Matthew Poole and continuators on Leviticus 18:21

21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed, pass through the fire to Molech , neither [illegible: 1+ letters]halt thou prophane the name of thy God . I am the LORD.

This was done two ways, either 1. By burning them in the fire, of which see 2 King. 3. 27. 2 Chron. 28. 3. Psal. 106. 37, 38. Esa. 57. 1. Or 2. By making them pass between two great fires, which was a kind of lustration or consecration of them to that God. Which latter seems to be here meant. See on Deut. 18. 10. where the word fire, here understood, is expressed.

Or, Moloch, called also Milcom, an Idol chiefly of the Ammonites, as appears from 1 King. 11. 7. 2 King. 23. 13. Ier. 49. 1, 3. This seems to be the Saturn of the Heathens, to whom especially children and men were sacrificed. This is mentioned, because the neighbours of Israel were most infected with this Idolatry, and therefore they are particularly cautioned against it, though under this one instance all other Idols and acts or kinds of Idolatry are manifestly comprehended and forbidden.

Either by joyning him with, or by forsaking him for, such a base and bloody Idol, whereby the name, honour, and service of God would be horribly defiled, and exposed to the scorn of the Heathen, as if he were but one of the same kind with their mungrel-deities.

Marginal references: chap. 20. 2. 2 King. 2[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ 10▪; called Act. 7. 43. Moloch.