Deuteronomy 18:10

Hebrew Bible

8 He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family’s inheritance. 9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. 10 There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, 11 one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. 12 Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord, and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is about to drive them out from before you.

Jeremiah 19:5

Hebrew Bible

3 Say, ‘Listen to the Lord’s message, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, has said, “Look here! I am about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring. 4 I will do so because these people have rejected me and have defiled this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. 5 They have built places here for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices are something I never commanded them to make. They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind. 6 So I, the Lord, say: ‘The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley the Valley of Slaughter! 7 In this place I will thwart the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword at the hands of their enemies. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat.

 Notes and References

"... The divine recipients of the mlk sacrifice vary within the same cultures. In Israel mlk in Jeremiah 19:5 and 32:35 (compare 2 Kings 17:16-17) is a term for a human sacrifice intended allegedly for Baal. Psalm 106:34-38 attributes child sacrifice to Baal Peor. According to 2 Kings 17:31 the Sepharvites devoted child sacrifice to two gods, Adrammelek and Anammelek. Jeremiah 7:31; 19:5, and 32:35 deny that mlk sacrifice was offered in Yahweh’s name; these denials may suggest that offering this sacrifice in Yahweh’s name occurred (compare Leviticus 18:21; 20:3; Genesis 22) ... Isaiah 30:27-33 appears as the best evidence for the early practice of child sacrifice in Israel. According to Mosca, the image of child sacrifice in this eighth or seventh century passage serves as a way to describe Yahweh’s coming destruction of Israel. In this text there is no offense taken at the Tophet, the precinct of child sacrifice. It would appear that Jerusalemite cult included child sacrifice under Yahwistic patronage; it is this that Leviticus 20:2-5 deplores. Ezekiel 16:20, 21, 36 and 23:39 assume that child sacrifice was intended for a multiplicity of deities. The legal proscriptions against child sacrifice in the Holiness Code (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5) and in Deuteronomy 12:31 and 18:10 are unclear regarding the divine recipients. Leviticus 20:2-5 suggests that this sacrifice is not to take place in Yahweh’s temple, perhaps to avoid performance of it in his name ..."

Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (p. 168) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002

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