Jeremiah excoriates the Judahites for sacrificing babies to Baʿal at the Tophet, in a valley near Jerusalem. Archaeological excavations throughout Carthage uncovered the remains of thousands of babies offered to Baʿal and his consort Tanit, together with dedicatory inscriptions, referring to the offering as a molekh, the very term the Bible uses to prohibit child sacrifice.
An exhibit in the Sant’Antioco archaeological museum (Sardinia) reconstructs the layers of Sulci’s Punic “tophet,” with offering bowls to hold the baby’s bodies and dedicatory stelae. The Phoenician settlement of Sulci was part of the Carthaginian sphere of influence from the 8th century B.C.E. until its conquest by Rome in the 1st century B.C.E., when child sacrifice was prohibited. Photo: Daniel Ventura, Wikipedia.
Published: May 13, 2024
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Last Updated: September 7, 2026
See my extended treatment in: Daniel Vainstub, “קורבנות אדם בכנען ובישראל” [Human Sacrifices in Canaan and Israel], Beer-Sheva 19 (2010): 117–204.
The English translations of the Bible in this paper are based on Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible. A Translation with Commentary (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019), with adjustments.
E.g. Moshe Weinfeld, “The Worship of Molech and the Queen of Heaven and its Background,” Ugarit-Forschungen 4 (1972): 133–154.
See Francesca Stavrakopoulou, King Manasseh and Child Sacrifice: Biblical Distortions of Historical Realities, BZAW 338 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2004).
With its reference to “human slaughterers,” Hosea may also be depicting a Baʿal-related ritual, if we connect the practice to the reference to Baʿal in the preceding verse:
הושע יג:א כְּדַבֵּר אֶפְרַיִם רְתֵת נָשָׂא הוּא בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֶּאְשַׁם בַּבַּעַל וַיָּמֹת. יג:ב וְעַתָּה יוֹסִפוּ לַחֲטֹא וַיַּעְשׂוּ לָהֶם מַסֵּכָה מִכַּסְפָּם כִּתְבוּנָם עֲצַבִּים מַעֲשֵׂה חָרָשִׁים כֻּלֹּה לָהֶם הֵם אֹמְרִים זֹבְחֵי אָדָם עֲגָלִים יִשָּׁקוּן.
Hos 13:1 When Ephraim spoke in trembling, he was a prince in Israel, but he was guilty with Baʿal and died. 13:2 And now they continue to offend and make themselves molten images fro ther silver in their form as idols, all of it craftsmen’s work. To them they say: “sacrifices of man, calves to be kissed.”
Editor’s note: For a discussion of this passage as related to YHWH worship in a northern temple, see Rami Arav, “The Golden Calf: Bull-El Worship,” TheTorah (2022).
Editor’s note: For more on these texts, see Eve Levavi Feinstein, “Giving Your Firstborn Son to God,” TheTorah (2016). For a monograph length study of the subject in the Bible and reception history, see Jon D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993); Gili Kugler, “The Cruel Theology of Ezekiel 20,” ZAW 129 (2017): 47–58.
See also Jeremiah 19:6, 11–14; 2 Kings 23:10.
One piece of evidence comes from a Christian source. The head of the Carthaginian pantheon was Baʿal Ḥamon. In Rome, he was understood to be identified syncretistically with Saturn. Notably, Roman’s believe that Saturn ate his own children, and in his City of God (book VII, §19, 26), in response to the (now lost) work of Terentius Varro, Augustine of Hippo implies that this was also part of Carthaginian mythology, and that it was connected to the practice of child sacrifice. See discussion in Vainstub, “Human Sacrifices in Canaan and Israel,” 191 [§29].
See Daniel Vainstub, “Carthage” in Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. Edited by Hans-Josef Klauck et. alii., (Berlin 2012), 4.1013–1015.
The Greeks and Romans called the inhabitants of these colonies “Punic,” i.e., connected to Phoenicia.
The hard sciences function in archaeology like forensic science elsewhere. Laboratory studies of remains of burned bones can tell you everything: how they were burnt, temperature, on which side, etc.
