Hebrew word · H4445

מִלכֹּם

milkom

Milcom

The national god of Ammon. The name comes from m-l-k, 'king', with an ending that probably means 'the King' or 'their king'.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 01, 2026

What it means

Milcom = "great king"

the god of the Ammonites and Phoenicians to whom some Israelites sacrificed their infants in the valley of Hinnom

1a) also 'Molech'

Another name of mo.lekh (מֹ֫לֶךְ "Molech" H4432)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: The national god of Ammon. The name comes from m-l-k, 'king', with an ending that probably means 'the King' or 'their king'.
Against the English: BSB, KJV, WEB and YLT all say 'Milcom'. Some paraphrases merge him with 'Molech', and 1 Kings 11:7 itself reads 'Molech' for the Ammonite god, probably a scribal confusion or deliberate deformation.
How it drifted: Popular retellings often blur Milcom with Molech and the child-sacrifice associations of Molech texts (Lev 18:21; 2 Kgs 23:10). Kings presents Milcom simply as Ammon's national god, and this verse makes no claim about child sacrifice.
Used elsewhere in the period: Ammonite inscriptions and seals mention mlkm, including the Amman Citadel Inscription (9th century BC). 2 Samuel 12:30 may refer to the crown of 'their king' / Milcom taken from Rabbah. In this verse the Septuagint reads the consonants as 'their king'. Jeremiah 49:1, 3 has the same ambiguity.

Range of meaning: The national god of the Ammonites. The name comes from melek, 'king', with an ending, giving roughly 'the King'. In some passages (2 Sam 12:30; Jer 49:1, 3; Zeph 1:5) the same consonants can be read either 'Milcom' or 'their king'.
Against the English: BSB, KJV, ESV and NASB have 'Milcom'. NIV and NLT have 'Molek/Molech', which merges him with the god or rite linked to child sacrifice in Leviticus 18:21 and 2 Kings 23:10.
How it drifted: Readers who see 'Molech' bring in the child-sacrifice associations of the valley of Hinnom. The Hebrew of this verse names Milcom, and whether Milcom and Molech are the same is disputed.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Amman Citadel Inscription (9th century BC) and Ammonite seals and personal names attest mlkm as Ammon's god. In 2 Kings 23:13 Josiah later defiles the high places built for 'Ashtoreth… Chemosh… and Milcom'. In that verse Milcom is called a tôʿēbâ ('abhorrent thing') and the other two šiqquṣ.

1 Kings · 2

1 Kings 11:5 מִלְכֹּ֔ם Milcom

Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

Here: The national god of Ammon, the kingdom across the Jordan around modern Amman. The name is built on melek, 'king', so it means something like 'the King'.
1 Kings 11:33 וּלְמִלְכֹּ֖ם and to Milcom

For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.

Here: 'And to Milcom': the chief god of Ammon. The name is built on the root m-l-k, 'king', and probably means something like 'the King'.

2 Kings · 1

2 Kings 23:13 וּלְמִלְכֹּ֖ם and to Milcom

The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

Here: The national god of Ammon (around modern Amman). His name is built on the root for 'king'.

1 Chronicles · 1

1 Chronicles 8:9 מַלְכָּֽם׃ Malkam

His sons by his wife Hodesh: Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam,

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.