1 Raja-raja 11:7

11:7 Furthermore, ¹  on the hill east of Jerusalem ²  Solomon built a high place ³  for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh ⁴  and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. ⁵ 

Imamat 18:21

18:21 You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, ⁶  so that you do not profane ⁷  the name of your God. I am the Lord!

Yesaya 57:9

57:9 You take olive oil as tribute ⁸  to your king, ⁹ 

along with many perfumes. ¹⁰ 

You send your messengers to a distant place;

you go all the way to Sheol. ¹¹ 

Zefanya 1:5

1:5 I will remove ¹²  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ¹³ 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord ¹⁴  while taking oaths in the name of ¹⁵  their ‘king,’ ¹⁶ 

[11:7]  ¹ tn Heb “then.”

[11:7]  ² sn The hill east of Jerusalem refers to the Mount of Olives.

[11:7]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[11:7]  ³ sn A high place. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated (see 1 Kgs 3:2).

[11:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab.”

[11:7]  ⁵ tc The MT reads “Molech,” but Milcom must be intended (see vv. 5, 33).

[18:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “And from your seed you shall not give to cause to pass over to Molech.” Smr (cf. also the LXX) has “to cause to serve” rather than “to cause to pass over.” For detailed remarks on Molech and Molech worship see N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NCBC), 87-88; P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 259-60; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 333-37, and the literature cited there. It could refer to either human sacrifice or a devotion of children to some sort of service of Molech, perhaps of a sexual sort (cf. Lev 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10, etc.). The inclusion of this prohibition against Molech worship here may be due to some sexual connection of this kind, or perhaps simply to the lexical link between זֶרַע (zera’) meaning “seed, semen” in v. 20 but “offspring” in v. 21.

[18:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “and you shall not profane.” Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[57:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “you journey with oil.”

[57:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “the king.” Since the context refers to idolatry and child sacrifice (see v. 5), some emend מֶלֶך (melekh, “king”) to “Molech.” Perhaps Israel’s devotion to her idols is likened here to a subject taking tribute to a ruler.

[57:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and you multiply your perfumes.”

[57:9]  ¹¹ sn Israel’s devotion to her idols is inordinate, irrational, and self-destructive.

[1:5]  ¹² tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

[1:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

[1:5]  ¹⁴ tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

[1:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “those who swear by.”

[1:5]  ¹⁶ tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.