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class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Biblical attestations</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Biblical_attestations-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Biblical attestations subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Biblical_attestations-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-Masoretic_text" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Masoretic_text"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.1</span> <span>Masoretic text</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Masoretic_text-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Septuagint_and_New_Testament" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Septuagint_and_New_Testament"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2.2</span> <span>Septuagint and New Testament</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Septuagint_and_New_Testament-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Theories" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Theories"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Theories</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Theories-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Theories subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Theories-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-As_a_deity" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#As_a_deity"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1</span> <span>As a deity</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-As_a_deity-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-As_a_form_of_sacrifice" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#As_a_form_of_sacrifice"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.2</span> <span>As a form of sacrifice</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-As_a_form_of_sacrifice-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-As_a_divine_title" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#As_a_divine_title"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.3</span> <span>As a divine title</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-As_a_divine_title-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-As_a_rite_of_passage" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#As_a_rite_of_passage"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.4</span> <span>As a rite of passage</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-As_a_rite_of_passage-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Religious_interpretation" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Religious_interpretation"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>Religious interpretation</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-Religious_interpretation-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle Religious interpretation subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-Religious_interpretation-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-In_Judaism" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_Judaism"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4.1</span> <span>In Judaism</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_Judaism-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-In_Christianity" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_Christianity"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4.2</span> <span>In Christianity</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_Christianity-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-In_art_and_culture" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_art_and_culture"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>In art and culture</span> </div> </a> <button aria-controls="toc-In_art_and_culture-sublist" class="cdx-button cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only vector-toc-toggle"> <span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-expand"></span> <span>Toggle In art and culture subsection</span> </button> <ul id="toc-In_art_and_culture-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> <li id="toc-In_art" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_art"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.1</span> <span>In art</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_art-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-In_literature" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_literature"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.2</span> <span>In literature</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_literature-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-As_social_or_political_allegory" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#As_social_or_political_allegory"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.3</span> <span>As social or political allegory</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-As_social_or_political_allegory-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-In_film_and_television" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#In_film_and_television"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5.4</span> <span>In film and television</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-In_film_and_television-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Sources" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Sources"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8</span> <span>Sources</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Sources-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">9</span> <span>External links</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-External_links-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> </div> </div> <div class="mw-content-container"> <main id="content" class="mw-body"> <header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar"> <nav aria-label="Contents" class="vector-toc-landmark"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc" class="vector-dropdown vector-page-titlebar-toc vector-button-flush-left" title="Table of Contents" > <input type="checkbox" id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" 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Available in 41 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-41" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">41 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AE" title="مولوخ – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="مولوخ" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-az mw-list-item"><a href="https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molox" title="Molox – Azerbaijani" lang="az" hreflang="az" data-title="Molox" data-language-autonym="Azərbaycanca" data-language-local-name="Azerbaijani" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Azərbaycanca</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bg mw-list-item"><a href="https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%85_(%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B3)" title="Молох (бог) – Bulgarian" lang="bg" hreflang="bg" data-title="Молох (бог)" data-language-autonym="Български" data-language-local-name="Bulgarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Български</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-bar mw-list-item"><a href="https://bar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch" title="Moloch – Bavarian" lang="bar" hreflang="bar" data-title="Moloch" data-language-autonym="Boarisch" data-language-local-name="Bavarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Boarisch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ca mw-list-item"><a href="https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloc" title="Moloc – Catalan" lang="ca" hreflang="ca" data-title="Moloc" data-language-autonym="Català" data-language-local-name="Catalan" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Català</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-cs mw-list-item"><a href="https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch_(b%C5%AFh)" title="Moloch (bůh) – Czech" lang="cs" hreflang="cs" data-title="Moloch (bůh)" data-language-autonym="Čeština" data-language-local-name="Czech" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Čeština</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ary mw-list-item"><a href="https://ary.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AE" title="مولوخ – Moroccan Arabic" lang="ary" hreflang="ary" data-title="مولوخ" data-language-autonym="الدارجة" data-language-local-name="Moroccan Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>الدارجة</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch_(Religion)" title="Moloch (Religion) – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Moloch (Religion)" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-el mw-list-item"><a href="https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8E%CF%87" title="Μολώχ – Greek" lang="el" hreflang="el" data-title="Μολώχ" data-language-autonym="Ελληνικά" data-language-local-name="Greek" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Ελληνικά</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch" title="Moloch – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Moloch" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eo mw-list-item"><a href="https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molo%C4%A5o" title="Moloĥo – Esperanto" lang="eo" hreflang="eo" data-title="Moloĥo" data-language-autonym="Esperanto" data-language-local-name="Esperanto" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Esperanto</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-eu mw-list-item"><a href="https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotx" title="Molotx – Basque" lang="eu" hreflang="eu" data-title="Molotx" data-language-autonym="Euskara" data-language-local-name="Basque" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Euskara</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AE" title="مولوخ – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="مولوخ" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch" title="Moloch – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Moloch" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%AA%B0%EB%A1%9D" title="몰록 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="몰록" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D5%84%D5%B8%D5%B2%D5%B8%D6%84" title="Մողոք – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="Մողոք" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Հայերեն</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hi mw-list-item"><a href="https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%95" title="मोलोक – Hindi" lang="hi" hreflang="hi" data-title="मोलोक" data-language-autonym="हिन्दी" data-language-local-name="Hindi" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>हिन्दी</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hr mw-list-item"><a href="https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloh" title="Moloh – Croatian" lang="hr" hreflang="hr" data-title="Moloh" data-language-autonym="Hrvatski" data-language-local-name="Croatian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Hrvatski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-id mw-list-item"><a href="https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molokh" title="Molokh – Indonesian" lang="id" hreflang="id" data-title="Molokh" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Indonesia" data-language-local-name="Indonesian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Indonesia</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch_(divinit%C3%A0)" title="Moloch (divinità) – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Moloch (divinità)" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-he mw-list-item"><a href="https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%9A" title="מולך – Hebrew" lang="he" hreflang="he" data-title="מולך" data-language-autonym="עברית" data-language-local-name="Hebrew" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>עברית</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-lb mw-list-item"><a href="https://lb.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch" title="Moloch – Luxembourgish" lang="lb" hreflang="lb" data-title="Moloch" data-language-autonym="Lëtzebuergesch" data-language-local-name="Luxembourgish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Lëtzebuergesch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hu mw-list-item"><a href="https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch" title="Moloch – Hungarian" lang="hu" hreflang="hu" data-title="Moloch" data-language-autonym="Magyar" data-language-local-name="Hungarian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Magyar</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-mk mw-list-item"><a href="https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%85" title="Молох – Macedonian" lang="mk" hreflang="mk" data-title="Молох" data-language-autonym="Македонски" data-language-local-name="Macedonian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Македонски</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ms mw-list-item"><a href="https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch" title="Moloch – Malay" lang="ms" hreflang="ms" data-title="Moloch" data-language-autonym="Bahasa Melayu" data-language-local-name="Malay" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Bahasa Melayu</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch_(god)" title="Moloch (god) – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Moloch (god)" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ja mw-list-item"><a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%A2%E3%83%AC%E3%82%AF" title="モレク – Japanese" lang="ja" hreflang="ja" data-title="モレク" data-language-autonym="日本語" data-language-local-name="Japanese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>日本語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-no mw-list-item"><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molok" title="Molok – Norwegian Bokmål" lang="nb" hreflang="nb" data-title="Molok" data-language-autonym="Norsk bokmål" data-language-local-name="Norwegian Bokmål" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Norsk bokmål</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pl mw-list-item"><a href="https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch" title="Moloch – Polish" lang="pl" hreflang="pl" data-title="Moloch" data-language-autonym="Polski" data-language-local-name="Polish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Polski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloque" title="Moloque – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="Moloque" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ro mw-list-item"><a href="https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloh" title="Moloh – Romanian" lang="ro" hreflang="ro" data-title="Moloh" data-language-autonym="Română" data-language-local-name="Romanian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Română</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%85" title="Молох – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Молох" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sr mw-list-item"><a href="https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%85" title="Молох – Serbian" lang="sr" hreflang="sr" data-title="Молох" data-language-autonym="Српски / srpski" data-language-local-name="Serbian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Српски / srpski</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sh mw-list-item"><a href="https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloh" title="Moloh – Serbo-Croatian" lang="sh" hreflang="sh" data-title="Moloh" data-language-autonym="Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски" data-language-local-name="Serbo-Croatian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fi mw-list-item"><a href="https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moolok" title="Moolok – Finnish" lang="fi" hreflang="fi" data-title="Moolok" data-language-autonym="Suomi" data-language-local-name="Finnish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Suomi</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sv mw-list-item"><a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molok" title="Molok – Swedish" lang="sv" hreflang="sv" data-title="Molok" data-language-autonym="Svenska" data-language-local-name="Swedish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Svenska</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-tr mw-list-item"><a href="https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molek" title="Molek – Turkish" lang="tr" hreflang="tr" data-title="Molek" data-language-autonym="Türkçe" data-language-local-name="Turkish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Türkçe</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%85_(%D0%BC%D1%96%D1%84%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%96%D1%8F)" title="Молох (міфологія) – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Молох (міфологія)" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ur mw-list-item"><a href="https://ur.