In case you wonder who God is to [them].

Traditionally, Moloch has been understood as referring to a Canaanite god.[2] However, since 1935, scholars have debated whether or not the term refers to a type of sacrifice on the basis of a similar term, also spelled mlk, which means "sacrifice" in the Punic language.[3] This second position has grown increasingly popular, but it remains contested.[4] Among proponents of this second position, controversy continues as to whether the sacrifices were offered to Yahweh or another deity, and whether they were a native Israelite religious custom or a Phoenician import.[5]

Since the medieval period, Moloch has often been portrayed as a bull-headed idol with outstretched hands over a fire; this depiction takes the brief mentions of Moloch in the Bible and combines them with various sources, including ancient accounts of Carthaginian child sacrifice and the legend of the Minotaur.[6]

"Moloch" has been figuratively used in reference to a person or a thing which demands or requires a very costly sacrifice.[7] A god Moloch appears in various works of literature, such as John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô (1862), and Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (1955).