Verse 31
And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak ,.... The former of which is represented by the Jews in the shape of a dog, deriving the word from "nabach", to bark, as if it was the same with the Anubis Latrator of Virgil F2 Aeneid. l. 6. So Ovid. Metamorph. l. 9. Fab. 12. ver. 689. , an Egyptian deity; though that is said F3 Jablonski apud Michael. Obs. Sacr. Exercit. 4. p. 66, 67. to have its name from NOeb, which in the Egyptian language signifies "gold", the statutes of it being made of gold; and the latter in the form of an ass, for what reason I cannot say; but the first word, according to Hillerus F4 Ut supra, (Onomast. Sacr.) p. 859. , signifies, "the remote one seeth", that is, the sun, which beholds all things; and Tartak is a chain, and may denote the fixed stars chained as it were in their places; or the satellites of the planets, chained to their orbs:
and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and to Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim ; which were the same with Moloch; which may be concluded, partly from the worship paid them, and partly from the signification of their names; both end with "melech", king, which Moloch also signifies; the first may be interpreted the mighty king, and the latter the king that answers in an oracular way; from the first, one of the sons of Sennacherib king of Assyria had his name, Isaiah 37:36 , though the Jews, according to their fancy, represent the one in the likeness of a mule, and the other in the likeness of a horse; and some make the one to be a peacock, and the other a pheasant F5 Vid. Kimchium in loc. ; the Septuagint version puts the article before them in the feminine gender, excepting the two last, taking them for she deities, or leaving the word εικονα , "images", to be understood.
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