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AE" title="مولوخ – Urdu" lang="ur" hreflang="ur" data-title="مولوخ" data-language-autonym="اردو" data-language-local-name="Urdu" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>اردو</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-vi mw-list-item"><a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%E1%BA%A7n_Moloch" title="Thần Moloch – Vietnamese" lang="vi" hreflang="vi" data-title="Thần Moloch" data-language-autonym="Tiếng Việt" data-language-local-name="Vietnamese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tiếng Việt</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%91%A9%E6%B4%9B%E5%85%8B" title="摩洛克 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="摩洛克" 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<div id="contentSub"><div id="mw-content-subtitle"></div></div> <div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Term which is used for a Canaanite deity or a form of sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">This article is about the term in the Hebrew Bible. For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/Moloch_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="Moloch (disambiguation)">Moloch (disambiguation)</a>.</div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Foster_Bible_Pictures_0074-1_Offering_to_Molech.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Foster_Bible_Pictures_0074-1_Offering_to_Molech.jpg/250px-Foster_Bible_Pictures_0074-1_Offering_to_Molech.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="246" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Foster_Bible_Pictures_0074-1_Offering_to_Molech.jpg/330px-Foster_Bible_Pictures_0074-1_Offering_to_Molech.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Foster_Bible_Pictures_0074-1_Offering_to_Molech.jpg/500px-Foster_Bible_Pictures_0074-1_Offering_to_Molech.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1494" data-file-height="1672" /></a><figcaption>''Offering to Molech'' in <i>Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us</i>, by Charles Foster, 1897. The drawing is typical of Moloch depictions in nineteenth-century illustrations.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></figcaption></figure> <p><b>Moloch</b>, <b>Molech</b>, or <b>Molek</b><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>a<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> is a word which appears in the <a href="/wiki/Hebrew_Bible" title="Hebrew Bible">Hebrew Bible</a> several times, primarily in the <a href="/wiki/Book_of_Leviticus" title="Book of Leviticus">Book of Leviticus</a>. The Greek <a href="/wiki/Septuagint" title="Septuagint">Septuagint</a> translates many of these instances as "their king", but maintains the word or name <i>Moloch</i> in others, including one additional time in the <a href="/wiki/Book_of_Amos" title="Book of Amos">Book of Amos</a> where the Hebrew text does not attest the name. The <a href="/wiki/Bible" title="Bible">Bible</a> strongly condemns practices that are associated with Moloch, which are heavily implied to include <a href="/wiki/Child_sacrifice" title="Child sacrifice">child sacrifice</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013134–144_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013134–144-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Traditionally, the name <i>Moloch</i> has been understood as referring to a <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Canaanite_religion#Deities" class="mw-redirect" title="Ancient Canaanite religion">Canaanite god</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000209_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000209-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> However, since 1935, scholars have speculated that Moloch refers to the sacrifice <i>itself</i>, since the Hebrew word <i>mlk</i> is identical in spelling to a term that means "sacrifice" in the closely related <a href="/wiki/Punic_language" title="Punic language">Punic language</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This second position has grown increasingly popular, but it remains contested.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013147_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013147-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Among proponents of this second position, controversy continues as to whether the sacrifices were offered to <a href="/wiki/Yahweh" title="Yahweh">Yahweh</a> or another deity, and whether they were a native Israelite religious custom or a <a href="/wiki/Phoenicia" title="Phoenicia">Phoenician</a> import.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265_7-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013265-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Since the <a href="/wiki/Middle_Ages" title="Middle Ages">medieval period</a>, Moloch has often been portrayed as a bull-headed idol with outstretched hands over a fire; this depiction takes the brief mentions of Moloch in the Bible and combines them with various sources, including ancient accounts of <a href="/wiki/Tophet#Carthage_and_the_western_Mediterranean" title="Tophet">Carthaginian child sacrifice</a> and the legend of the <a href="/wiki/Minotaur" title="Minotaur">Minotaur</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004429–439_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERundin2004429–439-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Beginning in the <a href="/wiki/Modern_era" title="Modern era">modern era</a>, "Moloch" has been figuratively used in reference to a power which demands a dire sacrifice.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> A god Moloch appears in various works of literature and film, such as <a href="/wiki/John_Milton" title="John Milton">John Milton</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Paradise_Lost" title="Paradise Lost">Paradise Lost</a></i> (1667), <a href="/wiki/Gustave_Flaubert" title="Gustave Flaubert">Gustave Flaubert</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Salammb%C3%B4" title="Salammbô">Salammbô</a></i> (1862), <a href="/wiki/Fritz_Lang" title="Fritz Lang">Fritz Lang</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)" title="Metropolis (1927 film)">Metropolis</a></i> (1927), and <a href="/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg" title="Allen Ginsberg">Allen Ginsberg</a>'s "<a href="/wiki/Howl_(poem)" title="Howl (poem)">Howl</a>" (1955). </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Etymology">Etymology</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Etymology"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Valley_of_Hinom_PA180093.JPG" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Valley_of_Hinom_PA180093.JPG/220px-Valley_of_Hinom_PA180093.JPG" decoding="async" width="220" height="294" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Valley_of_Hinom_PA180093.JPG/330px-Valley_of_Hinom_PA180093.JPG 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Valley_of_Hinom_PA180093.JPG/440px-Valley_of_Hinom_PA180093.JPG 2x" data-file-width="1712" data-file-height="2288" /></a><figcaption>Tombs in the <a href="/wiki/Valley_of_Hinnom_(Gehenna)" class="mw-redirect" title="Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna)">Valley of Hinnom</a>, the location of the <a href="/wiki/Tophet" title="Tophet">tophet</a>, just outside the city of ancient Jerusalem, where Moloch rituals were performed according to <a href="/wiki/2_Kings" class="mw-redirect" title="2 Kings">2 Kings</a> 23:10.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000212_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000212-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></figcaption></figure> <p>The etymology of Moloch is uncertain: a derivation from the root <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">mlk</i></span>, which means "to rule" is "widely recognized".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Since it was first proposed by <a href="/wiki/Abraham_Geiger" title="Abraham Geiger">Abraham Geiger</a> in 1857, some scholars have argued that the word "Moloch" has been altered by using the vowels of <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">bōšet</i></span> "shame".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000128_12-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000128-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Other scholars have argued that the name is a <a href="/wiki/Qal_(linguistics)" title="Qal (linguistics)"><i>qal</i> participle</a> from the same verb.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> R. M. Kerr criticizes both theories by noting that the name of no other god appears to have been formed from a <i>qal</i> participle, and that Geiger's proposal is "an out-of-date theory which has never received any factual support".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKerr201867_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKerr201867-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Paul Mosca, Professor Emeritus at the <a href="/wiki/University_of_British_Columbia" title="University of British Columbia">University of British Columbia</a>, similarly argued that "the theory that a form <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">molek</i></span> would immediately suggest to the reader or hearer the word <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">boset</i></span> (rather than <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">qodes</i></span> or <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">ohel</i></span>) is the product of nineteenth century ingenuity, not of Massoretic [<i><a href="/wiki/Sic" title="Sic">sic</a></i>] or pre-Massoretic tendentiousness".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMosca1975127_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMosca1975127-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Scholars who do not believe that Moloch represents a deity instead compare the name to inscriptions in the closely related <a href="/wiki/Punic_(language)" class="mw-redirect" title="Punic (language)">Punic language</a> where the word <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> (<span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">molk</i></span> or <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mulk</i></span>) refers to a type of sacrifice, a connection first proposed by <a href="/wiki/Otto_Eissfeldt" title="Otto Eissfeldt">Otto Eissfeldt</a> (1935).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581–582_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581–582-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Eissfeldt himself, following <a href="/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Chabot" title="Jean-Baptiste Chabot">Jean-Baptiste Chabot</a>, connected Punic <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> and <i>Moloch</i> to a <a href="/wiki/Syriac_language" title="Syriac language">Syriac</a> verb <span title="Classical Syriac-language text"><i lang="syc">mlk</i></span> meaning "to promise", a theory also supported as "the least problematic solution" by Heath Dewrell (2017).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017127–128_17-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017127–128-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Eissfeldt's proposed meaning included both the act and the object of sacrifice.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Scholars such as W. von Soden argue that the term is a <a href="/wiki/Nominalization" title="Nominalization">nominalized</a> causative form of the verb <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">ylk/wlk</i></span>, meaning "to offer", "present", and thus means "the act of presenting" or "thing presented".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Kerr instead derives both the Punic and Hebrew word from the verb <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">mlk</i></span>, which he proposes meant "to own", "to possess" in <a href="/wiki/Proto-Semitic" class="mw-redirect" title="Proto-Semitic">Proto-Semitic</a>, only later coming to mean "to rule"; the meaning of Moloch would thus originally have been "present", "gift", and later come to mean "sacrifice".