Child sacrifice was common among pagans of the Middle East. >MOLOCH: The chief god of the Phenicians, frequently mentioned in Scripture as the god of the Ammonites, whose worship consisted chiefly of human sacrifices, ordeals by fire, mutilation, etc.: also identified with the god of the Carthaginians called by classical writers Kronos or Saturn. >They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Much of the old testament is about God punishing Israelites for worshipping pagan gods. >For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.