There are seven specific activities described as “abomination to the Lord.” All seven were intended to “gain information from or influence over a divine being or beings.” The connection of the Molech cult to these activities and underworld entities identifies Molech as the entity we met earlier—Kumarbi, the god summoned from the abi, which, as we’ve seen, is the Hurrian original behind the Hebrew words for “ritual pit” (ʾôb) and the spirits of the underworld (ʾōbôt).Continue Reading

A key connection between Dagan and his other identities is the god’s link to the netherworld. One of Dagan’s epithets was l pagrê, which has been translated “lord of the dead,” “lord of corpse offerings, lord of corpses (a netherworld god), lord of funerary offerings, and lord of human sacrifices.”Continue Reading