Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1. Children Sacrificed as Part of a "Molek" Rite

Those Who Deny the Existence of a God "Molek"

Scholars Who Continue to Argue That "Molek" Was a Deity

"Molek" Disappears Once Again

Chapter 2. Archaeological, Iconographic, and Epigraphic Evidence for Child Sacrifice in the Levant and Central Mediterranean

Megiddo, Gezer, and Taanach

The Amman Airport Temple and Umm el-Marra

Alleged Depictions of Canaanite Child Sacrifice in Egyptian Art

The Punic Central Mediterranean

More Evidence from the Levant? Tyre and Achziv

The Nebi Yunis Inscription

The Incirli Trilingual

The Deir ʿAllā Inscriptions

The Idalion Inscription

Summary and Conclusions

Appendix: Documentation of Sites with Tophets

Chapter 3. A General Sacrifice of Firstborn Israelite Children?

Chapter 4. Varieties of Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel

Mesha's Sacrifice of His Firstborn Son

Firstborn Offerings in Micah 6:1–8

Jephthah

Hiel's Firstborn and Youngest Sons?

Child Sacrifice in Assyrian Samerina?

Molek Revisited: The History and Nature of Israelite למלך Sacrifices

Conclusions

Chapter 5. Biblical Reactions to Israelite Child Sacrifice

Deuteronomy

Later Legal Traditions

Ezekiel

Jeremiah

Conclusions

Summary and Conclusions

Bibliography

Indexes

Index of Authors

Index of Scripture

Index of Other Ancient Sources