We often hear about the child sacrifices that were made to the god “Molech” in the Old Testament… but was Molech really a divine being? He isn’t recoded anywhere else in history…

Or is it that a ‘molech’ a TYPE of burnt offering to Yahweh.

– Prof Heath Dewrell, Princeton Seminary

Bible quotations:

“Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, in the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestation of the children of Ammon.” — 1 Kings 11:7

“And they built the high places 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.” — Jeremiah 32:35

Dr Heath D. Dewrell is assistant professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. Dr. Dewrell earned his MAR from Yale Divinity School and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. His primary interests concern ancient Near Easter context of the OT, the history of Israelite religion, and Hebrew and other Semitic languages.