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKerr2018_19-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKerr2018-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The spelling "Moloch" follows the Greek <a href="/wiki/Septuagint" title="Septuagint">Septuagint</a> and the Latin <a href="/wiki/Vulgate" title="Vulgate">Vulgate</a>; the spelling "Molech" or "Molek" follows the <a href="/wiki/Tiberian_vocalization" title="Tiberian vocalization">Tiberian vocalization</a> of Hebrew, with "Molech" used in the English <a href="/wiki/King_James_Bible" class="mw-redirect" title="King James Bible">King James Bible</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20174_20-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20174-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Biblical_attestations">Biblical attestations</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Biblical attestations"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Masoretic_text">Masoretic text</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Masoretic text"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951" /><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/Textual_variants_in_the_Book_of_Leviticus#Leviticus_18" title="Textual variants in the Book of Leviticus">Textual variants in the Book of Leviticus § Leviticus 18</a></div> <p>The word <i>Moloch</i> (מלך) occurs eight times in the <a href="/wiki/Masoretic_text" class="mw-redirect" title="Masoretic text">Masoretic text</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hebrew_Bible" title="Hebrew Bible">the standard Hebrew text of the Bible</a>. Five of these are in <a href="/wiki/Leviticus" class="mw-redirect" title="Leviticus">Leviticus</a>, with one in <a href="/wiki/1_Kings" class="mw-redirect" title="1 Kings">1 Kings</a>, one in <a href="/wiki/2_Kings" class="mw-redirect" title="2 Kings">2 Kings</a> and another in <a href="/wiki/The_Book_of_Jeremiah" class="mw-redirect" title="The Book of Jeremiah">The Book of Jeremiah</a>. Seven instances include the Hebrew <a href="/wiki/Definite_article" class="mw-redirect" title="Definite article">definite article</a> <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">ha-</i></span> ('the') or have a prepositional form indicating the presence of the definite article.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> All of these texts condemn Israelites who engage in practices associated with Moloch, and most associate Moloch with the use of children as offerings.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143–144_21-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143–144-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Leviticus repeatedly forbids the practice of offering children to Moloch: </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1244412712">.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}}</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them apart to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the L<span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">ORD</span>.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0318.htm#21">Leviticus 18:21</a></cite></div></blockquote> <p>The majority of the Leviticus references come from a single passage of four lines:<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583_22-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712" /><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Moreover, thou shalt say to the children of Israel: Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall <a href="/wiki/Stoning" title="Stoning">stone him with stones</a>. I also will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile My sanctuary, and to profane My holy name. And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and put him not to death; then I will set My face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go astray after him, to go astray after Molech, from among their people.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0320.htm#2">Leviticus 20:2–5</a></cite></div></blockquote> <p>In 1 Kings, Solomon is portrayed as introducing the cult of Moloch to Jerusalem: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712" /><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the detestation of Moab, in the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestation of the children of Ammon.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=1%20Kings%2011:7&version=nrsv">1 Kings 11:7</a></cite></div></blockquote> <p>This is the sole instance of the name Moloch occurring without the definite article in the Masoretic text: it may offer a historical origin of the Moloch cult in the Bible,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> or it may be a mistake for <a href="/wiki/Milcom" title="Milcom">Milcom</a>, the <a href="/wiki/Ammon" title="Ammon">Ammonite</a> god (thus the reading in some manuscripts of the <a href="#Septugaint_and_New_Testament">Septuagint</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In 2 Kings, Moloch is associated with the <a href="/wiki/Tophet" title="Tophet">tophet</a> in the valley of <a href="/wiki/Gehenna" title="Gehenna">Gehenna</a> when it is destroyed by king <a href="/wiki/Josiah" title="Josiah">Josiah</a>: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712" /><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt09b23.htm#10">2 Kings 23:10</a></cite></div></blockquote> <p>The same activity of causing children "to pass over the fire" is mentioned, without reference to Moloch, in numerous other verses of the Bible, such as in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 12:31, 18:10), 2 Kings (2 Kings 16:3; 17:17; 17:31; 21:6), 2 Chronicles (2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6), the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:31, 19:5) and the Book of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:21; 20:26, 31; 23:37).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Lastly, the prophet <a href="/wiki/Jeremiah" title="Jeremiah">Jeremiah</a> condemns practices associated with Moloch as showing infidelity to <a href="/wiki/Yahweh" title="Yahweh">Yahweh</a>:<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712" /><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>And they built the <a href="/wiki/High_place" title="High place">high places</a> of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to set apart their sons and their daughters unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into My mind, that they should do this abomination; to cause Judah to sin.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Jeremiah%2032:35&version=nrsv">Jeremiah 32:35</a></cite></div></blockquote> <p>Given the name's similarity to the Hebrew word <span title="Biblical Hebrew-language romanization"><i lang="hbo-Latn">melek</i></span> "king", scholars have also searched the Masoretic text to find instances of <span title="Biblical Hebrew-language romanization"><i lang="hbo-Latn">melek</i></span> that may be mistakes for Moloch. Most scholars consider only one instance as likely a mistake, in Isaiah:<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999585_25-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999585-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712" /><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>For a hearth is ordered of old; yea, for the king [<span title="Biblical Hebrew-language romanization"><i lang="hbo-Latn">melek</i></span>] it is prepared, deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the L<span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;">ORD</span>, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1030.htm#33">Isaiah 30:33</a></cite></div></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Septuagint_and_New_Testament">Septuagint and New Testament</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Septuagint and New Testament"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The standard text of the <a href="/wiki/Septuagint" title="Septuagint">Septuagint</a>, the Greek version of the Old Testament, contains the name "Moloch" (Μολόχ) at 2 Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 30:35, as in the Masoretic text, but without an article.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Moreover, the Septuagint uses the name Moloch in <a href="/wiki/Book_of_Amos" title="Book of Amos">Amos</a> where it is not found in the Masoretic text: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712" /><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>You even took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Raiphan, models of them which you made for yourselves.</p><div class="templatequotecite">— <cite>Amos 5:26,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPietersmaWright2014793_26-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPietersmaWright2014793-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> cf. Masoretic <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1505.htm#26">Amos 5:26</a></cite></div></blockquote> <p>Additionally, some Greek manuscripts of <a href="/wiki/Book_of_Zephaniah" title="Book of Zephaniah">Zephaniah</a> 1:5 contain the name "Moloch" or "Milcom" rather than the Masoretic text's "their king," the reading also found in the standard Septuagint. Many English translations follow one or the other of these variants, reading either "Moloch" or "Milcom".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWerse2018505_27-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEWerse2018505-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> However, instead of "Moloch", the <a href="/wiki/Septuagint" title="Septuagint">Septuagint</a> translates the instances of Moloch in Leviticus as "ruler" (<span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%84%CF%81%CF%87%CF%89%CE%BD" class="extiw" title="wikt:ἄρχων">ἄρχων</a></span></span>), and as "king" (<span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B2%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%B5%CF%8D%CF%82" class="extiw" title="wikt:βασιλεύς">βασιλεύς</a></span></span>) at 1 Kings 11:7.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>b<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The Greek version of Amos with Moloch is quoted in the <a href="/wiki/New_Testament" title="New Testament">New Testament</a> and accounts for the one occurrence of Moloch there (<a href="/wiki/Book_of_Acts" class="mw-redirect" title="Book of Acts">Acts</a> 7:43).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Theories">Theories</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Theories"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="As_a_deity">As a deity</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: As a deity"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Idol_Moloch.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Idol_Moloch.jpg/220px-Idol_Moloch.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="159" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Idol_Moloch.jpg/330px-Idol_Moloch.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Idol_Moloch.jpg/440px-Idol_Moloch.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1024" data-file-height="738" /></a><figcaption>Artist's view of a sacrifice to Moloch in <i>Bible Pictures with brief descriptions</i> by Charles Foster, 1897</figcaption></figure> <p>Before 1935, all scholars held that Moloch was a pagan deity,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000209_4-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000209-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> to whom child sacrifice was offered at the Jerusalem <a href="/wiki/Tophet" title="Tophet">tophet</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Some modern scholars have proposed that Moloch may be the same god as Milcom, <a href="/wiki/Adad-Milki" class="mw-redirect" title="Adad-Milki">Adad-Milki</a>, or an epithet for <a href="/wiki/Baal" title="Baal">Baal</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000213_29-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000213-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>G. C. Heider and John Day connect Moloch with a deity <i>Mlk</i> attested at <a href="/wiki/Ugarit" title="Ugarit">Ugarit</a> and <i>Malik</i> attested in <a href="/wiki/Mesopotamia" title="Mesopotamia">Mesopotamia</a> and proposes that he was a god of the <a href="/wiki/Underworld" title="Underworld">underworld</a>, as in Mesopotamia <i>Malik</i> is twice equated with the underworld god <a href="/wiki/Nergal" title="Nergal">Nergal</a>. Day also notes that Isaiah seems to associate Moloch with <a href="/wiki/Sheol" title="Sheol">Sheol</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000213–215_30-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000213–215-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The Ugaritic deity <i>Mlk</i> also appears to be associated with the underworld,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583_22-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and the similarly named <a href="/wiki/Phoenician_religion" class="mw-redirect" title="Phoenician religion">Phoenician</a> god <a href="/wiki/Melqart" title="Melqart">Melqart</a> (literally "king of the city") could have underworld associations if "city" is understood to mean "underworld", as proposed by <a href="/wiki/William_F._Albright" title="William F. Albright">William F. Albright</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583_22-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Heider also argued that there was also an <a href="/wiki/Akkadian_language" title="Akkadian language">Akkadian</a> term <span title="Akkadian-language text"><i lang="akk">maliku</i></span> referring to the shades of the dead.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201728–29_31-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201728–29-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The notion that Moloch is the name of a deity has been challenged for several reasons. Moloch is rarely mentioned in the Bible, is not mentioned at all outside of it, and connections to other deities with similar names are uncertain.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Moreover, it is possible that some of the supposed deities named <i>Mlk</i> are epithets for another god, given that <i>mlk</i> can also mean "king".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013146_32-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013146-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The Israelite rite conforms, on the other hand, to the Punic <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> rite in that both involved the sacrifice of children.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201735_33-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201735-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> None of the proposed gods Moloch could be identified with are associated with human sacrifice, the god <i>Mlk</i> of Ugarit appears to have only received animal sacrifice, and the <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> sacrifice is never offered to a god named <i>Mlk</i> but rather to another deity.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Brian Schmidt argues that the use of Moloch without an article at 1 Kings 11:7 and the use of Moloch as a proper name without an article in the Septuagint may indicate that there was a tradition of a god Moloch when the Bible was originally composed. However, this god may have only existed in the imagination of the composers of the Bible rather than in historical reality.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="As_a_form_of_sacrifice">As a form of sacrifice</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: As a form of sacrifice"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:St%C3%A8les_tophet_Carthage.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/St%C3%A8les_tophet_Carthage.jpg/250px-St%C3%A8les_tophet_Carthage.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="165" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/St%C3%A8les_tophet_Carthage.jpg/330px-St%C3%A8les_tophet_Carthage.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/St%C3%A8les_tophet_Carthage.jpg/500px-St%C3%A8les_tophet_Carthage.