[25] Barker also notes that wall paintings in the ancient Dura-Europos synagogue explicitly show Isaac being sacrificed, followed by his soul traveling to heaven. Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity, supernatural beings, or sacred social order, tribal, group or national loyalties in order to achieve a desired result. King Jehoshaphat of Judah, who had a very large army (2 Chr 17:10-19), agreed to go with him. , (" ). When the king of Moab found himself so harassed, and the royal city on the point of being taken, he called a council of his servants, and asked them how it was these Israelites could perform such prodigies, and that such miracles were wrought for them? July 12, 2012 Correct, God does not allow or condone in any way child sacrifice and the only explanation for such a victory over the Israeli army was that the Moabite army became demonically empowered for a time because of this abomination. [7] It was thought that supernatural beings would consume the souls of more powerful humans and infants were substituted in order to prevent that. As the Israelite slingers began to break down the wall of the city, Mesha, the king of Moab, realized that he was in desperate straits. (2 Kings 3:26-27, NET Bible). The practice is related to that of devotio in Roman religion. It would appear that the Jerusalemite cult included child sacrifice under Yahwistic patronage; it is this that Leviticus 20:25 deplores. The Gemara discusses the end of that verse: And they departed from him and returned to their own land [laaretz] (II Kings 3:27). [Note: Baruch Margalit, "Why King Mesha of Moab Sacrificed His Oldest Son," Biblical Archaeology Review 12:6 (November-December 1986):62-63. Child sacrifice - Wikipedia and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall; that it might be seen by the camp of Israel, and move their compassion; or rather this was done as a religious action, to appease the deity by an human sacrifice so dear and precious, to give success, and cause the enemy to break up the siege; and was either offered to the true God, the God of Israel, in imitation of Abraham, as some Jewish writers fancy, or to his idol Chemosh, the sun; and Jarchi observes, out of an exposition of theirs, that "vau" is wanting in the word for wall, and so may be interpreted of the sun, towards which this burnt offering was offered; and it is observed, from various Heathen authors, that it was usual with the Heathens, when in calamity and distress, to offer up to their gods what was most dear and valuable to them; and particularly the Phoenicians, and from them the Carthaginians had this custom, who at one time offered up two hundred sons of their nobility, to appease their gods: and there was great indignation against Israel; not of the king of Edom against them, for not rescuing his son, or because they were the means of this disaster which befell him; but of the king of Moab, who was quite desperate, and determined to hold out the siege to the utmost extremity: and they departed, and returned to their own land; the three kings, the one to Edom, the other to Israel, and the third to Judah; when they saw the Moabites would sell their lives so dear, and hold out to the last man, they thought fit to break up the siege; and perhaps were greatly affected with the barbarous shocking sight they had seen, and might fear, should they stay, something else of the like kind would be done. Chazal tell us why Mesha slaughtered his crown prince. Why else would biblical law specifically forbid such things and with such vehemence?" There is no indication that Moab was militarily successful again Yisrael in this war. [1], The practice of child sacrifice in Europe and the Near East appears to have ended as a part of the religious transformations of late antiquity. Share Can you explain 2 Kings 3:27? Why King Mesha of Moab Sacrificed His Oldest Son ", "Some even proposed renewing a sacrifice which had been discontinued for many years, and which I for my part should believe to be by no means pleasing to the gods, of offering a freeborn boy to Saturn this sacrilege rather than sacrifice, handed down from their founders, the Carthaginians are said to have performed until the destruction of their cityand unless the elders, in accordance with whose counsel everything was done, had opposed it, the awful superstition would have prevailed over mercy. [30] Some scholars have stated that at least some Israelites and Judahites believed child sacrifice was a legitimate religious practice.[31]. Little is known of the kingdom of Moab in extrabiblical sources. Minoan Crete and Ecstatic Religion: Preliminary Observations on the 1979 Excavations at Knossos. [1] This relationship probably went all the way back to Davids annihilation of Edom in 1 Chronicles 18:12-13. 0000047763 00000 n
