Why did people sacrifice children in biblical times?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

That was required by several Canaanite "gods", the Hebrew God prohibited it. The one instance where the Hebrew God requested it (that Abraham sacrifice Isaac) was really a test of trust in God and once that was shown, an alternate sacrifice was made available.

Answer 2

Mark S. Smith (The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel) says that child sacrifice was performed in Israel and Judah up to the seventh century BCE. He says that Ezekiel 20:25-26 provides a theological explanation for child sacrifice and indicates that at least some child sacrifices were performed in the name of Yahweh (God): "Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD." Here God was saying that he made the Jews to perform child sacrifices through fire, to appease his anger.

Other biblical and non-biblical evidence indicates that child sacrifice was performed at times of grave national danger or to seek the support of a deity in an important undertaking. 1 Kings 16:34 tells how Hiel the Bethelite, the builder of the new Israelite city of Jericho sacrificed his two sons for the success of the project, according to the word of the Lord as spoken to Joshua.

The Book of Jeremiah denies that child sacrifices were performed in God's name, but Smith suggests that the strength and frequency of the book's protests really indicate that Jeremiah knew such sacrifices were occurring and was trying to stop them in the future.