goddess, concentrate their worship more and more on a single
divine figure, and come to regard that figure from a greater distance
and with greater awe. The liberal and easy-going Baals and Asheras of
agricultural life are not suited to the temple of a great commercial
city; a figure of more dignity is wanted. And thus above the crowd of
Baals there appears the Moloch or king, a much greater being and
requiring a much statelier service. Moloch also is not originally a
proper name; there are various Molochs or king-gods who rise above
the Baals, and the individuals have special designations, as
Melcarth, "king of the city." This type of deity occurs not with the
Phenicians only, but with several other Syrian peoples about the same
time. The Moloch of Sidon and Tyre is a being of the same character
as the chief gods of Moab, Ammon, and Israel. He has to do not only
with the blessings of agricultural life, but with state and
government. He is the founder of a state; he is the inventor of
navigation and of purple; he is the first king; when a colony is sent
out, it goes with his approval, and he himself leads the expedition;
he is the dread ruler whom none must disobey; the majesty, the power,
and the enterprise of the state are all embodied in him. And as the
king-god is far above the landlord-god in power, he is infinitely
removed from him in character also. The chief gods of Sidon and Tyre
have nothing luxurious or effeminate about them. They are strict and
awful beings, and must not be incautiously approached. They retain
their primitive character as sources of life, but they are destroyers
of life as well. Pure and holy themselves, they require purity and
holiness in all who draw near to them. Their priests are celibates,
their priestesses virgins. They require sacrifices of a very
different nature from those of the Baals, more costly and more
dreadful. Human sacrifices appear to have been a regular feature of
their worship: when the Israelites turn to the worship of Phenician
gods, or when they copy Phenician practices, we hear of their "making
their children pass through the fire"--that is, offering them up as
burnt-sacrifices. The Moloch requires what is most costly as a
sacrifice, or what will cause the strongest thrill of terror in his
worship. Even the first-born child is not to be kept back from him (2
Kings xxiii. 10, Jerem. vii. 31, cf. Micah vi. 7).

So far the origin of the Phenician gods is simple. They ar