It is significant that in v. 26, when the king of Moab was in serious trouble, he tried to break through the Israelite army to reach the king of Edomapparently not caring about the possibility of his avenue of retreat being cut off. sacrifice for the city. After putting a garland on the sacrificial animals they hurl them down alive from the gateway and the animals die from the fall. Is there an extra virgin olive brand produced in Spain, called "Clorlina"? The worship of Chemosh was truly an abomination. Balak - Wikipedia Kir Moab. During a battle, the king of Moab offered in his anxiety his oldest son, who would have become king after him, as a burnt offering to his pagan god. The flame of the burning child reached its body until, the limbs having shriveled up and the smiling mouth appearing to be almost laughing, it would slip into the oven. 110 31 Who was the king of Moab? - Quora Moav or Midian - who seduced the Jews at Shitim? The next morning, the Moabites were tricked by a mirage into approaching the allied armies carelessly. 2 Kings 3:27 - Bible Gateway 16 Tuesday May 2017 Posted by Steven Anderson in Bible 2 Comments Tags 2 Kgs 3:27, 2 Kings 3:27 And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. Peter Warren. With this horrifying act, Mesha turned defeat into victory. Child sacrifice was preferred when there was a time of crisis and transitional times such as famine and drought.[7]. 363.] Peter Warren, "Knossos: New Excavations and Discoveries," Archaeology (July / August 1984), pp. [1] It may be asked why this passage (2 Kgs 3:9) places a king in Edom, when 1 Kings 22:47 and 2 Kings 8:20 say there was no king in Edom in those days. When Jehoshaphat brought his forces to go to battle against Moab, the king of Edom came with him, with an Edomite army (v. 9). The Ver Sacrum is a religious practice of ancient Italic peoples, especially the Sabelli (or Sabini) and their offshoot Samnites. Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and, To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Then he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall, and there was great indignation against Israel, And there was great indignation against Israel -. Mesha's sacrifice of his firstborn, seen in this new light, was virtually guaranteed to save the lives of the entire populationmen, women and childrenof the city under siege" (Baruch Margalit, "Why King Mesha of Moab Sacrificed His Oldest Son," Biblical Archaeology Review, Nov.-Dec. 1986, p. 63). p.195. " The army of Israel counterattacked and smote the Moabites (v. 24). Non-persons in a world of machine and biologically integrated intelligences. [3] It is also questionable whether God would actually allow demonic forces to turn the tide of a human battle so dramatically, as if to vindicate such a despicable deed; the Bible always presents God as the one who controls the outcome of battles (1 Sam 17:47; Prov 21:31). King Mesha offered the crown prince as a burnt offering on top of the city wall in full view of the enemy forces (2 Kings 3-26-27). <> 0000011623 00000 n
of Rabbi anina bar Pappa says: At that time the enemies of the Jewish people, a euphemism for the Jewish people themselves, descended to the lowest level. 0000002002 00000 n
It gives the round number of 40 years as the length of time in which Omris dynasty oppressed Moab (the Bible gives 12 years for Omris reign, 22 years for Ahabs, 2 years for Ahaziahs, and 12 years for Jehorams, for a total of 48 years, minus the number of years after Moab broke free from Israel partway through Jehorams reign). See 2 Chronicles 3:1 (where he appeared unto David his father), Matthew 27:3 (when he saw that he was condemned), etc. Edom's heir, Edom's wrath | TruthOnlyBible As such, it is a form of human sacrifice. 19952023 All correspondence and questions should be sent to info@ucg.org. How was King Solomon's orders to kill adversaries sanctioned? In their zeal to make amends for the omission, they selected two hundred of the noblest children and sacrificed them publicly; and others who were under suspicion sacrificed themselves voluntarily, in number not less than three hundred. trailer Why were the Jews commanded to destroy fruit trees when attacking Moav? Since the Edomites and the Judeans were merely representing the interests of Israel, they also withdrew from the land of Moab when the Israelites withdrew. One place in Scripture records Chemosh demanding human sacrifice: in the days of Judah's King Jehoram, the king of Moab faced military defeat, and the Moabite ruler "took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall" (2 Kings 3:27). [14][15], The Tanakh mentions human sacrifice in the history of ancient Near Eastern practice. So there was great anger against Israel, and the Israelites withdrew and returned to their own land. Then the king of Moab took his oldest son, who would have been the next king, and sacrificed him as a burnt offering on the wall. He may have been sacrificed to a pagan deity, or perhaps offered him as a burnt-offering is just a way of saying that Mesha bound him, cut him open, and burned him to death on a platform. 