Imitating Devils —

The southern Israelite kingdom of Judah had, unfortunately, gone the way of her “sister” in the north by worshiping other gods and adopting the despicable practices and cultic rituals that came along with that. For example, Zephaniah 1:5 specifically mentions worship of the god Milcom. “Also known as Molech, this was the main deity of the Ammonites and was linked to child sacrifice (e.g., Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5). The name seems also to have been used by other Semitic groups for worship connected to the underworld, or the realm of the dead.”[1] Zephaniah also mentioned that there were leaders in Judah who had “array[ed] themselves in foreign attire” (Zephaniah 1:8). “Assyrian priests often wore high-flared headdresses” so the prophet is “likely condemning those who imitated and welcomed the Assyrians in Judah.”[2] Zephaniah also records an unusual practice in which some people would leap over the threshold of a building.  In the ancient Near East, it was often believed that evil spirits could enter temples and homes through windows and doors, especially if someone was to step on the threshold. This could be why the Assyrians often buried sacred objects below their thresholds.[3] And this may all connect back to the episode recorded in 1 Samuel 5 in which the statue of the god Dagon fell face down on the ground before the Ark of the Covenant. As a result of that fall “the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold” of the temple. And, as the Bible explains, “This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day” (1 Samuel 5:4-5).