Halakha 2 Raja-raja 17:31: Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs

He who gives of his children to Molech of his own free will, wantonly, is guilty of an offense punishable by excision. If he erred, he should offer a standard sin-offering. But if he did not in the presence of witnesses, and was given due warning, his punishment is stoning; for, it is said: "Whosoever… that giveth of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death" (Lev. 20.2). Whencefrom is the warning against him derived? From what it is said: "And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them apart to Molech" (Ibid. 18.21); and it is further said: "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire" (Deut. 18.10). How was the practice thereof? One builds a big fire, and takes a part of his children and turns them over to the fire-worshiping priests; those priests, after a child had been turned over to them by the father to pass him through the fire by the father's consent, return the child back to the father, and it is the father of the child who passes his child through the fire by the consent of the priests, and the passing through thereof is by walking the victim from one side to the other in the midst of the flame. The practice was not to burn children to Molech outright after the manner of those who burned their sons and daughters to another kind of idolatry,⁴Sepharvaim. See Second Kings, 17.31. G. but only by passing through the flame was the service of this idol which is called Molech. Therefore, he who performs such service to another idol, save Molech, is not guilty of worshiping Molech.⁵Keritot, 2a; Sanhedrin, 64a–b C. See Cairo and other commentaries. G.