Moloc
(From Hebrew Molech, "King" and Bosheth, "Shame")
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ANCIENT LEVANT
(Canaan, Syria, Mesopotamia [Babylon], Palestine, Persia [modern Iran], Phoenicia [modern Lebanon], and Ugarit)
As Moloch means king, it is difficult to tell if it should be thought of as a name of a deity or as a title. He has been identified with Milcom, (National God of the Ammonites), Malik (A pre-Islamic Northern-Arabian god), or Baal. Since the afore mentioned gods are Sun/Fire-Gods and Moloch’s primary function was sacrifice through fire, it is reasonable to say that Moloch was a Sun/Fire-God. The sacrifices were described as "to pass through the fire." Moloch appears in several passages of the Bible. In 1 Kings 11.7, Soloman builds a temple to Chemosh (Moabite National God) and Moloch in the Ben-Hinnom Valley where children were sacrificed. This place is known as Gehenna or Tophet (Although, Tophet is also used to describe the sacrificial altar).
According to some sources, the references to Moloch in the Old Testament are not a god, but a specific sacrifice. The Hebrew spelling for Moloch is mlk. However, in the context of "passing through fire," lmlk is used (One theory is that this means "to Moloch"). "It has traditionally been understood to mean burning children alive to the god Moloch. But some have suggested a rite of purification by fire instead, though perhaps a dangerous one. Otto Eissfeldt discovered inscriptions with the word mlk while excavating in Carthage in 1921. In the context of the description, it meant neither king nor the name of any god. He concluded that it was used to describe human sacrifice. He also found a Tophet to Tanit with thousands of burned infant and animal bodies dating from the 8th century BC to 146 BC.
When described as a deity, he was said to be entirely malevolent. He was usually described as a man with a bull’s head. His statues were hollow bronze with gaping mouths in which a fire was built. Children were placed on the hands of the statue, which slid them into the flaming mouth. The people who came to witness the sacrifices often beat drums or tambourines to drown out the victims’ screams. The height of the sacrifices was in the 8th-6th century BC.
He has also been compared to the Tyrian god Melqart, Cronus, and the Minotaur.
Text by Sarah (Truth Behind Stargate)
Complemented Information by Gordon
Moloc is a Minor God of death in the Mesopotamian partheon.
He was also know in Hebrew, as a god that the Israelite Children were sacrificed by burning, and is mentioned in 1 Kings Ch. 11 Vs. 7 and 2 Kings Ch. 23 Vs. 10.
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