Leviticus 20:5

_THEN I WILL SET MY FACE AGAINST THAT MAN, AND AGAINST HIS FAMILY, AND WILL CUT HIM OFF, AND ALL THAT GO A WHORING AFTER HIM, TO COMMIT WHOREDOM WITH MOLECH, FROM AMONG THEIR PEOPLE._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THIS VERSE....

1-9 Are we shocked at the unnatural cruelty of the ancient idolaters in sacrificing their children? We may justly be so. But are there not very many parents, who, by bad teaching and wicked examples, and by the mysteries of iniquity which they show their children, devote them to the service of Satan, and forward their everlasting ruin, in a manner even more to be lamented? What an account must such parents render to God, and what a meeting will they have with their children at the day of judgment! On the other hand, let children remember that he who cursed father or mother was surely put to death. This law Christ confirmed. Laws which were made before are repeated, and penalties annexed to them. If men will not avoid evil practices, because the law has made these practices sin, and it is right that we go on that principle, surely they should avoid them when the law has made them death,...

Molech, literally, “the King”, called also Moloch, Milcom, and Malcham, was known in later times as “the abomination of the Ammonites” 1 Kings 11:5. He appears to have been the fire-god of the eastern nations; related to, and sometimes made identical with, Baal, the sun-god. The nature of the rite and of the impious custom called passing children through the fire to Molech is very doubtful. The practices appear to have been essentially connected with magical arts, probably also with unlawful lusts, and with some particular form of profane swearing. The rite in the time of Moses belonged to the region rather of magic than of definite idolatrous worship, and may have been practiced as a lustral charm, or fire-baptism, for the children of incest and adultery. Leviticus 20:2...

EXPOSITION The subject of Leviticus 18:1, is resumed in this chapter; but that which was before considered as sin only is now regarded as crime, and penalties are attached according to the heinousness of the offense. For example, the sin of "giving of his seed to Molech," or which is the same thing, "letting any of his seed pass through the fire to Molech," had been forbidden as a sin in Leviticus 18:21; now it is condemned as a crime. The various penalties assigned in this chapter are (1) _burning with fire _(Leviticus 18:14); (2) _stoning with stones _...

THEN I WILL SET MY FACE AGAINST THAT MAN,.... That man that sees him do the fact, and winks at it, or the judge that connives at him, and will not condemn him, as well as the man that has committed the iniquity: AND AGAINST HIS FAMILY; either the family of the witness, who could and should have testified against him, or of the judge negligent of his office, or of the man himself, whose family must be privy to so shocking an action, and were abettors of it, and aiders and assisters in it; and so Onkelos renders it, "and his helpers": AND WILL CUT HIM OFF: the head of the family, whether judge, witness, or the criminal himself: AND ALL THAT GO A WHORING AFTER HIM: that commit the like idolatry after his example, and encouraged to it by the connivance of others at it: TO COMMIT WHOREDOM WITH MOLECH; that is, idolatry, which is spiritual whoredom, and often so called in Scripture, and wi...

3. WARNINGS AGAINST SPECIAL SINS AND THEIR PENALTIES CHAPTER 20 _ 1. Warning against Molech--worship and familiar spirits (Leviticus 20:1)_ 2. Warning against cursing parents (Leviticus 20:9) 3. Criminal and vile connections (Leviticus 20:10) 4. Exhortations to obedience and separation (Leviticus 20:22) This chapter reveals the justice of God in dealing with criminals. The death penalty is most prominent. It is pronounced upon the following crimes: Molech worship; dealing with familiar spirits (spiritualism); different forms of incest and sodomy. Men advocate now the abolis

WORSHIP OF MOLECH, ETC. Offering children to Molech (see Leviticus 18:21 *) is to be punished by stoning; such a death emphasizes the repudiation by the whole community and involves everyone in the act, always serious, of killing a fellow-tribesman (_cf._ Joshua 7:25). Yahweh Himself will see that the sinner does not survive his crime even if he is not publicly punished; his whole family will be destroyed. Cursing parents is also a capital crime; in such a case, the dead man's blood does not cry from the earth; it is on his own head, _i.e._ its power to hurt comes to an end with his life (_cf._ 1 Kings 2:31; 1 Kings 2:44,

FAMILY. Compare Ezekiel 18:2, and note the contrast. Jeremiah 31:29...

AND THE LORD SPAKE, &C.— In ch. Leviticus 18:21 this dedication of children to Molech, is forbidden in more general terms. It is there said, _thou shalt not let any of thy offspring pass through the fire to Molech:_ where the reader will observe, that the words, _the fire,_ are in Italics, and, consequently, not in the Hebrew. Accordingly, Houbigant is of opinion that the phrase signifies _to become servants to;_ and that it expresses dedicating children in perpetual servitude to the worship of Molech, and therefore he renders it, _non mittes ad Molech semen tuum in servitutem, thou mayest not send thy offspring into servitude to Molech:_ and he observes, that the word _fire_ is never used, where Molech is spoken of: but he certainly forgot, Exodus 23:10 where it is expres

PUNISHMENT FOR UNHOLINESS 20:1-27 MOLECH WORSHIP 20:1-5 TEXT 20:1-5 1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Moreover, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3 I also will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. 4 And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and put him not to death; 5 then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that play the harlot after him to play the harlot with Molech, from among their people. THOUGH...