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1280" data-file-height="960" /></a><figcaption><a href="/wiki/Stele" title="Stele">Stelas</a> from the <a href="/wiki/Tophet" title="Tophet">Tophet</a> in <a href="/wiki/Carthage" title="Carthage">Carthage</a>, where <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> sacrifices or rituals are attested via inscription.</figcaption></figure> <p>In 1935, <a href="/wiki/Otto_Eissfeldt" title="Otto Eissfeldt">Otto Eissfeldt</a> proposed, on the basis of <a href="/wiki/Punic_(language)" class="mw-redirect" title="Punic (language)">Punic inscriptions</a>, that Moloch was a form of sacrifice rather than a deity.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Punic inscriptions commonly associate the word <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> with three other words: <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">ʾmr</i></span> (lamb), <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">bʿl</i></span> (citizen) and <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">ʾdm</i></span> (human being). <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">bʿl</i></span> and <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">ʾdm</i></span> never occur in the same description and appear to be interchangeable.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013269_34-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013269-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Other words that sometimes occur are <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">bšr</i></span> (flesh).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> When put together with <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span>, these words indicate a "<span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span>-sacrifice consisting of...".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013269_34-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013269-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The Biblical term <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">lammolekh</i></span> would thus be translated not as "to Moloch", as normally translated, but as "as a molk-sacrifice", a meaning consistent with uses of the Hebrew preposition <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">la</i></span> elsewhere.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007144–145_35-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007144–145-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Bennie Reynolds further argues that Jeremiah's use of <i>Moloch</i> in conjunction with <a href="/wiki/Baal" title="Baal">Baal</a> in Jer 32:35 is parallel to his use of "burnt offering" and Baal in Jeremiah 19:4–5.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007445–446_36-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007445–446-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The view that Moloch refers to a type of sacrifice was challenged by John Day and George Heider in the 1980s.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144–145_37-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144–145-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Day and Heider argued that it was unlikely that biblical commentators had misunderstood an earlier term for a sacrifice as a deity and that Leviticus 20:5's mention of "whoring after Moloch" necessarily implied that Moloch was a god.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000209–210_38-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000209–210-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999582–583_39-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999582–583-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Day and Heider nevertheless accepted that <i>mlk</i> was a sacrificial term in Punic, but argue that it did not originate in Phoenicia and that it was not brought back to Phoenicia by the Punic diaspora. More recently, Anthony Frendo argues that the Hebrew equivalent to Punic <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">ylk</i></span> (the root of Punic <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span>) is the verb <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">‘br</i></span> "to pass over"; in Frendo's view, this means that the Hebrew Moloch is not derived from the same root as Punic <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016349_40-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016349-40"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Since Day's and Heider's objections, a growing number of scholars have come to believe that Moloch refers to the <i>mulk</i> sacrifice rather than a deity.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013147_6-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013147-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Francesca_Stavrakopoulou" title="Francesca Stavrakopoulou">Francesca Stavrakopoulou</a> argues that "because both Heider and Day accept Eissfeldt's interpretation of Phoenician-Punic <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> as a sacrificial term, their positions are at once compromised by the possibility that biblical <span title="Hebrew-language text"><i lang="he">mōlekh</i></span> could well function in a similar way as a technical term for a type of sacrifice".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013145_41-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013145-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> She further argues that "whoring after Moloch" does not need to imply a deity as <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> refers to both the act of sacrificing and the thing sacrificed, allowing an interpretation of "whor[ing] after the mlk-offering".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013145_41-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013145-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Heath Dewrell argues that the translation of Leviticus 20:5 in the <a href="/wiki/Septuagint" title="Septuagint">Septuagint</a>, which substitutes <a href="/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language">Greek</a>: <span lang="el">ἄρχοντας</span> "<a href="/wiki/Archon" title="Archon">archons</a>, princes" for <i>Moloch</i>, implies that the biblical <a href="/wiki/Urtext_(biblical_studies)" title="Urtext (biblical studies)">urtext</a> did not include the phrase "whoring after Moloch".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201730–35_42-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201730–35-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>40<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Bennie Reynolds further notes that at least one inscription from <a href="/wiki/Tyre,_Lebanon" title="Tyre, Lebanon">Tyre</a> does appear to mention <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> sacrifice (<i>RES</i> 367); therefore Day and Heider are incorrect that the practice is unattested in Canaan (Phoenicia). Reynolds also argues for further parallels.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007146–150_43-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007146–150-43"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>41<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> However, Dewrell argues that the inscription is probably a modern forgery based on the unusual layout of the text and linguistic abnormalities, among other reasons.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell2016496–499_44-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell2016496–499-44"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Among scholars who believe that Moloch refers to a form of sacrifice, debate remains as to whether the Israelite <i>mlk</i> sacrifices were offered to Yahweh or another deity.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265_7-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013265-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Armin Lange suggests that the <a href="/wiki/Binding_of_Isaac" title="Binding of Isaac">Binding of Isaac</a> represents a <i>mlk</i>-sacrifice to Yahweh in which the child is finally substituted with a sheep, noting that Isaac was meant to be a burnt offering.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELange2007127_45-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELange2007127-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>43<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This opinion is shared by Stavrakopoulou, who also points to the sacrifice of <a href="/wiki/Jephthah" title="Jephthah">Jephthah</a> of his daughter as a burnt offering.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Frendo, while he argues that <i>Moloch</i> refers to a god, accepts Stavrakopoulou's argument that the sacrifices in the tophet were originally to Yahweh.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016363–364_46-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016363–364-46"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>44<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Dewrell argues that although <span title="Punic-language text"><i lang="xpu">mlk</i></span> sacrifices were offered to Yahweh, they were distinct from other forms of human or child sacrifice found in the Bible (such as that of Jephthah) and were a foreign custom imported by the Israelites from the Phoenicians during the reign of <a href="/wiki/Ahaz" title="Ahaz">Ahaz</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017144–146_47-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017144–146-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="As_a_divine_title">As a divine title</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: As a divine title"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951" /><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/Malik#Etymology" title="Malik">Malik § Etymology</a></div> <p>Because the name "Moloch" is almost always accompanied by the definite article in Hebrew, it is possible that it is a title meaning "the king", as it is sometimes translated in the <a href="#Septuagint_and_New_Testament">Septuagint</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In the twentieth century, the philosopher <a href="/wiki/Martin_Buber" title="Martin Buber">Martin Buber</a> proposed that "Moloch" referred to "Melekh Yahweh".<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20177_48-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20177-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>46<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> A similar view was later expressed by T. Römer (1999).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201720_49-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201720-49"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Brian Schmidt, however, argues that the mention of Baal in Jeremiah 32:35 suggests that "the ruler" could have instead referred to Baal.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="As_a_rite_of_passage">As a rite of passage</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: As a rite of passage"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>A minority of scholars,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> mainly scholars of <a href="/wiki/Punic" class="mw-redirect" title="Punic">Punic</a> studies,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265_7-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013265-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> has argued that the ceremonies to Moloch are in fact a non-lethal dedication ceremony rather than a sacrifice. These theories are partially supported by commentary in the <a href="/wiki/Talmud" title="Talmud">Talmud</a> and among early Jewish commentators of the Bible.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Rejecting such arguments, Paolo Xella and Francesca Stavrakopoulou note that the Bible explicitly connects the ritual to Moloch at the tophet with the verbs indicating slaughter, killing in sacrifice, deities "eating" the children, and <a href="/wiki/Holocaust_(sacrifice)" title="Holocaust (sacrifice)">holocaust</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Xella also refers to Carthaginian and Phoenician child sacrifice found referenced in Greco-Roman sources.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265–266_50-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013265–266-50"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Religious_interpretation">Religious interpretation</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Religious interpretation"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_Judaism">In Judaism</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: In Judaism"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Moloch_the_god.gif" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Moloch_the_god.gif/250px-Moloch_the_god.gif" decoding="async" width="220" height="388" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Moloch_the_god.gif 1.5x" data-file-width="319" data-file-height="561" /></a><figcaption><span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Der Götze Moloch mit 7 Räumen oder Capellen</i></span>; "The idol Moloch with seven chambers or chapels" in <span title="German-language text"><i lang="de">Die Alten Jüdischen Heiligthümer</i></span>, by <a href="/wiki/Johann_Lund" title="Johann Lund">Johann Lund</a>, early eighteenth century. The illustration contains elements derived from the medieval rabbinical tradition.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></figcaption></figure> <p>The oldest classical rabbinical texts, the <a href="/wiki/Mishnah" title="Mishnah">mishnah</a> (3rd century CE) and <a href="/wiki/Talmud" title="Talmud">Talmud</a> (200s CE) include the Leviticus prohibitions of giving one's seed to Moloch, but do not clearly describe what this might have historically entailed.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELockshin2021-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Early <a href="/wiki/Midrash" title="Midrash">midrash</a> regarded the prohibition to giving one's seed to Moloch at Leviticus 21:18 as no longer applicable in a literal sense. The <a href="/wiki/Mekhilta_of_Rabbi_Ishmael" title="Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael">Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael</a> explains that Moloch refers to any foreign religion, while <a href="/wiki/Megillah_(Talmud)" title="Megillah (Talmud)">Megillah</a> in the <a href="/wiki/Babylonian_Talmud" class="mw-redirect" title="Babylonian Talmud">Babylonian Talmud</a> explains that Moloch refers to the gentiles.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKasher1988566_52-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKasher1988566-52"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>50<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Likewise, the <a href="/wiki/Late_Antiquity" class="mw-redirect" title="Late Antiquity">late antique</a> <a href="/wiki/Targum_Neofiti" title="Targum Neofiti">Targum Neofiti</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Targum_Pseudo-Jonathan" title="Targum Pseudo-Jonathan">Targum Pseudo-Jonathan</a>, interpret the verse to mean a Jewish man having sex with a gentile.