Moloch, Molech, or Molek is a word which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the Book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly condemns practices that are associated with Moloch, which are heavily implied to be child sacrifice.
''Offering to Molech'' in Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us, by Charles Foster, 1897. The drawing is typical of Moloch depictions in nineteenth-century illustrations.
Stelas from the Tophet in Carthage, where mlk sacrifices or rituals are attested via inscription.
The Flight of Moloch, by William Blake, 1809. The work illustrates a scene from John Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity".
Illustration of the interior of the temple of Moloch from Gustav Flaubert's Salammbô by Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse (c. 1900).
The Book of Leviticus is the third book of the Torah and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses. Many hypotheses presented by scholars as to its origins agree that it developed over a long period of time, reaching its present form during the Persian Period, from 538 to 332 BC, although this is disputed.
4Q120, a Greek manuscript of Leviticus from the 1st century BCE
Vaikro – Book of Leviticus, Warsaw edition, 1860, page 1
The Tabernacle and the Camp (19th-century drawing)
The Scapegoat (1854 painting by William Holman Hunt)
