A striped racer, also known as the California whipsnake, is a species of non-venomous snake native to the coast and foothills of California. It is a long, slender, and fast-moving snake, identified by its distinctive stripes running down the length of its body. They primarily feed on lizards and small rodents. The scientific name for this species is Masticophis lateralis.
Moloch
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The fire god of the Ammonites in Canaan, to whom humansacrifices were offered; Molech. Also applied figuratively.
Moloch meaning & definition 1 of Moloch.
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Demon robot from the popular TV series Buffy,
Moloch meaning & definition 2 of Moloch.
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[Molech], whose name probably derived from [Melech] king and Bosheth, shame, was one of the deities worshipped by the idolatrous Israelites. He was referred to as [the abomination] of the children of [Ammon] (1 Kings 11:7) and the primary means of worshipping him appears to be child sacrifice or to pass through the fire. Solomon was said to have built a temple to him.
Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. (1 Kings 11:7)
Sacrificing children was apparently not uncommon, but the practice died down around the time of Jeremiah when the King defiled Tophet, the place where Moloch was worshipped.
He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley [of the son] of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech. (2 Kings 23:10)
For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight, declares the LORD, they have set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My mind. Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. (Jer 7: 30-32)
Moloch has often been identified with Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. He was probably also identified with Baal, and as a sun or [fire god], as he was also identified with the Assyrian/Babylonian Malik, and at [Palmyra] Malach-bel. Moloch is also identified with Baal [Hammon] in Carthaginian religion.
Milton writes of him in [Paradise Lost]
First, Moloch, horrid King, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears;
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children’s cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshiped in [Rabba] and her watery plain,
In Argob and in [Basan], to the stream
Of utmost [Arnon]. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God
On that [opprobrious] hill, and made his grove
The [pleasant valley] of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black [Gehenna] called, the type of Hell.Paradise Lost, i. 391-405
Moloch meaning & definition 3 of Moloch.