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261_53-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261-53"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>51<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The earlier <a href="/wiki/Book_of_Jubilees" title="Book of Jubilees">Book of Jubilees</a> (2nd century BCE) shows that this reinterpretation was known already during the <a href="/wiki/Second_Temple_Period" class="mw-redirect" title="Second Temple Period">Second Temple Period</a>; Jubilees uses the story of <a href="/wiki/Dinah" title="Dinah">Dinah</a> to show that marrying one's daughter to a gentile was also forbidden (Jubilees 30:10).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261–262_54-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261–262-54"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>52<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Such non-literal interpretations are condemned in the Mishnah (Megilla 4:9).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELockshin2021-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Medieval rabbis argued about whether the prohibition of giving to Moloch referred to sacrifice or something else. For instance, <a href="/wiki/Menachem_Meiri" class="mw-redirect" title="Menachem Meiri">Menachem Meiri</a> (1249–1315) argued that "giving one's seed unto Moloch" referred to an initiation rite and not a form of idolatry or sacrifice.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELockshin2021-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Other rabbis disagreed. The 8th or 9th-century midrash <a href="/wiki/Tan%E1%B8%A5uma#Tanḥuma_B,_or_Yelammedenu" class="mw-redirect" title="Tanḥuma">Tanḥuma B</a>, gives a detailed description of Moloch worship in which the Moloch idol has the face of a calf and offerings are placed in its outstretched hands to be burned.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELockshin2021-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This portrayal has no basis in the Bible or Talmud and probably derives from sources such as <a href="/wiki/Diodorus_Siculus" title="Diodorus Siculus">Diodorus Siculus</a> on Carthaginian child sacrifice as well as various other classical portrayals of gruesome sacrifice.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004430_55-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERundin2004430-55"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>53<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore1897162_56-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMoore1897162-56"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>54<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The rabbis <a href="/wiki/Rashi" title="Rashi">Rashi</a> (1040–1105) and <a href="/wiki/Joseph_ben_Isaac_Bekhor_Shor" title="Joseph ben Isaac Bekhor Shor">Joseph ben Isaac Bekhor Shor</a> (12th century) may rely on Tanḥuma B when they provide their own description of Moloch sacrifices in their commentaries.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTELockshin2021-51"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>49<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The medieval rabbinical tradition also associated Moloch with other similarly named deities mentioned in the Bible such as <a href="/wiki/Milcom" title="Milcom">Milcom</a>, <a href="/wiki/Adrammelek" class="mw-redirect" title="Adrammelek">Adrammelek</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Anammelech" title="Anammelech">Anammelech</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider19852_57-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider19852-57"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>55<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_Christianity">In Christianity</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: In Christianity"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The <a href="/wiki/Church_fathers" class="mw-redirect" title="Church fathers">Church fathers</a> only discuss Moloch occasionally,<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider19852_57-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider19852-57"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>55<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> mostly in commentaries on the Book of Amos or the Acts of the Apostles (where <a href="/wiki/Saint_Stephen" title="Saint Stephen">Stephen</a> summarizes the Old Testament before being martyred). Early Christian commentators mostly either used Moloch to show the sinfulness of the Jews or to exhort Christians to morality.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGemeinhardt2021_58-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEGemeinhardt2021-58"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>56<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Discussion of Moloch is also rare during the medieval period, and was mostly limited to providing descriptions of what the commentators believed Moloch sacrifice entailed.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBenjamin2021_59-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBenjamin2021-59"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>57<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Such descriptions, as found in <a href="/wiki/Nicholas_of_Lyra" title="Nicholas of Lyra">Nicholas of Lyra</a> (1270–1349), derive from the rabbinical tradition.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore1897161_60-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMoore1897161-60"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>58<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>During the <a href="/wiki/Protestant_Reformation" class="mw-redirect" title="Protestant Reformation">Reformation</a>, on the other hand, protestant commentators such as <a href="/wiki/John_Calvin" title="John Calvin">John Calvin</a> and <a href="/wiki/Martin_Luther" title="Martin Luther">Martin Luther</a> used Moloch as a warning against falling into idolatry and to disparage Catholic practices.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBenjamin2021_59-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBenjamin2021-59"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>57<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses" title="Jehovah's Witnesses">Jehovah's Witnesses</a> understand Moloch as a god of worship of the state, following ideas first expressed by Scottish minister <a href="/wiki/Alexander_Hislop" title="Alexander Hislop">Alexander Hislop</a> (1807–1865).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChryssides2021_61-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChryssides2021-61"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>59<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="In_art_and_culture">In art and culture</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: In art and culture"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951" /><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Moloch_in_literature_and_popular_culture" title="Moloch in literature and popular culture">Moloch in literature and popular culture</a></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_art">In art</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: In art"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Onthemorningthomas5.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Onthemorningthomas5.jpg/250px-Onthemorningthomas5.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="284" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Onthemorningthomas5.jpg/330px-Onthemorningthomas5.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Onthemorningthomas5.jpg/440px-Onthemorningthomas5.jpg 2x" data-file-width="496" data-file-height="640" /></a><figcaption> <i><a href="/wiki/William_Blake%27s_illustrations_of_On_the_Morning_of_Christ%27s_Nativity" title="William Blake's illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity">The Flight of Moloch</a></i>, by <a href="/wiki/William_Blake" title="William Blake">William Blake</a>, 1809. The work illustrates a scene from <a href="/wiki/John_Milton" title="John Milton">John Milton</a>'s "<a href="/wiki/On_the_Morning_of_Christ%27s_Nativity" title="On the Morning of Christ's Nativity">On the Morning of Christ's Nativity</a>". </figcaption></figure> <p>Images of Moloch did not grow popular until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Western culture began to experience a fascination with demons.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> These images tend to portray Moloch as a bull- or lion-headed humanoid idol, sometimes with wings, with arms outstretched over a fire, onto which the sacrificial child is placed.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004429–439_8-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERundin2004429–439-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This portrayal can be traced to medieval Jewish commentaries such as that by <a href="/wiki/Rashi" title="Rashi">Rashi</a>, which connected the biblical Moloch with depictions of <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Carthage" title="Ancient Carthage">Carthaginian</a> sacrifice to <a href="/wiki/Cronus" title="Cronus">Cronus</a> (<a href="/wiki/Baal_Hammon" title="Baal Hammon">Baal Hammon</a>) found in sources such as <a href="/wiki/Diodorus" class="mw-redirect" title="Diodorus">Diodorus</a>, with George Foot Moore suggesting that the bull's head may derive from the mythological <a href="/wiki/Minotaur" title="Minotaur">Minotaur</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore1897165_62-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMoore1897165-62"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>60<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> John S. Rundin suggests that further sources for the image are the legend of <a href="/wiki/Talos" title="Talos">Talos</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Brazen_bull" title="Brazen bull">brazen bull</a> built for king <a href="/wiki/Phalaris" title="Phalaris">Phalaris</a> of the Greek city of <a href="/wiki/Agrigento" title="Agrigento">Acragas</a> on <a href="/wiki/Sicily" title="Sicily">Sicily</a>. He notes that both legends, as well as that of the Minotaur, have potential associations with Semitic child sacrifice.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004430–432_63-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTERundin2004430–432-63"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>61<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In contrast, <a href="/wiki/William_Blake" title="William Blake">William Blake</a> portrayed Moloch as an entirely humanoid idol with a winged demon soaring above in his "Flight of Moloch" one of his <a href="/wiki/William_Blake%27s_illustrations_of_On_the_Morning_of_Christ%27s_Nativity" title="William Blake's illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity">illustrations of Milton's poem "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity"</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_literature">In literature</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: In literature"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse_-_Moloch.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse_-_Moloch.jpg/220px-Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse_-_Moloch.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="293" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse_-_Moloch.jpg/330px-Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse_-_Moloch.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse_-_Moloch.jpg/440px-Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse_-_Moloch.jpg 2x" data-file-width="714" data-file-height="952" /></a><figcaption>Illustration of the interior of the temple of Moloch from <a href="/wiki/Gustav_Flaubert" class="mw-redirect" title="Gustav Flaubert">Gustav Flaubert</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Salammb%C3%B4" title="Salammbô">Salammbô</a></i> by <a href="/wiki/Georges-Antoine_Rochegrosse" class="mw-redirect" title="Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse">Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse</a> (c. 1900).</figcaption></figure> <p>Moloch appears as a child-eating fallen angel in <a href="/wiki/John_Milton" title="John Milton">John Milton</a>'s epic poem <i><a href="/wiki/Paradise_Lost" title="Paradise Lost">Paradise Lost</a></i> (1667). He is described as "horrid king besmeared with blood / Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears" (1:392–393) and leads the procession of rebel angels.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEUrban2021-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Later, Moloch is the first speaker at the council of hell and advocates for open war against heaven.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20175_65-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20175-65"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>63<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Milton's description of Moloch is one of the most influential for modern conceptions of this demon or deity.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20174_20-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20174-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Milton also mentions Moloch in his poem "<a href="/wiki/On_the_Morning_of_Christ%27s_Nativity" title="On the Morning of Christ's Nativity">On the Morning of Christ's Nativity</a>", where he flees from his grisly altars.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEUrban2021-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Similar portrayals of Moloch as in <i>Paradise Lost</i> can be found in <a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Gottlieb_Klopstock" title="Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock">Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock</a>'s epic poem <i><a href="/wiki/Der_Messias_(Klopstock)" title="Der Messias (Klopstock)">Messias</a></i> (1748–1773),<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021_9-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and in <a href="/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson" title="Alfred, Lord Tennyson">Alfred, Lord Tennyson</a>'s poem <i>The Dawn</i>, where Moloch represents the <a href="/wiki/Barbarian" title="Barbarian">barbarism</a> of past ages.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20175_65-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20175-65"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>63<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In <a href="/wiki/Gustave_Flaubert" title="Gustave Flaubert">Gustave Flaubert</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Salammb%C3%B4" title="Salammbô">Salammbô</a></i>, a <a href="/wiki/Historical_fiction" title="Historical fiction">historical novel</a> about <a href="/wiki/Carthage" title="Carthage">Carthage</a> published in 1862, Moloch is a Carthaginian god who embodies the male principle and the destructive power of the sun.