Those Who Swear by Molech

THE CONFLICT between Israel and Hamas continues with a ground assault of Gaza apparently imminent. We continue our review of scriptures that appear to prophesy a coming destruction of the territory around Gaza that was Philistine from the time of the Judges until the Persian conquest of the region in the 6th century BC. We learned this week that the chief god of Gaza, Dagon, continued to be worshiped under the Aramaic name Marna (“lord”, similar to Canaanite baʿal and Hebrew adonai) until the 5th century AD. As Derek showed in his book The Second Coming of Saturn, Dagon was the same entity worshiped under the names Saturn, Kronos, El, Enlil, Assur, and Milcom/Molech, all of which were connected to the netherworld and most of which accepted or demanded human—especially child—sacrifice.