Deuteronomy 12:31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 31. Their sons and their daughters they have burnt, &c.— To what we have said of this horrid custom on Leviticus 20:1; Leviticus 20:27 we shall only add, that it was notoriously practised by the Carthaginians, who, it is certain, derived it from the Phoenicians, the ancient inhabitants of Canaan; and at last it overspread all nations, and prevailed even among the refined Greeks themselves. See Banier's Mythol. book 3: ch. 10. But what is more surprising, we find the Israelites themselves, notwithstanding this admonition, seduced to commit the same abomination; Psalms 106:37-38. Ezekiel 37:28. Dr. Chandler, in his Vindication, justly observes, that though several instances of such inhuman offerings are to be found among the Phoenicians, Greeks, and others, yet they do not appear to have been sacrifices freely made, but with the utmost horror and reluctance, by the order of their priests, or the supposed command of their gods, or through the compulsion of some extreme necessity, and to avoid some dreadful calamity. Thus the king of Moab, in the distress of a grievous war, took his eldest son, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. 2 Kings 3:27. See Jac. Gensius, de Victim. Human. pars i. c. 11. et alibi.