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKropp2001183_66-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKropp2001183-66"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>64<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Additionally, Moloch is portrayed as the husband of the Carthaginian goddess <a href="/wiki/Tanit" title="Tanit">Tanit</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBart1984314_67-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBart1984314-67"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>65<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Sacrifices to Moloch are described at length in chapter 13.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEUrban2021-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The sacrifices are portrayed in an <a href="/wiki/Orientalism" title="Orientalism">orientalist</a> and exoticized fashion, with children sacrificed in increasing numbers to burning furnaces found in the statue of the god.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201710_68-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201710-68"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>66<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Flaubert defended his portrayal against criticism by saying it was based on the description of Carthaginian child sacrifice found in <a href="/wiki/Diodorus_Siculus" title="Diodorus Siculus">Diodorus Siculus</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKropp2001183_66-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKropp2001183-66"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>64<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>From the nineteenth century onward, Moloch has often been used in literature as a metaphor for some form of social, economic or military oppression, as in <a href="/wiki/Charles_Dickens" title="Charles Dickens">Charles Dickens</a>' novella <i><a href="/wiki/The_Haunted_Man_and_the_Ghost%27s_Bargain" title="The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain">The Haunted Man</a></i> (1848), <a href="/wiki/Alexander_Kuprin" class="mw-redirect" title="Alexander Kuprin">Alexander Kuprin</a>'s novel <i><a href="/wiki/Moloch_(Kuprin)" class="mw-redirect" title="Moloch (Kuprin)">Moloch</a></i> (1896), and <a href="/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg" title="Allen Ginsberg">Allen Ginsberg</a>'s long poem <i><a href="/wiki/Howl_(poem)" title="Howl (poem)">Howl</a></i> (1956), where Moloch symbolizes American capitalism.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEUrban2021-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Moloch is also often used to describe something that debases society and feeds on its children, as in <a href="/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley" title="Percy Bysshe Shelley">Percy Bysshe Shelley</a>'s long poem <i>Peter Bell the Third</i> (1839), <a href="/wiki/Herman_Melville" title="Herman Melville">Herman Melville</a>'s poem <i>The March into Virginia</i> (1866) about the <a href="/wiki/American_Civil_War" title="American Civil War">American Civil War</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Joseph_Seamon_Cotter,_Jr." class="mw-redirect" title="Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.">Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.</a>'s poem <i>Moloch</i> (1921) about the <a href="/wiki/First_World_War" class="mw-redirect" title="First World War">First World War</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEUrban2021-64"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>62<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="As_social_or_political_allegory">As social or political allegory</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: As social or political allegory"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Museo_nazionale_del_Cinema_-_Cabiria_(Turin)_crop.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Museo_nazionale_del_Cinema_-_Cabiria_%28Turin%29_crop.jpg/250px-Museo_nazionale_del_Cinema_-_Cabiria_%28Turin%29_crop.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="219" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Museo_nazionale_del_Cinema_-_Cabiria_%28Turin%29_crop.jpg/330px-Museo_nazionale_del_Cinema_-_Cabiria_%28Turin%29_crop.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Museo_nazionale_del_Cinema_-_Cabiria_%28Turin%29_crop.jpg/500px-Museo_nazionale_del_Cinema_-_Cabiria_%28Turin%29_crop.jpg 2x" data-file-width="929" data-file-height="925" /></a><figcaption>Moloch statue from <a href="/wiki/Giovanni_Pastrone" title="Giovanni Pastrone">Giovanni Pastrone</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Cabiria" title="Cabiria">Cabiria</a></i> (1914), <a href="/wiki/National_Museum_of_Cinema" title="National Museum of Cinema">National Museum of Cinema</a> (Turin)</figcaption></figure> <p>In modern times, a metaphorical meaning of Moloch as a destructive force or system that demands sacrifice, particularly of children, has become common. Beginning with <a href="/wiki/Samuel_Laing_(science_writer)" title="Samuel Laing (science writer)">Samuel Laing</a>'s <i>National Distress</i> (1844), the modern city is often described as a Moloch, an idea found also in <a href="/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a>; additionally, war often comes to be described as Moloch.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021_9-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The <a href="/wiki/Munich_Cosmic_Circle" title="Munich Cosmic Circle">Munich Cosmic Circle</a> (c. 1900) used Moloch to describe a person operating under cold <a href="/wiki/Rationalism" title="Rationalism">rationalism</a>, something they viewed as causing the degeneration of Western civilization.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBecking2014_69-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBecking2014-69"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>67<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Conservative Christians often rhetorically equate <a href="/wiki/Abortion" title="Abortion">abortion</a> with the sacrifice of children to Moloch.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChryssides2021_61-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEChryssides2021-61"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>59<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a>, on the other hand, used Moloch to describe a kind of cruel, primitive religion in <i>A Freeman's Worship</i> (1923); he then used it to attack religion more generally.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBecking2014_69-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBecking2014-69"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>67<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="In_film_and_television">In film and television</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=17" title="Edit section: In film and television"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951" /><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="/wiki/Moloch_(disambiguation)" class="mw-disambig" title="Moloch (disambiguation)">Moloch (disambiguation)</a> and <a href="/wiki/Moloch_in_popular_culture" class="mw-redirect" title="Moloch in popular culture">Moloch in popular culture</a></div> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Cabiria_002,_tempio_di_Moloch.png" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Cabiria_002%2C_tempio_di_Moloch.png/250px-Cabiria_002%2C_tempio_di_Moloch.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="161" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Cabiria_002%2C_tempio_di_Moloch.png/330px-Cabiria_002%2C_tempio_di_Moloch.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Cabiria_002%2C_tempio_di_Moloch.png 2x" data-file-width="416" data-file-height="304" /></a><figcaption>The entrance to the Temple of Moloch in Carthage in <i><a href="/wiki/Cabiria" title="Cabiria">Cabiria</a></i> (1914).</figcaption></figure> <p>The 1914 Italian film <i><a href="/wiki/Cabiria" title="Cabiria">Cabiria</a></i> is set in Carthage and is loosely based on Flaubert's <i>Salammbô</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013231–232_70-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013231–232-70"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>68<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The film features a bronzed, full-three dimensional statue of Moloch which is today kept in <a href="/wiki/National_Museum_of_Cinema" title="National Museum of Cinema">National Museum of Cinema</a> in <a href="/wiki/Turin" title="Turin">Turin</a>, Italy.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The titular female slave Cabiria is saved from the priests of Moloch just before she was to be sacrificed to the idol during the night.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013237_71-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013237-71"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>69<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The depiction of the sacrifices to Moloch are based on Flaubert's descriptions, while the entrance of Moloch's temple is modeled on a <a href="/wiki/Hellmouth" title="Hellmouth">hellmouth</a>. <i>Cabiria's</i> depiction of the temple and statue of Moloch would go on to influence other filmic depictions of Moloch, such as that in <a href="/wiki/Fritz_Lang" title="Fritz Lang">Fritz Lang</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)" title="Metropolis (1927 film)">Metropolis</a></i> (1927), in which it is workers rather than children who are sacrificed, and <a href="/wiki/Sergio_Leone" title="Sergio Leone">Sergio Leone</a>'s <i><a href="/wiki/The_Colossus_of_Rhodes_(film)" title="The Colossus of Rhodes (film)">The Colossus of Rhodes</a></i> (1961).<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013239_72-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013239-72"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>70<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Moloch has continued to be used as a name for horrific figures who are depicted as connected to the demon or god but often bear little resemblance to the traditional image. This includes television appearances in <i><a href="/wiki/Stargate_SG1" class="mw-redirect" title="Stargate SG1">Stargate SG1</a></i> as an alien villain, in <i><a href="/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer" title="Buffy the Vampire Slayer">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a></i>, <i><a href="/wiki/Supernatural_(American_TV_series)" title="Supernatural (American TV series)">Supernatural</a></i>, and <i><a href="/wiki/Sleepy_Hollow_(TV_series)" title="Sleepy Hollow (TV series)">Sleepy Hollow</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></i> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=18" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style 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<p><b>Informational notes</b> </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-lower-alpha"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><span class="rt-commentedText nowrap"><span class="IPA nopopups noexcerpt" lang="en-fonipa"><a href="/wiki/Help:IPA/English" title="Help:IPA/English">/<span style="border-bottom:1px dotted"><span title="/ˈ/: primary stress follows">ˈ</span><span title="'m' in 'my'">m</span><span title="/oʊ/: 'o' in 'code'">oʊ</span><span title="'l' in 'lie'">l</span><span title="/ɒ/: 'o' in 'body'">ɒ</span><span title="'k' in 'kind'">k</span></span>/</a></span></span>; <a href="/wiki/Biblical_Hebrew_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Biblical Hebrew language">Biblical Hebrew</a>: <span lang="hbo" dir="rtl">מֹלֶךְ</span> <i>Mōleḵ</i>, properly הַמֹּלֶךְ‎, <i>hamMōleḵ</i> "the Moloch"; <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Greek_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Ancient Greek language">Ancient Greek</a>: <span lang="grc">Μόλοχ</span>; <a href="/wiki/Latin_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Latin language">Latin</a>: <i lang="la">Moloch</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">The <a href="/wiki/Lucian_of_Antioch" title="Lucian of Antioch">Lucian recension</a> of the Septuagint contains the name "Milcom" at 1 Kings 11:7.<sup id="cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <p><b>Citations</b> </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239543626" /><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 20em;"> <ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTESoltes2021-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESoltes2021_1-6"><sup><i><b>g</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFSoltes2021">Soltes 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013134–144-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013134–144_3-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, pp. 134–144.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000209-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000209_4-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000209_4-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDay2000">Day 2000</a>, p. 209.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144_5-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, p. 144.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013147-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013147_6-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013147_6-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, p. 147.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013265-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265_7-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265_7-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265_7-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFXella2013">Xella 2013</a>, p. 265.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTERundin2004429–439-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004429–439_8-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004429–439_8-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFRundin2004">Rundin 2004</a>, pp. 429–439.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021_9-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021_9-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBoysenRuwe2021_9-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFBoysenRuwe2021">Boysen & Ruwe 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000212-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000212_10-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDay2000">Day 2000</a>, p. 212.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-6"><sup><i><b>g</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-7"><sup><i><b>h</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTESchmidt2021_11-8"><sup><i><b>i</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFSchmidt2021">Schmidt 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000128-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000128_12-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDay2000">Day 2000</a>, p. 128.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581_13-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFHeider1999">Heider 1999</a>, p. 581.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEKerr201867-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKerr201867_14-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFKerr2018">Kerr 2018</a>, p. 67.