The fire-god Molech, as the tutelary deity of the children of Amnion, was essentially identical with the Moabitish Chemosh. The Hebrew form, as an undoubted proper name, likewise occurs with some variety, as seen above, Solomon had in his harem many women of the Am- monitish race, who " turned away his heart after other gods," and, as a consequence of their influence, high, places to Molech, " the abomination of the children of Ammon," were built on " the mount that is facing Jeru- salem"— one of the summits of Olivet (1 Kings xi, 7). Two verses before, the same deity is called Milcoji, and from the circumstance of the two names being dis- tinguished in 2 Kings xxiii, 10, 13, it has been inferred by Movers, Ewald, and others, that the two deities were essentially distinct, IMovers {Phonicier, i, 358) is prob- ably correct in regarding the latter as merely an Ara- maic pronunciation. It is true that in the later histor}' of the Israelites the worship of Molech is connected with the valley of Hinnora, while the high place of IMil- com was on the Mount of Olives, and that no mention is made of human sacrifices to the latter. But it seems impossible to resist the conclusion that in 1 Kings xi, " Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites," in ver. 5, is the same as "Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon," in ver. 7. To avoid this Movers contends, not very convincingly, that the latter verse is by a dif- ferent hand. Be this as It may, in the reformation car- ried out by Josiah, the high place of Milcom, on the riglit hand of the mount of corruption, and Tophet in the valley of the children of Hlnnom were defiled, that " no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2 Kings xxiii, 10, 13). In the narrative of Chronicles these are included under the general term " Baalim," and the apostasy of Solomon is not once alluded to. Tophet soon appears to have been restored to its original uses, for we find it again alluded to, in the reign of Zedekiah, as the scene of child- slaughter and sacrifice to Molech (Jer. xxxii, 35). Kim- chi, following the Targum, takes the word ]\Illcom as an appellative, and not as a proper name, while with regard to sikkuth (n^lSO, A. V. " tabernacle") he holds the opposite opinion. His note is as follows : " Sikkuth is the name of an idol ; and (as for) malkekem he speaks of a star which was made an idol by its name, and he calls it 'king,' because they thought it a king over them, or because it was a great star in tlie host of heaven, which was as a king over his host ; and so ' to burn Incense to the gueen of heaven,' as I have explained in the book of Jeremiah." Gesenius compares with the " tabernacle" of Molech the sacred tent of the Cartha- ginians mentioned by Diodorus (xx, 65). Rosenmlil- ler, and after him Ewald, understood by sikkuth a pole or stake on which the figure of the idol was placed. It was more probably a kind of palanquin in which the image was carried in processions, a custom which is al- luded to in Isa. xlvi, 1 ; Epist. of Jer. 4 (Selden, Be Bis Si/r. synt. 1, c. 6).