27 So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. Then he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead Not the eldest son of the king of Edom, whom the king of Moab had in his hands before, which made the king of Edom the more willing to join in this expedition for the recovery of his son, as Joseph Kimchi thinks; or whom he took now in his sally out upon him, as Moses Kimchi and Ben Gersom, proceeding upon a mistaken sense of ( Amos 2:1 ) for the king of Edom could have no son that had a right, or was designed to succeed him, since he was but a deputy king himself; and besides, the sacrificing of him was not the way to cause the kings to raise the siege, but rather to provoke them to press it the more closely: it was the king of Moab that took his son and heir to the crown. Chazal Imply Gechazi was Rotten and Elisha Didn't Know -- What Lesson is Gained from This? 27 So he took his oldest son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to the god of Moab. Qir-Hareseth; Kir-Heres - Bible Study Tools Jephthah succeeds in winning a victory, but when he returns to his home in Mizpah he sees his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels, outside. When wars gravest dangers gripped the land, Kronos dressed his son in royal attire, prepared an altar and sacrificed him. Answer Moab, a small kingdom in the central Transjordan, was a familiar setting in the Bible. Since the Israelites were idolatrous, some speculate that demonic wrath could very well have come upon them, and Yahweh would not necessarily save them from it. Other interpretations do not follow the nearest antecedent of his son and do not adequately account for other information in the text, nor do they comport with biblical theology. In defense of this interpretation, note the ambiguity of the pronouns in v. 27: the king of Edom is the last person mentioned before this verse, while the king of Moab is second-to-last. "[40]:404405 She cited the Mesha Stele as evidence that the neighbouring Moabites also performed human sacrifices with prisoners of war to their god Chemosh after successfully attacking an Israelite city in the 9th century BCE. Answer: Who was the king of Moab? (Minos 315), "And from then on to the present day they perform human sacrifices with the participation of all, not only in Arcadia during the Lykaia and in Carthage to Kronos, but also periodically, in remembrance of the customary usage, they spill the blood of their own kin on the altars, even though the divine law among them bars from the rites, by means of perirrhanteria and the herald's proclamation, anyone responsible for the shedding of blood in peacetime. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi explains: You did not act like the proper ones among the nations, but you did act like the flawed ones among them. This is not very solid. And the point is all three of these focus on God. 0000016835 00000 n
(2 King 3:27) Did God have anger at Israel for this Moabite human Who was Chemosh? | GotQuestions.org 0 [5], It is hypothesized that this specific child sacrifice cite took place during the great drought and famine of 1454-1457, furthering the theory that Aztecs utilized human sacrifice to placate the gods. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. This was done through k'ex, which is an exchange or substitution of something. A bronze Kronos, having been erected by them, stretched out upturned hands over a bronze oven to burn the child. 0000050470 00000 n
Where child sacrifice is a business, BBC News Africa (11 October): Learn how and when to remove this template message, Child sacrifice in pre-Columbian cultures, Textual variants in the Book of Leviticus Leviticus 18, commentators of the rabbinic Jewish tradition, Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa, "LacusCurtius Greek and Roman Sacrifices (Smith's Dictionary, 1875)", "Peru child sacrifice discovery may be largest in history", "Residential patterns of Mexica human sacrifices at Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Mexico-Tlatelolco: Evidence from phosphate oxygen isotopes", "Sex Identification of Children Sacrificed to the Ancient Aztec Rain Gods in Tlatelolco", http://gallery.sjsu.edu/sacrifice/precolumbian.html, https://web.archive.org/web/20080506113520/http://www.exn.ca/mummies/story.asp?id=1999041452, "Massacre of Children in Peru Might Have Been a Sacrifice to Stop Bad Weather", "A mass sacrifice of children and camelids at the Huanchaquito-Las Llamas site, Moche Valley, Peru", "Hundreds of children and llamas sacrificed in a ritual event in 15th century Peru: The largest sacrifice of its kind known from the Americas was associated with heavy rainfall and flooding", http://www.saber.ula.ve/bitstream/123456789/18495/1/articulo3.pdf, http://issuu.com/bnahem/docs/revista_digital_timoto_cuicas, "First Person: Human Sacrifice to an Ammonite God? [8] It is also known that infant sacrifices occurred at certain times. 0000002738 00000 n
Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Balak tried to engage Balaam for the purpose of cursing the migrating Israelite community. What is the significance of Moab in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org Rogers, Chris 2011. Temple R was dedicated to the Aztec rain gods, including Tlloc, Ehecatl, Quetzalcoatl, and Hutzilpchtli. 27 So he took his oldest son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him on the city wall as a sacrifice to the god of Moab. Some even throw their children off the place, but not in the same manner as the animals. He had been ritually murdered with the long bronze dagger engraved with a boar's head that lay beside him.[61]. What Does It Mean to Be "Spiritually Blind"? [21] Francesca Stavrakopoulou contradicts this asserting that sacrifices were native to Israel and part of the royal line's attempts to perpetuate itself.[21]. [63], In the early 21st century Uganda has experienced a revival of child sacrifice. Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall; and there was great indignation against Israel. Read 2 Kings (GNT) Read 2 Kings 3:27 (GNT) in Parallel. : , , : ' ( ). Other scholars have concluded that the virgins and animals were kept alive and used by the Levites as their share of the spoils. [5] In 2008, Archaeologists found and excavated 43 victims of Aztec sacrifice, 37 of which were subadults. Jarchi says that the letter vau is wanting in this word, as it should be written chomah, to signify a wall; but chammah signifies the sun, and this was the god of the king of Moab: "And he offered his first-born son for a burnt-offering unto the sun." 1988. When he did so, "there was a great indignation against [or upon] Israel. 7. The Victory Over Moab (2 Kings 3:16-27) | Bible.org Abraham agrees to this command without arguing. Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity, supernatural beings, or sacred social order, tribal, group or national loyalties in order to achieve a desired result. Then he took his eldest son, who should have reigned in his stead, and sacrificed him for a burnt offering upon the wall; and there was great indignation against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land (II Kings 3:27). 0000002959 00000 n
And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. Israel, losing the heart to press the . ',[16] and responded to in the phrase, 'He has shown all you people what is good. What has Mesha achieved in killing his son? Mesha decided to do so too in order to please G'd, or according to another opinion in the gemoro, to please his god. This inscription is a testimony to the accuracy of the Bibles historical record, and it is one of many extrabiblical texts that have prevented intelligent but anti-Christian critics from dismissing the Bible as a fairy tale. Balak (Hebrew: Blq) was a king of Moab described in the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible, where his dealings with the prophet Balaam are recounted. <>stream
Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. 0000010027 00000 n
Why King Mesha of Moab Sacrificed His Oldest Son, Baruch Margalit [41], The most extensive accounts of child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible refer to those carried out in Gehenna by two kings of Judah, Ahaz and Manasseh of Judah. [28], In Leviticus 18:21, 20:3 and Deuteronomy 12:3031, 18:10, the Torah contains a number of imprecations against and laws forbidding child sacrifice and human sacrifice in general. [27] According to Irving Greenberg the story of the binding of Isaac, symbolizes the prohibition to worship God by human sacrifices, at a time when human sacrifices were the norm worldwide. The Moabite Stone (also called the Mesha Stele) was discovered in 1868 and contains a Moabite inscription that confirms many of the events of 2 Kings 3 but gives it a distinctly pro-Moabite spin. Front Cover. The navi Elisha prophecies, under oath, that the Jews will be successful. Once Mesha performed this sacrifice it either provided him with more merit, even though it was perhaps not what God 'wanted' the intention behind it was noble. On his journey to meet the princes of Moab, Balaam is stopped by an angel of the lord after beating his donkey. Num 32:34). "[47], "There is another form of sacrifice here. This story is puzzling. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned to their own land." What Bible Debates Inspired Martin Luther's 95 Theses? It was a test of faith (Genesis 22:12). 170173. , : ( ). All rights reserved. 2 Kings 3:27 - Compare Bible Verse Translations - Bible Study Tools For one, why would God prophesy through Elisha that Israel should attack Moabonly to cause wrath upon them? The background of this story is that Jehoram has just replaced his father Ahab (and brother Ahaziah) as king over Israel. %%EOF I wouldnt call him successful. However, it would seem that Israel would be happy to see the king of Moabs son be killed, and it would not weaken their military position in the least. (Comp. In Jehoram's invasion of Moab it alone withstood his attack; and on the city wall the king of Moab sacrificed his son (2 Kings 3:25). History of Alexander IV.III.23, "In Africa infants used to be sacrificed to Saturn, and quite openly, down to the proconsulate of Tiberius, who took the priests themselves and on the very trees of their temple, under whose shadow their crimes had been committed, hung them alive like votive offerings on crosses; and the soldiers of my own country are witnesses to it, who served that proconsul in that very task. [56][57][58], Startling as it may seem, the available evidence so far points to an argument that the children were slaughtered and their flesh cooked and possibly eaten in a sacrifice ritual made in the service of a nature deity to assure an annual renewal of fertility.