RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Moloch
that the practise in question was one in honor of a deity one of whose titles was hammelek, " the king," whoever this deity was. Several considerations point to the application of this title to a number of West-Semitic deities, one of which is the case of Milcom (q.v.), whose name appears to be formed from the word, while a salient case, to be discussed later, is that of Melkarth (" king of the city ") of Tyre; and the method was not dissimilar from that by which Baal was applied to these and other gods.
Much stress has been laid upon the fact that the word, the consonants of which form the assumed god-name Moloch and the word for " king," is a frequent element in names, some of them divine, among the West Semites. Thus it appears in the Palmyrene Mlk-'el, " Mlk is god," or
4. Com- " a king is god " (M. Lidzbarski, Nordpounds semitische Epigraphik, Berlin, 1898);
of Mlk. among the West Syrians occurred the names Adrammelech, " Adar is king " and Anammelech, " Anu is king " (II Kings xvii. 31); in early Canaanitic history and among the Philistines were such names as Abimelech (Gen. xx., xxi., xxvi.), as also among the Hebrews (Judges viii. 31, ix.; I Chron. xviii. 16); kings of Byblos are known with the names Mlkshp' and Adarmlk, while other names from the same locality are Urumlk and the Grecized form Melkarthos (which gives a clue to the pronunciation and is against the pronunciation Moloch or Molech). The Tyrian Melkarth (melek karath, " king of the city," Gk. Melkarthos) is of great importance here, not only because it was probably from his worship that the cult was imported into Israel (see below) but because of the light which the formation of his name throws on the use of mlk as a divine name or as an element in such names. Mlk does not occur among Phenicians as in itself a divine or human name, only as an element in compound names; an instance of the occurrence alone as a proper name is found in the Hebrew in I Chron. viii. 35. In this usage mlk is to be compared with Baal, which was not originally a proper name (see Baal, § 2) but came to be applied to the local divinity in many places as his name. It is inherently probable that the same process was carried out with melek, " king," so that it, too, in conjunction with a further element, became practically a proper name. The forms Baalmlk, " Baal is king," Melchizedek, " a king is (the god) Zedek "(?) or "Melek is righteous" (cf. Zedekiah, " Yahfweh] is righteous "), Zdkmlk, " (the god) Zedek is king," Mlkythn, " Mlk has given," or " the king has given," Gdmlk, " Gad is king "(?), Malik-rammu, the name of an Edomitic king given on the Taylor prism of Sennacherib, Mlkb'l, a deity of Palmyra, 'bdmlk, " servant of Mlk " (quite decisive of mlk as a divine name), and 'hthmlk, " sister of mlk," from a (Phenician?) seal of the seventh century, are excellent examples from West Semitic sources and finely illustrate the use as a divine name or title of the word under consideration. It is pertinent that Malik is the Islamic name for the watchman of the lower regions. An array of names partly inclusive of the foregoing has been supposed to show that a deity Moloch or Molech was widely worshiped among the West Semites. But the argu- VII.— 29
ment fails for three reasons: First, the pronunciation of that element in the names cited is seldom known. In cases where these names are cited as compounded with Moloch, the pronunciation is assumed. Two excellent examples of this are given in Vigouroux, Dictionnaire, fasc. xxvii., col. 1226, where " Moloch-Baal " is twice given as the reading, though the text is unpointed and only mlkb'l appears in the inscription. Second, where the pronunciation is given at all, it does not appear in the form molok or molek, but in a form which suggests the local pronunciation of the word for " king," as in Melkarth; in the absence of definite knowledge of such a deity, the probabilities are against the vocalization assumed. Third, compounds apparently of the form cited above appear in the early periods of Hebrew history, though no trace appears of such a cult as that under discussion. Thus there are Melchishua, " king of help " or " Melek is help " (I Sam. xiv. 49); Abimelech (cited above). They exist also in the later periods, when there are met Nathan-melech, " a king has given " (II Kings xxiii. 11); Malchiram, "my king is exalted" or " Melek is exalted " (I Chron. hi. 18); The Ebedmelech of Jer. xxxviii. 7, xxxix. 16 is a Cushite (" Ethiopian "), whatever that may mean (see Cush), and so can not be counted to Israel; but his name extends perhaps the area in which this form was used; and in this particular it is to be put with Regemmelech (Zech. vii. 2). But Malchiah or Malchijah (I Chron. vi. 40, ix. 12; Ezra x. 25 and elsewhere) is Jewish. These are possibly to be brought into connection with the application of the honorific title of king applied to Yahweh (see below, § 8). The sum of the foregoing discussion is therefore adverse to a vocalization of the word in the form Moloch or Molech, and implicitly against the existence of a deity known by that name.
The cult in Israel, it is clear, was the sacrifice of children, often if not invariably the first-born, by fire. Ezek. xvi. 20-21, xxiii. 29 (cf. Isa. lvii. 5) seem to imply that the victims were killed before being placed in the fire; and the verb saraph in
passages like Jer. vii. 31, xix. 5; cf. 5. The Cult. Deut. xii. 31 would indicate merely
the characteristic method of completing the offering. Closer description of the method of making the offering as practised among the Hebrews is not obtainable, and the Christian and rabbinic accounts lack historical basis. At Carthage, a Phenician colony, according to Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheke historikS, xx. 14) the method was to place the victim on the hands of a colossal image, whence it rolled into a furnace of fire beneath. The Hebrew accounts furnish no basis for the supposition of such a method in Israel, and so notable an image could hardly have escaped description by the prophets. If the derivation of the practise was from Melkarth's worship (see below, § 7), it is to be noted that this deity was probably a sun god and that therefore his worship by fire was natural and appropriate. His symbols appear to have been two pillars, and he is reported to have been represented by the bull. Dr. William Hayes Ward knows of a representation of a bull with pyramidal or pointed back, from the breast of which two arms
Moloch