Jeremía 7:31

Heilögum Biblíunni

31 og byggt Tófet-fórnarhæðir í Hinnomssonar-dal til þess að brenna sonu sína og dætur í eldi, sem ég hefi ekki boðið og mér hefir ekki í hug komið!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the high: Jeremiah 19:5, Jeremiah 19:6, Jeremiah 32:35, 2 Kings 23:20, 2 Chronicles 33:6

the valley: Jeremiah 19:2, Joshua 15:8, 2 Chronicles 28:3

to burn: Deuteronomy 12:31, 2 Kings 17:17, Psalms 106:37, Psalms 106:38, Ezekiel 16:20

which I: Leviticus 18:21, Leviticus 20:1-5, Deuteronomy 17:3

came it into: Heb. came it upon

Reciprocal: Leviticus 10:1 - which Leviticus 20:2 - giveth Joshua 18:16 - the valley of the son 2 Kings 23:10 - Topheth Nehemiah 11:30 - the valley Isaiah 30:33 - Tophet Isaiah 57:5 - slaying Jeremiah 2:23 - valley Jeremiah 2:34 - Also Jeremiah 19:4 - filled Jeremiah 19:11 - bury Ezekiel 20:31 - ye offer Ezekiel 23:37 - have also Micah 6:7 - shall

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they have built the high places of Tophet,.... Where was the idol Moloch; and which place had its name, as Jarchi thinks, from the beating of drums, that the parents of the children that were burnt might not hear the cry of them: which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom; a valley near Jerusalem, and lay to the south of it,

Joshua 15:8:

to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire: which was done, as Jarchi says, by putting them into the arms of the brasen image Moloch, heated hot. The account he gives of Tophet is this,

"Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved:''

but in this he is mistaken; for "Tophet" was not the name of an idol, but of a place, as is clear from this and the following verse. There is some agreement between this account of Jarchi, and that which Diodorus Siculus z gives of Saturn, to whom children were sacrificed by the Carthaginians; who had, he says, a brasen image of Saturn, which stretched out his hands, inclining to the earth; so that a child put upon them rolled down, and fell into a chasm full of fire:

which I commanded them not: not in my law, as the Targum; nor by any of the prophets, as Jarchi paraphrases it; he commanded them, as Kimchi observes, to burn their beasts, but not their sons and daughters. The instance of Abraham offering up Isaac will not justify it. The case of Jephthah's daughter, if sacrificed, was not by divine command. The giving of seed to Moloch, and letting any pass through the fire to him, is expressly forbidden, Leviticus 18:21:

neither came it into my heart; it was not so much as thought of by him, still less desired, and much less commanded by him. Jarchi's note is,

"though I spoke to Abraham to slay his son, it did not enter into my heart that he should slay him, but to make known his righteousness.''

z Bibliothec. Par. 2. l. 20. p. 756.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jeremiah summons the people to lament over the miserable consequences of their rejection of God. In the valley of Hinnom, where lately they offered their innocents, they shall themselves fall before the enemy in such multitudes that burial shall be impossible, and the beasts of the field unmolested shall prey upon their remains.

Jeremiah 7:29

The daughter of Zion, defiled by the presence of enemies in her sanctuary, and rejected of God, must shear off the diadem of her hair, the symbol of her consecration to God, just as the Nazarite, when defiled by contact with a corpse, was to shave his crowned head.

Take up a lamentation ... - Or, lift up a “lamentation on the bare hill-sides” Jeremiah 3:2.

Jeremiah 7:30

They have set their abominations ... - Probably a reference to the reign of the fanatic Manasseh, in whose time the worship of Astarte and of the heavenly bodies was the established religion of the land 2 Kings 21:3-5, and even the temple was used for idolatrous services. The people had never heartily accepted Josiah’s reformation.

Jeremiah 7:31

The high places - Here, probably, not natural hills, but artificial mounts, on which the altars were erected.

Tophet (marginal reference note) is not here a proper name; as applied to Baal-worship the term is not an ordinary one, but almost unique to Jeremiah. Comparing this verse with Jeremiah 19:5; Jeremiah 32:35, it will be found that Baal is in those passages substituted for Tophet. Just as it is the practice of the prophets to substitute “Bosheth, shame,” for Baal (see Jeremiah 3:24), so here Jeremiah uses “Tophet, an object of abhorrence” (compare Job 17:6 note), in just the same way.

Valley of the son of Hinnom - See Joshua 15:8 note.

To burn ... - The children were not burned alive, but slain first Ezekiel 16:21.

Jeremiah 7:32

The valley of slaughter - Where they killed their helpless children, there shall they be slaughtered helplessly by their enemies.

Till there be no place - Rather, for want of room elsewhere.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 7:31. Tophet - in the valley of the son of Hinnom — Tophet was the place in that valley where the continual fires were kept up, in and through which they consecrated their children to Moloch.