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEMosca1975127-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMosca1975127_15-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFMosca1975">Mosca 1975</a>, p. 127.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581–582-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999581–582_16-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFHeider1999">Heider 1999</a>, pp. 581–582.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017127–128-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017127–128_17-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, pp. 127–128.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHolm20057134_18-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFHolm2005">Holm 2005</a>, p. 7134.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEKerr2018-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKerr2018_19-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFKerr2018">Kerr 2018</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20174-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20174_20-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20174_20-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, p. 4.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143–144-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143–144_21-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, pp. 143–144.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583_22-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583_22-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999583_22-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFHeider1999">Heider 1999</a>, p. 583.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013140_23-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, p. 140.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013143_24-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, p. 143.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999585-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999585_25-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFHeider1999">Heider 1999</a>, p. 585.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEPietersmaWright2014793-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEPietersmaWright2014793_26-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFPietersmaWright2014">Pietersma & Wright 2014</a>, p. 793.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEWerse2018505-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEWerse2018505_27-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFWerse2018">Werse 2018</a>, p. 505.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000213-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000213_29-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDay2000">Day 2000</a>, p. 213.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000213–215-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000213–215_30-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDay2000">Day 2000</a>, pp. 213–215.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201728–29-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201728–29_31-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, pp. 28–29.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013146-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013146_32-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, p. 146.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201735-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201735_33-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, p. 35.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013269-34"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013269_34-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013269_34-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFXella2013">Xella 2013</a>, p. 269.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007144–145-35"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007144–145_35-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFReynolds2007">Reynolds 2007</a>, pp. 144–145.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007445–446-36"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007445–446_36-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFReynolds2007">Reynolds 2007</a>, pp. 445–446.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144–145-37"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013144–145_37-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, pp. 144–145.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDay2000209–210-38"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDay2000209–210_38-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDay2000">Day 2000</a>, pp. 209–210.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider1999582–583-39"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider1999582–583_39-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFHeider1999">Heider 1999</a>, pp. 582–583.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016349-40"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016349_40-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFFrendo2016">Frendo 2016</a>, p. 349.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013145-41"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013145_41-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEStavrakopoulou2013145_41-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013">Stavrakopoulou 2013</a>, p. 145.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201730–35-42"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201730–35_42-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, pp. 30–35.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007146–150-43"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEReynolds2007146–150_43-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFReynolds2007">Reynolds 2007</a>, pp. 146–150.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell2016496–499-44"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell2016496–499_44-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2016">Dewrell 2016</a>, pp. 496–499.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTELange2007127-45"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELange2007127_45-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFLange2007">Lange 2007</a>, p. 127.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016363–364-46"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEFrendo2016363–364_46-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFFrendo2016">Frendo 2016</a>, pp. 363–364.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017144–146-47"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell2017144–146_47-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, pp. 144–146.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20177-48"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20177_48-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, p. 7.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201720-49"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201720_49-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, p. 20.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEXella2013265–266-50"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEXella2013265–266_50-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFXella2013">Xella 2013</a>, pp. 265–266.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTELockshin2021-51"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTELockshin2021_51-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFLockshin2021">Lockshin 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEKasher1988566-52"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKasher1988566_52-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFKasher1988">Kasher 1988</a>, p. 566.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261-53"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261_53-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFKugel2012">Kugel 2012</a>, p. 261.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261–262-54"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKugel2012261–262_54-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFKugel2012">Kugel 2012</a>, pp. 261–262.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTERundin2004430-55"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004430_55-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFRundin2004">Rundin 2004</a>, p. 430.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEMoore1897162-56"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore1897162_56-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFMoore1897">Moore 1897</a>, p. 162.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEHeider19852-57"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider19852_57-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEHeider19852_57-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFHeider1985">Heider 1985</a>, p. 2.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEGemeinhardt2021-58"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEGemeinhardt2021_58-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFGemeinhardt2021">Gemeinhardt 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEBenjamin2021-59"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBenjamin2021_59-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBenjamin2021_59-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFBenjamin2021">Benjamin 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEMoore1897161-60"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore1897161_60-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFMoore1897">Moore 1897</a>, p. 161.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEChryssides2021-61"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChryssides2021_61-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEChryssides2021_61-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFChryssides2021">Chryssides 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEMoore1897165-62"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEMoore1897165_62-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFMoore1897">Moore 1897</a>, p. 165.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTERundin2004430–432-63"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTERundin2004430–432_63-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFRundin2004">Rundin 2004</a>, pp. 430–432.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEUrban2021-64"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEUrban2021_64-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFUrban2021">Urban 2021</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell20175-65"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20175_65-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell20175_65-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, p. 5.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEKropp2001183-66"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKropp2001183_66-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEKropp2001183_66-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFKropp2001">Kropp 2001</a>, p. 183.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEBart1984314-67"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBart1984314_67-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFBart1984">Bart 1984</a>, p. 314.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDewrell201710-68"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDewrell201710_68-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDewrell2017">Dewrell 2017</a>, p. 10.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEBecking2014-69"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBecking2014_69-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEBecking2014_69-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFBecking2014">Becking 2014</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013231–232-70"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013231–232_70-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDorgerloh2013">Dorgerloh 2013</a>, p. 231–232.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013237-71"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013237_71-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDorgerloh2013">Dorgerloh 2013</a>, p. 237.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013239-72"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-FOOTNOTEDorgerloh2013239_72-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a href="#CITEREFDorgerloh2013">Dorgerloh 2013</a>, p. 239.</span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Sources">Sources</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=20" title="Edit section: Sources"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239549316">.mw-parser-output .refbegin{margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul{margin-left:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li{margin-left:0;padding-left:3.2em;text-indent:-3.2em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents ul,.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents ul li{list-style:none}@media(max-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li{padding-left:1.6em;text-indent:-1.6em}}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-columns ul{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .refbegin{font-size:90%}}</style><div class="refbegin refbegin-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 20em"> <ul><li><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFBart1984" class="citation journal cs1">Bart, B. F. (1984). "Male Hysteria in "Salammbô". <i>Nineteenth-Century French Studies</i>. <b>12</b> (3): <span class="nowrap">313–</span>321. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23536541">23536541</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Nineteenth-Century+French+Studies&rft.atitle=Male+Hysteria+in+%22Salammb%C3%B4&rft.volume=12&rft.issue=3&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E313-%3C%2Fspan%3E321&rft.date=1984&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F23536541%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Bart&rft.aufirst=B.+F.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFBecking2014" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1">Becking, Bob (2014). "Moloch". In Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew (ed.). <i>The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Cinematic Monsters (Online)</i>. Ashgate Publishing.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Moloch&rft.btitle=The+Ashgate+Encyclopedia+of+Cinematic+Monsters+%28Online%29&rft.pub=Ashgate+Publishing&rft.date=2014&rft.aulast=Becking&rft.aufirst=Bob&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFBenjamin2021" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1 cs1-prop-long-vol">Benjamin, Katie (2021). "Molech, Moloch: III Christianity B Medieval Christianity and Reformation Era". In Furrey, Constance M.; et al. (eds.). <i>Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception</i>. Vol. 19: Midrash and Aggada – Mourning. de Gruyter. