Footnote 5 – Sacred Sex, Sacrifice and Death

As noted above the RSV translates the first line of verse 9 as “you journeyed to Molech…” The Hebrew word wtsry is translated “you journeyed.” However you journeyed to the sacrificial offering with oil” makes little sense. Moreover there is no solid evidence from anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible that the verb sur, supposedly the root of wtsry, means to journey or travel in Hebrew. Nor does sur definitely mean “to journey, travel” in any of the languages cognate to Hebrew. The Septuagint does not translate wtsry as “you journeyed,” nor does the contemporaneous author in the Qumran community who penned the great Isaiah scroll.