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Moloch, also known as Molech, Molekh, Molok, Molek, Melek, Molock, Moloc, Melech, Milcom, or Molcom (representing Semitic מלך ''m-l-k'', a Semitic root meaning "king") is the name of an ancient god, possibly first worshiped in Ammon. Moloch worship was practiced by the Canaanites, Phoenicians, and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant. As a god worshiped by the Phoenicians and Canaanites, Moloch had associations with a particular kind of propitiatory child sacrifice by parents. Moloch figures in the Book of Deuteronomy and in the Book of Leviticus as a forbidden form of idolatry (Leviticus 18:21: "And thou shalt not let any of thy seeds (children) pass through the fire to Moloch"). In the Old Testament, Gehenna was a valley by Jerusalem, where followers of various Baalim and Canaanite gods, including Moloch, sacrificed their children by fire (2 Chr. 28:3, 33:6; Jer. 7:31, 19:2–6). Moloch has been used figuratively in English literature from John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'' (1667) to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (1955), to refer to a person or thing demanding or requiring a very costly sacrifice. ==Forms and grammar== The Hebrew letters מלך (''mlk'') usually stand for ''melek'' "king" (Proto-Northwest Semitic ''malku'') but when vocalized as ''mōlek'' in Masoretic Hebrew text, they have been traditionally understood as a proper name Μολοχ (''molokh'') (Proto-Northwest Semitic ''Mulku'') in the corresponding Greek renderings in the Septuagint translation, in Aquila, and in the Middle Eastern Targum. The form usually appears in the compound ''lmlk''. The Hebrew preposition ''l-'' means "to", but it can often mean "for" or "as a(n)". Accordingly, one can translate ''lmlk'' as "to Moloch" or "for Moloch" or "as a Moloch", or "to the Moloch" or "for the Moloch" or "as the Moloch", whatever a "Moloch" or "the Moloch" might be. We also once find ''hmlk'' "the Moloch" standing alone. Because there is no difference between ''mlk'' "king" and ''mlk'' "moloch" in unpointed text, interpreters sometimes suggest ''molek'' should be understood in certain places where the Masoretic text is vocalized as ''melek'', and vice versa. ''Moloch'' has been traditionally interpreted as the name of a god, possibly a god titled ''the king'', but purposely mispronounced as ''Molek'' instead of ''Melek'' using the vowels of Hebrew ''bosheth'' "shame". Moloch appears in the Hebrew of (on Solomon's religious failings): Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and ''lmlk'', the abomination of the Sons of Ammon. In other passages, however, the god of the Ammonites is named Milcom, not Moloch (see 1 Kings 11.33; Zephaniah 1.5). The Septuagint reads ''Milcom'' in 1 Kings 11.7 instead of Moloch. Many English translations accordingly follow the non-Hebrew versions at this point and render ''Milcom''. The form ''mlkm'' can also mean "their king" as well as Milcom, and therefore one cannot always be sure in some other passages whether the King of Ammon is intended or the god Milcom. It has also been suggested that the Ba‘al of Tyre, Melqart "king of the city" (who was probably the Ba‘al whose worship was furthered by Ahab and his house) was this supposed god Moloch and that Melqart/Moloch was also Milcom the god of the Ammonites and identical to other gods whose names contain ''mlk''. reads in close translation: ::But you shall carry Sikkut your king, :::and Kiyyun, your images, the star-symbol of your god :::which you made for yourself. The Septuagint renders "your king" as ''Moloch'', perhaps from a scribal error, whence the verse appears in Acts 7.43: ::You have lifted up the shrine of Molech :::and the star of your god Rephan, :::the idols you made to worship. Other references to ''Moloch'' use ''mlk'' only in the context of "passing children through fire ''lmlk''", whatever is meant by ''lmlk'', whether it means "to Moloch" or means something else. Though the Moloch sacrifices have traditionally been understood to mean burning children alive to the god Moloch, some have suggested a rite of purification by fire instead, though perhaps a dangerous one.〔Weinfield, M. "The Worship of Molech and of the Queen of Heaven and its Background," ''Ugarit-For-schungen.'' 4 (1972), pp 133–154〕 References to passing through fire without mentioning ''mlk'' appear in ; ; , 31; 23.37. So this phrase is well documented in scripture, and similar practices of rendering infants immortal by passing them through the fire, are indirectly attested in early Greek myth, such as the myth of Thetis and the myth of Demeter as the nurse of Demophon. Some have responded to the proponents of this view of the Moloch sacrifices (being only a ritualized "pass between flame") by pointing out their failure to understand the Hebrew idiom ''le ha'avir ba'esh'' to imply "to burn" and their use of anthropological evidence of suspect relevance to draw parallels to early Hebrew religious practices.〔Smith, Morton. "A Note on Burning Babies" ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 95, No. 3 (Jul. – Sep., 1975), pp 477–479〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Moloch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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