Anammelech
Anammelech was an Assyrian deity worshiped by the Sepharvites, who were among the foreign peoples settled in Samaria by the Assyrian king.
Biography
Anammelech was an Assyrian deity, likely paired with Adrammelech, worshiped by the Sepharvites, a people the Assyrian king resettled in the cities of Samaria after the deportation of the northern Israelites in 722 BC (2 Kings 17:31). The Sepharvites practiced a horrifying cultic rite in which their children were burned in fire as sacrificial offerings to these gods. Anammelech's name may mean "Anu is king," connecting the deity to the ancient Mesopotamian sky god Anu. The deity's precise character and cultic practices beyond child sacrifice are poorly attested in extrabiblical sources, and some scholars regard the names as corruptions or conflations of known Mesopotamian divine names.
Significance
Anammelech represents the antithesis of Israel's covenant God in one of the most searing ways Scripture depicts, the demand for child sacrifice as an act of devotion. The introduction of such worship into Samaria following the Assyrian resettlement serves in 2 Kings 17 as the theological explanation for the northern kingdom's downfall: the land that once knew Yahweh became a space of syncretistic, demonic corruption. The passage is a polemical contrast to Yahweh, who explicitly forbids child sacrifice and who provided his own Son freely. Anammelech and Adrammelech thus function as dark foils that highlight the life-giving, morally pure character of Israel's God in contrast to the destructive demands of false religion.
Verse Appearances (1)
2 Kings
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (TIPNR). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]