![]() ![]() Stone statues discovered around Ammon may depict Milcom. ![]() On this basis, Walter Aufrecht proposes that Milcom was not the state god of the Ammonites and that he may instead have been a patron god of the Ammonite royal house. However, in Ammonite theophoric names, El, the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon, appears more frequently than Milcom. ![]() Two Ammonite names are attested containing the name Milcom as an element. 9th or 8th century BCE), as it has been reconstructed, contains an oracle from Milcom, while the name is also mentioned on the Tell el-Mazar ostracon. These seals indicate that Milcom was seen as benevolent, exalted, strong, and has associations with the stars. Outside the bible, the name Milcom is attested in archaeology, such as on several Ammonite seals, where he is often connected with bull imagery. Given that the Bible refers to Milcom having been worshiped by royal sanction in Jerusalem, it is possible that he was also worshiped as a native rather than a foreign god in Israel. The Bible attests Milcom as playing the role of the Ammonites' chief state god in parallel to Yahweh's role in Israel. It is likely that the Hebrew text originally read Milcom in at least some of these instances. The Masoretic text reads malkam, meaning "their king" in most of these instances. The name occurs several additional times in the Septuagint: 2 Samuel 12:30, 1 Chronicles 20:2, Amos 1:15, Jeremiah 40 (=30):1.3, Zephaniah 1:5, and 1 Kings 11:7. It is mentioned at 1 Kings 11:5 as "Milcom the detestation of the Ammonites", at 1 Kings 11:33 as "Milcom the god of the children of Ammon", and at 2 Kings 23:13 as "Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon". In the Masoretic Text, the name Milcom occurs three times, in each case in a list of foreign deities whose worship is offensive to Yahweh, the god of the Israelites. Milcom is attested several times in the Hebrew Bible, although these attestations say little about him. His connections to other deities with similar names attested in the Bible and archaeologically are debated, as well as his relationship to the Canaanite supreme deity El, or the putative deity Moloch. He is attested in the Hebrew Bible and in archaeological finds from the former territory of Ammon. Milcom or Milkom ( Ammonite: □□□□ * Mīlkām Hebrew: מִלְכֹּם Mīlkōm) was the name of either the national god, or a popular god, of the Ammonites. Statue potentially depicting Milcom or a deified Ammonite ruler as Milcom, 8th century BCE. ![]()
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