[59][60]. And there was great indignation against Israel - Either the Israelites were indignant with themselves, or the men of Judah and the Edomites were indignant at the Israelites for having caused the pollution of this sacrifice, and the siege was relinquished. CEV He then grabbed his oldest son who was to be the next king and sacrificed him as an offering on the city wall. In the book of the prophet Micah, the question is asked, 'Shall I give my firstborn for my sin, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? These passages indicate that in the seventh-century child sacrifice was a Judean practice performed in the name of YHWHIn Isaiah 30:2733 there is no offense taken at the Tophet, the precinct of child sacrifice. 0000017331 00000 n
VERSE King Of Moab Sacrifices His Son, And Raises The Siege 2 Kings 3:26 KJV 2 Kings Chapter 3 26 And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not. The inscription indicates that Omri had conquered the plains of Moab north of the Arnon River and that the area remained under Israelite control throughout Ahab's reign" (Nelson Study Bible,note on verse 4). prophecy - Did God lose a fight to another deity? - Biblical "[38], Pluger (1995) cited Exodus 17, Numbers 31, Deuteronomy 13 and 20 as examples of human sacrifice demanded by Yahweh, adding that according to 1 Samuel 15, Saul "lost his kingship of Israel because he had withheld the human sacrifice that Yahweh, the god of Israel, expected as his due after a war. [55], The Quran documents pagan Arabians sacrificing their children to idols. Mi Yodeya is a question and answer site for those who base their lives on Jewish law and tradition and anyone interested in learning more. One scholar explains: "The Hebrew word translated 'indignation' is ketsef[which here] denotes the psychological breakdown or trauma that affected the Israelite forces when they beheld the sign of human sacrifice atop the walls of Kir-Hareseth. [62], The continued murder of Black children of all ages, for body parts with which to make muti, for purposes of witchcraft, still occurs in South Africa. New York: Summit Books. 140 0 obj : . In Jehoram's invasion of Moab it alone withstood his attack; and on the city wall the king of Moab sacrificed his son (2 Kings 3:25). Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. [2] Note that the text does not say his own firstborn son, which is the phrasing that would normally be used to eliminate ambiguity, were the text referring to the king of Moabs son. 6 Valuable Lessons from the Life of Samuel, 10 Verses from James to Deepen Your Faith. Their frozen corpses have been discovered in the South American mountaintops. It was described by the chronicler Juan de Castellanos, who cited that feasts and human sacrifices were done in honour of Icaque, an Andean prehispanic goddess. [40]:404 Although "[s]uch ritual activity is condemned by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other biblical writers (e.g., Lev 18:21, Deut 12:31, 18:10; Jer 7:3031, 19:5; Ezek 20:31), and the seventh-century reformer king Josiah sought to put an end to it, [the] notion of a god who desires human sacrifice may well have been an important thread in Israelite belief. [3] The famous Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone) evidently was written sometime after the death of Jehoram. However, the text of 1 Kings 22:47 gives the answer: a deputy was king. There was a king in Edom, but since he was subservient to Judah, he was not a true sovereign. The Israelites were terrified and so they drew back from the city and returned to their own country. Psychologically what Mesha accomplished was showing his resolve was stronger than that of his enemies by consecrating the battle as a 'holy war'(source), Spiritually speaking, in Sanhedrin 39b your question is addressed. Mesha, when his sally failed, took, as a last resource, his first born son, and offered him as a burnt-offering to appease the manifest anger of his god Chemosh, and obtain his aid against his enemies. "Though the Hebrew Bible portrays child sacrifice as a foreign practice, several texts indicates that it was a native element of Judahite deity-worship. In the USA, is it legal for parents to take children to strip clubs? When the alliance besieged the Moabite capital of Kir-Hareseth, the Moabite king Mesha, in desperation, sacrificed his eldest son to the god Chemosh. . Modern scholars unanimously identify this city with Kir of Moab. ", "War in the Hebrew Bible and Contemporary Parallels", http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0009177, "New magic for new times: muti murder in democratic South Africa", "Witch-doctors reveal extent of child sacrifice in Uganda", https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15255357#story_continues_1, 11/04/2008 Child survives sacrifice in Uganda, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Child_sacrifice&oldid=1156169085, Francesca Stavrakopoulou (2004).