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch">10.1515/ebr.molechmoloch</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9"><bdi>978-3-11-031336-9</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245085818">245085818</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molech%2C+Moloch%3A+III+Christianity+B+Medieval+Christianity+and+Reformation+Era&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+the+Bible+and+its+Reception&rft.pub=de+Gruyter&rft.date=2021&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A245085818%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch&rft.isbn=978-3-11-031336-9&rft.aulast=Benjamin&rft.aufirst=Katie&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFBoysenRuwe2021" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1 cs1-prop-long-vol">Boysen, Knud Henryk; Ruwe, Andreas (2021). "Molech, Moloch: Christian: C Modern Europe and America". In Furrey, Constance M.; et al. (eds.). <i>Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception</i>. Vol. 19: Midrash and Aggada – Mourning. de Gruyter. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch">10.1515/ebr.molechmoloch</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9"><bdi>978-3-11-031336-9</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245085818">245085818</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molech%2C+Moloch%3A+Christian%3A+C+Modern+Europe+and+America&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+the+Bible+and+its+Reception&rft.pub=de+Gruyter&rft.date=2021&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A245085818%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch&rft.isbn=978-3-11-031336-9&rft.aulast=Boysen&rft.aufirst=Knud+Henryk&rft.au=Ruwe%2C+Andreas&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFChryssides2021" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1 cs1-prop-long-vol">Chryssides, George D. (2021). "Molech, Moloch: Christian: D New Christian Churches and Movements". In Furrey, Constance M.; et al. (eds.). <i>Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception</i>. Vol. 19: Midrash and Aggada – Mourning. de Gruyter. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch">10.1515/ebr.molechmoloch</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9"><bdi>978-3-11-031336-9</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245085818">245085818</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molech%2C+Moloch%3A+Christian%3A+D+New+Christian+Churches+and+Movements&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+the+Bible+and+its+Reception&rft.pub=de+Gruyter&rft.date=2021&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A245085818%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch&rft.isbn=978-3-11-031336-9&rft.aulast=Chryssides&rft.aufirst=George+D.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFDay2000" class="citation book cs1">Day, John (2000). <i>Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan</i>. Sheffield Academic Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-85075-986-3" title="Special:BookSources/1-85075-986-3"><bdi>1-85075-986-3</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Yahweh+and+the+Gods+and+Goddesses+of+Canaan&rft.pub=Sheffield+Academic+Press&rft.date=2000&rft.isbn=1-85075-986-3&rft.aulast=Day&rft.aufirst=John&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFDewrell2016" class="citation journal cs1">Dewrell, Heath D. (2016). "A 'Molek' Inscription from the Levant?". <i>Revue Biblique</i>. <b>123</b> (4): <span class="nowrap">481–</span>505. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2143%2FRBI.123.4.3180790">10.2143/RBI.123.4.3180790</a>. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44809366">44809366</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Revue+Biblique&rft.atitle=A+%27Molek%27+Inscription+from+the+Levant%3F&rft.volume=123&rft.issue=4&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E481-%3C%2Fspan%3E505&rft.date=2016&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2143%2FRBI.123.4.3180790&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F44809366%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Dewrell&rft.aufirst=Heath+D.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFDewrell2017" class="citation book cs1">Dewrell, Heath D. 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Vol. 19: Midrash and Aggada – Mourning. de Gruyter. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch">10.1515/ebr.molechmoloch</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9"><bdi>978-3-11-031336-9</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245085818">245085818</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molech%2C+Moloch%3A+II+Judaism&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+the+Bible+and+its+Reception&rft.pub=de+Gruyter&rft.date=2021&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A245085818%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch&rft.isbn=978-3-11-031336-9&rft.aulast=Lockshin&rft.aufirst=Martin&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFMosca1975" class="citation thesis cs1">Mosca, Paul (1975). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.academia.edu/37152834"><i>Child Sacrifice in Canaanite and Israelite Religion</i></a> (Thesis). Harvard University.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adissertation&rft.title=Child+Sacrifice+in+Canaanite+and+Israelite+Religion&rft.inst=Harvard+University&rft.date=1975&rft.aulast=Mosca&rft.aufirst=Paul&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.academia.edu%2F37152834&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFMoore1897" class="citation journal cs1"><a href="/wiki/George_Foot_Moore" title="George Foot Moore">Moore, George Foot</a> (1897). "Biblical Notes". <i>Journal of Biblical Literature</i>. <b>16</b> (1/2): <span class="nowrap">155–</span>165. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3268874">10.2307/3268874</a>. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3268874">3268874</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Journal+of+Biblical+Literature&rft.atitle=Biblical+Notes&rft.volume=16&rft.issue=1%2F2&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E155-%3C%2Fspan%3E165&rft.date=1897&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2307%2F3268874&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F3268874%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Moore&rft.aufirst=George+Foot&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFPietersmaWright2014" class="citation web cs1"><a href="/wiki/Albert_Pietersma" title="Albert Pietersma">Pietersma, Albert</a>; Wright, Benjamin, eds. (2014). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/">"New English Translation of the Septuagint: Electronic Version"</a>. Oxford University Press.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=New+English+Translation+of+the+Septuagint%3A+Electronic+Version&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=2014&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fccat.sas.upenn.edu%2Fnets%2Fedition%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFReynolds2007" class="citation book cs1">Reynolds, Bennie H. (2007). "Molek: Dead or Alive? The Meaning and Derivation of mlk and מלך". In Finsterbusch, Karin; Lange, Armin; Römheld, Diethold (eds.). <i>Human sacrifice in Jewish and Christian tradition</i>. Brill. pp. <span class="nowrap">133–</span>150. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-9004150850" title="Special:BookSources/978-9004150850"><bdi>978-9004150850</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molek%3A+Dead+or+Alive%3F+The+Meaning+and+Derivation+of+mlk+and+%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%9A&rft.btitle=Human+sacrifice+in+Jewish+and+Christian+tradition&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E133-%3C%2Fspan%3E150&rft.pub=Brill&rft.date=2007&rft.isbn=978-9004150850&rft.aulast=Reynolds&rft.aufirst=Bennie+H.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFRundin2004" class="citation journal cs1">Rundin, John S. (2004). "Pozo Moro, Child Sacrifice, and the Greek Legendary Tradition". <i>Journal of Biblical Literature</i>. <b>123</b> (3): <span class="nowrap">425–</span>447. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3268041">10.2307/3268041</a>. <a href="/wiki/JSTOR_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="JSTOR (identifier)">JSTOR</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3268041">3268041</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Journal+of+Biblical+Literature&rft.atitle=Pozo+Moro%2C+Child+Sacrifice%2C+and+the+Greek+Legendary+Tradition&rft.volume=123&rft.issue=3&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E425-%3C%2Fspan%3E447&rft.date=2004&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.2307%2F3268041&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fstable%2F3268041%23id-name%3DJSTOR&rft.aulast=Rundin&rft.aufirst=John+S.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFReich1993" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1">Reich, Bo (1993). "Gehenna". In Metzger, Bruce M.; Coogan, Michael D. (eds.). <i>The Oxford Companion to the Bible</i>. Oxford University Press. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780199891023" title="Special:BookSources/9780199891023"><bdi>9780199891023</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Gehenna&rft.btitle=The+Oxford+Companion+to+the+Bible&rft.pub=Oxford+University+Press&rft.date=1993&rft.isbn=9780199891023&rft.aulast=Reich&rft.aufirst=Bo&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFSchmidt2021" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1 cs1-prop-long-vol">Schmidt, Brian B. (2021). "Molech, Moloch: I Hebrew Bible/Old Testament". In Furrey, Constance M.; et al. (eds.). <i>Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception</i>. Vol. 19: Midrash and Aggada – Mourning. de Gruyter. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch">10.1515/ebr.molechmoloch</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9"><bdi>978-3-11-031336-9</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245085818">245085818</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molech%2C+Moloch%3A+I+Hebrew+Bible%2FOld+Testament&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+the+Bible+and+its+Reception&rft.pub=de+Gruyter&rft.date=2021&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A245085818%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch&rft.isbn=978-3-11-031336-9&rft.aulast=Schmidt&rft.aufirst=Brian+B.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFSoltes2021" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1 cs1-prop-long-vol">Soltes, Ori Z. (2021). "Molech, Moloch: V Visual Arts and Film". In Furrey, Constance M.; et al. (eds.). <i>Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception</i>. Vol. 19: Midrash and Aggada – Mourning. de Gruyter. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch">10.1515/ebr.molechmoloch</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9"><bdi>978-3-11-031336-9</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245085818">245085818</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molech%2C+Moloch%3A+V+Visual+Arts+and+Film&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+the+Bible+and+its+Reception&rft.pub=de+Gruyter&rft.date=2021&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A245085818%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch&rft.isbn=978-3-11-031336-9&rft.aulast=Soltes&rft.aufirst=Ori+Z.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFStavrakopoulou2013" class="citation journal cs1"><a href="/wiki/Francesca_Stavrakopoulou" title="Francesca Stavrakopoulou">Stavrakopoulou, Francesca</a> (2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.academia.edu/7656412">"The Jerusalem Tophet Ideological Dispute and Religious Transformation"</a>. <i>Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici</i>. <b>30</b>: <span class="nowrap">137–</span>158.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Studi+Epigrafici+e+Linguistici&rft.atitle=The+Jerusalem+Tophet+Ideological+Dispute+and+Religious+Transformation&rft.volume=30&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E137-%3C%2Fspan%3E158&rft.date=2013&rft.aulast=Stavrakopoulou&rft.aufirst=Francesca&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.academia.edu%2F7656412&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFUrban2021" class="citation encyclopaedia cs1 cs1-prop-long-vol">Urban, David V. (2021). "Molech, Moloch: IV Literature". In Furrey, Constance M.; et al. (eds.). <i>Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception</i>. Vol. 19: Midrash and Aggada – Mourning. de Gruyter. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch">10.1515/ebr.molechmoloch</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9" title="Special:BookSources/978-3-11-031336-9"><bdi>978-3-11-031336-9</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:245085818">245085818</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=Molech%2C+Moloch%3A+IV+Literature&rft.btitle=Encyclopedia+of+the+Bible+and+its+Reception&rft.pub=de+Gruyter&rft.date=2021&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A245085818%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1515%2Febr.molechmoloch&rft.isbn=978-3-11-031336-9&rft.aulast=Urban&rft.aufirst=David+V.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFWerse2018" class="citation journal cs1">Werse, Nicholas R. (2018). "Of Gods and Kings: The Case for Reading "Milcom" in Zephaniah 1:5bβ". <i>Vetus Testamentum</i>. <b>68</b> (3): <span class="nowrap">503–</span>513. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1163%2F15685330-12341328">10.1163/15685330-12341328</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Vetus+Testamentum&rft.atitle=Of+Gods+and+Kings%3A+The+Case+for+Reading+%22Milcom%22+in+Zephaniah+1%3A5b%CE%B2&rft.volume=68&rft.issue=3&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E503-%3C%2Fspan%3E513&rft.date=2018&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1163%2F15685330-12341328&rft.aulast=Werse&rft.aufirst=Nicholas+R.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li> <li><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222" /><cite id="CITEREFXella2013" class="citation book cs1">Xella, P. (2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.academia.edu/8556951">"<span class="cs1-kern-left"></span>"Tophet": an Overall Interpretation"</a>. In Xella, P. (ed.). <i>The Tophet in the Ancient Mediterranean</i>. Essedue. pp. <span class="nowrap">259–</span>281.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=%22Tophet%22%3A+an+Overall+Interpretation&rft.btitle=The+Tophet+in+the+Ancient+Mediterranean&rft.pages=%3Cspan+class%3D%22nowrap%22%3E259-%3C%2Fspan%3E281&rft.pub=Essedue&rft.date=2013&rft.aulast=Xella&rft.aufirst=P.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.academia.edu%2F8556951&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMoloch" class="Z3988"></span></li></ul> </div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Moloch&action=edit&section=21" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1235681985">.mw-parser-output .side-box{margin:4px 0;box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid 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