the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Topheth
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or To'pheth. (place of burning), To'pheth, and once, To'phet, was in the southeast extremity of the "valley of the son of Hinnom," Jeremiah 7:31, which is "by the entry of the east gate." Jeremiah 19:2 . The locality of Hinnom is to have been elsewhere. See Hinnom. It seems also to have been part of the king's gardens, and watered by Siloam, perhaps a little to the south of the present Birket el-Hamra.
The name, Tophet, occurs only in the Old Testament. 2 Kings 23:10; Isaiah 30:33; Jeremiah 7:31-32; Jeremiah 19:6; Jeremiah 19:11-14. The New Testament does not refer to it, nor does the Apocrypha. Tophet has been variously translated. The most natural meaning seems that suggested by the occurrence of the word, in two consecutive verses, in one of which, it is a tabret, and in the other, Tophet. Isaiah 30:32; Isaiah 30:37.
The Hebrew words are nearly identical; and Tophet was, probably, the king's "music-grove," or garden, denoting originally nothing evil or hateful. Certainly there is no proof that it took its name from the beating, to drown the cries of the burning victims, that passed through the fire to Molech. Afterward, it was defiled by idols, and polluted by the sacrifices of Baal, and the fires of Molech. Then, it became the place of abomination, the very gate, or pit, of hell. The pious kings defiled it, and threw down its altars and high places, pouring into it all the filth of the city, till it became the "abhorrence" of Jerusalem.
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Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Topheth'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/t/topheth.html. 1901.
