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Milcom or Milkom (Ammonite: 𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤌 * Mīlkām; Hebrew language: rtl=yes Mīlkōm) was the name of either the national god, or a popular god, of the . He is attested in the Hebrew Bible and in archaeological finds from the former territory of Ammon. His connections to other deities with similar names attested in the Bible and archaeologically are debated, as well as his relationship to the Canaanite supreme deity El, or the putative deity Moloch.
In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Bible, the name appears as Melchom (Μελχομ) or Melchol (Μολχολ), including in several places where the Masoretic text instead reads "their king" (malkam): 2 Samuel 12:30, 1 Chronicles 20:2, Amos 1:15, Jeremiah 40 (=30):1.3, Zephaniah 1:5, and 1 Kings 11:7. It is likely that the Hebrew text originally read Milcom in at least some of these instances. Conversely, the Septuagint translates mlkm at 1 Kings 11:5 and 33 (=Septuagint 3 Kings 11:5 33) as "their king" (ὁ βασιλεύς αὐτῶν) rather than as the name of a god.
The Bible attests Milcom as playing the role of the Ammonites' chief state god in parallel to Yahweh's role in Israel or Chemosh's role in Moab. Given that the Bible refers to Milcom having been worshiped by royal sanction in Jerusalem, it is possible that he was also worshiped as a native rather than a foreign god in Israel.
Five Ammonite names are attested containing the name Milcom as an element. However, in Ammonite theophoric names, El, the chief god of the Canaanite pantheon, appears more frequently than Milcom.
Stone statues discovered around Ammon may depict Milcom. Several of these figures show features of the god Osiris, namely the atef crown, suggesting that aspects of Osiris may have been adopted into Milcom's cult. An image of a four-winged Scarabaeus sacer has also been suggested to portray Milcom, however, this is inconclusive.
A deity named MLKM is mentioned in a bilingual Canaanite–Ancient North Arabian inscription discovered at Qasr Bayir, which has been identified by some as Milcom. This MLKM is mentioned alongside two other deities, QWS1 and KMS1, which have been identified with Qaws and Chemosh, respectively.
Milcom's status as the chief god of the Ammonite pantheon has sometimes been questioned, given the lack of archaeological evidence for this role. On the basis of the similar iconography and the greater attestations of names containing the name El than Milcom, it has been suggested that Milcom may have been an epithet of El used in Ammon, or that Milcom was another god who gradually became associated with El in the same manner as Yahweh became associated with El in Israel. Scholar Collin Cornell has criticized attempts to argue that Milcom was the same deity as El or became syncretized with him as lacking evidence; he argues that similarities between El and Milcom in fact only show that El and Milcom "were IronAge Levantine gods characteristic of their region and era." Other scholars, such as Walter Aufrecht, have argued that Milcom may only have been the chief god of the Ammonite royal house, while others suggest he held some other subordinate role beneath El. Given the lack of evidence, neither that El and Milcom were the same nor that Milcom was subordinate to El can be proven.
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