See Vainstub, “Human Sacrifices,” 140–156; idem, “Two Punic Stelae in the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem,” Bible Lands e-review 2018/S1.
So in the most ancient stelae. Later the goddess Tinit was added to the formula.
This Guelma (ancient Calama in Algiers) inscription is neo-Punic, after the gutturals were no longer pronounced, and the spelling in is quite different than elsewhere. The words ארשם היש are meant to be Punic אזרם אש, which appears in several steles, but whose meaning is still undetermined, so I leave it untranslated here.
James G. Février, “Glanes néopuniques,” Journal Asiatique 255 (1967): 61–64 [p. 63].
Based on Aramaic אִמַּר, Ugaritic ʾimr, and Akkadian immeru “lamb”.
The text continues:
ויקרא כ:ד וְאִם הַעְלֵם יַעְלִימוּ עַם הָאָרֶץ אֶת עֵינֵיהֶם מִן הָאִישׁ הַהוּא בְּתִתּוֹ מִזַּרְעוֹ לַמֹּלֶךְ לְבִלְתִּי הָמִית אֹתוֹ. כ:ה וְשַׂמְתִּי אֲנִי אֶת פָּנַי בָּאִישׁ הַהוּא וּבְמִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ וְהִכְרַתִּי אֹתוֹ וְאֵת כָּל הַזֹּנִים אַחֲרָיו לִזְנוֹת אַחֲרֵי הַמֹּלֶךְ מִקֶּרֶב עַמָּם.
Lev 20:4 And if the people of the land actually avert their eyes from that man when he gives his seed la-molekh, not putting him to death, 20:5 I Myself shall turn my face against that man and his clan and I shall cut him off and all who go whoring after him to whore after the molekh, from the midst of their people.
Interestingly, in Hebrew the names of mountains, rivers, and topographic items can be definites.
If this is historically accurate, and the area wasn’t rebuilt, then the references to the practice by the later prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel would have to be retrospective, pointing to sins made in the past.
Editor's note: For another discussion of this controversy in the Bible, see Samuel Z. Glaser, “Biblical and Greek Ambivalence Towards Child Sacrifice,” TheTorah (2016).
Abraham, of course, has another son, Ishmael. Traditional commentators solve this by interpreting here “unique to his mother,” even though that יְחִידְךָ (Genesis 22:2, 12, 16) is explicitly addressed to Abraham. Editor’s note: For another discussion of this problem, see Philip Yoo and Grace Leake, “‘Take Your Only Son Isaac’ – What Happened to Ishmael?” TheTorah (2016).
E.g. 2 Samuel 7:23; Isaiah 51:2, etc. See Vainstub, Human Sacrifices, 168–170.
Editor's note: For other readings of the Akedah’s message, see: Rami Arav, “The Binding of Isaac, a Sacred Legend for the Jerusalem Temple,” TheTorah (2020); Kenneth Seeskin, “‘The’ Message of the Akedah?” TheTorah (2023);
Editor's note: For more on this battle, see Adam L. Bean and Christopher A. Rollston, “Ataroth and the Inscribed Altar: Who Won the War Between Moab and Israel?” TheTorah (2020).
See Anthony Spalinger, “A Cannanite Ritual Found in Egyptian Reliefs,” JSSEA 8 (1977): 47–60.
See Vainstub, “Human Sacrifices,” 156–160, 182–192.
See Pompeius Trogus cited in Justinus, Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum XIX, 1:10; Vainstub, “Human Sacrifices,” 159.
This is often a reference to a wartime vow against enemies. See e.g. Numbers 21:1–3.
Editor's note: See discussion in Isaac S.D. Sassoon, “Obliterating Cherem,” TheTorah (2015).
Editor's note: See Jack M. Sasson, “The Story of Jephthah: The Urge to Manipulate,” TheTorah (2015). For a different view, see Jonathan Magonet, “Did Jephthah Actually Kill His Daughter?” TheTorah (2015).
