Passage

Leviticus 18.21

"You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the LORD." (Leviticus 18:21, NASB95)

The verse stands at the heart of the Holiness Code (Leviticus 17-26) and gives YHWH's explicit, categorical prohibition of child sacrifice. The juxtaposition with the surrounding sexual-ethics prohibitions is intentional: the chapter is one extended contrast between the practices of the Canaanite nations and the conduct demanded of a people set apart for YHWH. For apologetics this is the foundational text against the claim that the God of the Hebrew Bible endorses or tolerates child sacrifice; the Mosaic legal corpus treats it as one of the most heinous categories of profanation.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"19. And thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness. 20. And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife, to defile thyself with her."

"21. And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to make them pass through the fire to Molech; neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am Jehovah."

"22. Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23. And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto: it is confusion." (Leviticus 18:19-23, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"19. "'You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness. 20. "'You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, and defile yourself with her."

"21. "'You shall not give any of your children to sacrifice to Molech. You shall not profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh."

"22. "'You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestable. 23. "'You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it. No woman may give herself to an animal, to lie down with it: it is a perversion." (Leviticus 18:19-23, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"19. Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. 20. Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her."

"21. And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. ^{Molech: Gr. Moloch}"

"22. Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion." (Leviticus 18:19-23, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"19. 'And unto a woman in the separation of her uncleanness thou dost not draw near to uncover her nakedness. 20. 'And unto the wife of thy fellow thou dost not give thy seed of copulation, for uncleanness with her."

"21. 'And of thy seed thou dost not give to pass over to the Molech; nor dost thou pollute the name of thy God; I [am] Jehovah."

"22. 'And with a male thou dost not lie as one lieth with a woman; abomination it [is]. 23. 'And with any beast thou dost not give thy copulation, for uncleanness with it; and a woman doth not stand before a beast to lie down with it; confusion it [is]." (Leviticus 18:19-23, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: YHWH speaking through Moses
Audience: the Israelite congregation about to enter the Canaanite land
Location: Sinai wilderness
Time period: events c. 1445 BC; composed under Mosaic authorship c. 1446-1406 BC

Theological reading

The chapter's framing matters. Verses 1-5 set the contrast: "you shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you." Verse 21 identifies the most extreme Canaanite practice (offering children to Molech) as forbidden, and verses 24-30 close by warning that the land itself "vomits out" peoples who do such things. The prohibition is not contextless social regulation; it is an identifying mark of the people of YHWH against the cultic violence of their neighbors.

The Hebrew of "give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech" (ūmizzar'aḵā lōʾ-ṯittēn ləhaʿăḇîr lammōleḵ) uses the verb ʿāḇar in the causative ("cause to pass over"), idiomatic for offering through fire as the parallel laws and the historical references make clear (Deuteronomy 12.31, Deuteronomy 18.10, Jeremiah 7.31, 2 Kings 23.10). Molech is the Ammonite-Canaanite deity associated with the Topheth installations in the Valley of Hinnom; archaeology (the Carthaginian Tophet cemeteries) and classical sources independently confirm the historicity of the Canaanite-Phoenician practice. The biblical authors are reporting a real cultic context, not constructing a strawman.

This verse is the load-bearing text in the apologetic against the charge that YHWH endorses child sacrifice. Three points carry that argument. (1) Leviticus 18:21 prohibits the practice categorically and tags it as profanation of God's name. (2) The penalty for breaking it is the most severe in the legal code (Leviticus 20.2-5), capital punishment and divine kareth (being cut off from the people). (3) The prophets denounce the later kings who instituted it (2 Kings 23.10, Jeremiah 7.31, Jeremiah 32.35), and YHWH calls the practice "what I did not command, nor did it ever come into My mind." This last phrase is striking: YHWH dissociates Himself from the very thought of child sacrifice.

The two texts most often raised as counter-examples, Genesis 22 (the Akedah) and Judges 11.30-39 (Jephthah's daughter), fail on examination to be exceptions: the Akedah explicitly withdraws the demand and is the foundational anti-child-sacrifice narrative in Jewish self-understanding, and Judges presents Jephthah's vow as the disaster it is, not as endorsed cult. The book of Judges is descriptive, not prescriptive; the narrator's recurring refrain ("everyone did what was right in his own eyes") is editorial condemnation. See Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament for the full treatment.

Key words

H3068 - YHWH, YHWH (Strong's H3068), the divine name being protected from profanation.
H8034 - shem, shēm (Strong's H8034), "name," whose profanation is at stake.
H0430 - elohim, ʾĕlōhîm (Strong's H430), "your God," marking covenantal allegiance.

Theological themes

Categorical prohibition of child sacrifice. No carve-outs, no ritual circumstances; the practice is itself profanation.
Holiness code as anti-Canaanite identity-marker. The practices of the surrounding nations define what Israel must not be.
Profanation of the divine name. Child sacrifice is framed not only as injustice to the child but as desecration of God.
Land-defilement logic. The Holiness Code reads the practice as polluting the land itself, grounding the conquest as YHWH's judgment on Canaanite child-sacrifice culture.
Apologetic foundation against the "YHWH endorses child sacrifice" charge. This verse plus its prophetic citations comprises the Bible's own internal refutation.

Cross-references

Leviticus 20.2-5, the capital-penalty parallel to Lev 18:21.
Deuteronomy 12.31, the Canaanite-practice contrast.
Deuteronomy 18.10, the comprehensive list of forbidden occult/sacrificial practices.
Jeremiah 7.31, YHWH's "it never came into My mind."
2 Kings 23.10, Josiah defiles the Topheth to end the cult.
Genesis 22, the Akedah as foundational anti-child-sacrifice text.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.