In Canaanite worship, the sun, moon, and stars were worshipped as bearers of the powers of nature associated with Baal and the other gods. In Assyria and Babylon the stars were viewed as the originators of all change in life, and that they held human destiny in their hands, and so their worship promised an effective means of bringing a chaotic world under control.
1 This was introduced into Judah in the days of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:3, 2 Kings 21:5). Josiah acted against it (2 Kings 23:5), but it continued even after the fall of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 44:15–19, Jeremiah 44:25).
5 those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom,