What is…
Topheth

also known as: Tophet

Hebrew: תֹּפֶת —transliteration: Topheth —occurrences: 9 times, once in 2 Kings, and the rest in Jeremiah

This is a cultic site to the southwest outside the walls of Jerusalem in a particular part of the valley of Hinnom (aka Valley of Ben-Hinnom), apparently at its southeastern end.

Here the depraved idolaters of Judah sacrificed children to the pagan deity Molech (Moloch).

As the idolatrous priests worked, the cries of the children were drowned by the noise of drums and trumpets.

This place became a symbol of horrible apostasy which would be judged severely by God.

God said to His prophet Jeremiah…

“…the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight… They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come upon My heart. Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. —Jeremiah 7:30-32 LSB excerpt

“Fire being the most destructive of all elements, is chosen by the sacred writers to symbolize the agency by which God punishes or destroys the wicked. We are not to assume from prophetical figures that material fire is the precise agent to be used. It was not the agency employed in the destruction of Sennacherib, mentioned in Isaiah 30:33.

Tophet properly begins where the Vale of Hinnom bends round to the east, having the cliffs of Zion on the north, and the Hill of Evil Counsel on the south. It terminates at Beer 'Ayub, where it joins the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The cliffs on the southern side especially abound in ancient tombs. Here the dead carcasses of beasts and every offal and abomination were cast, and left to be either devoured by that worm that never died or consumed by that fire that was never quenched.”

Thus Tophet came to represent the place of punishment.

The book of Kings reports that the good king of Judah, Josiah…

…defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech. —2 Kings 23:10

Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the house of Yahweh and said to all the people:

“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have spoken against it because they have stiffened their necks so as not to hear My words.’” —Jeremiah 19:14-15 LSB

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Article Version: July 27, 2025