Amos 5:26

Amos 5:26. But ye have borne, or did bear, the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun Your ancestors manifested their want of true devotion toward me, in that they were so prone to practise those idolatries which they learned in Egypt, or which they saw practised in the countries through which they passed: see Numbers 25:2; Joshua 24:14; Ezekiel 20:7; Ezekiel 20:16; and Ezekiel 23:3; Ezekiel 23:8. As these words are quoted by St. Stephen, (Acts 7:42-43,) to prove that God gave them up to worship the host of heaven, it is probable that by Moloch is meant the sun, which the whole East worshipped in ancient times, called also, as almost all interpreters agree, Baal, Bel, or Belus: Baal, the Lord, (as the word signifies,) and Moloch, the king of heaven, being the same. As for the other word, Chiun, rendered by the LXX. Rephan or Remphan, according to Vossius, it signifies the moon; but Aben Ezra understands it of Saturn, an interpretation which many learned men approve: see particularly Lud. de Dieu, upon Acts 7:43, and Dr. Spencer, De Leg. Hebr., lib. 3. cap. 3, where it is shown that Saturn was called Rephan, or Remphan, by the Egyptians. Your images They had images of these supposed deities, that of Moloch representing the sun, and that of Chiun the star Saturn: see Seldon, 2:396. These images were placed in shrines, here termed סכות , a tabernacle, or tabernacles, and these they used to carry about with them, as Grotius and Dr. Hammond, on Acts 7:43, have proved.