From Nave’s Topical Bible
Tophet
Every passage the 1896 Nave’s Topical Biblegathers under this heading, in Nave’s own arrangement and then in Bible order. MannaFest has not written this page — it is the older index, transcribed, with the Word travelling beside each reference.
- 9Passages listed
- 4Books of the 66
- 1896Nave's edition
How Nave’s arranged it
- Also called TOPHETH
- A place in the valley of the sons of Hinnom2 Kings 23:10
- Jewish children passed through the fire to the god Molech in2 Kings 23:10Jeremiah 7:31Jeremiah 7:32Jeremiah 19:6Jeremiah 19:11–14Jeremiah 32:35
- See also2 Chronicles 28:32 Chronicles 33:6
- Destroyed by Josiah2 Kings 23:10
- Horror ofIsaiah 30:33
The passages, in Bible order (9)
The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 9 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.
- 2 Kings 23:10
He also desecrated Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.
Commentary on 2 Kings 23:102 voices
Topheth--so called from Toph--a "drum." It is the prevailing opinion among Jewish writers that the cries of the terrified children made to pass through the fire in that place of idolatrous horror were drowned by the sound of that instrument.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
He defiled Topheth - St. Jerome says that Topheth was a fine and pleasant place, well watered with fountains, and adorned with gardens. The valley of the son of Hinnom, or Gehenna, was in one part; here it appears the sacred rites of Molech were performed, and to this all the filth of the city was carried, and perpetual fires were kept up in order to consume it. Hence it has been considered a type of hell; and in this sense it is used in the New Testament.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the BibleEvangelical
- 2 Chronicles 28:3
Moreover, Ahaz burned incense in the Valley of Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 28:32 voices
This prince, discarding the principles and example of his excellent father, early betrayed a strong bias to idolatry. He ruled with an arbitrary and absolute authority, and not as a theocratic sovereign: he not only forsook the temple of God, but embraced first the symbolic worship established in the sister kingdom, and afterwards the gross idolatry practised by the Canaanites.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Burnt his children in the fire - There is a most remarkable addition here in the Chaldee which I shall give at length: “Ahaz burnt his children in the fire; but the Word of the Lord snatched Hezekiah from among them; for it was manifest before the Lord that the three righteous men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were to proceed from him; who should deliver up their bodies that they might be cast into a burning fiery furnace, on account of the great and glorious Name, (יהוה) and from which they should escape.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the BibleEvangelical
- 2 Chronicles 33:6
He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
- Isaiah 30:33
For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
Commentary on Isaiah 30:332 voices
688. For Topheth is prepared. Here he describes the place of punishment. And first, its disposition: Topheth, the valley of the son of Ennom, Gehenna, for the fire for sacrifices was kept there on stones of tufa (Tophis); this is the same as the valley …
Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on IsaiahPatristic
It may be put, for any place of torment; and particularly it is put for hell. For the king - For the king of Assyria. Fire - He alludes to the ancient custom, of burning sacrifices, and particularly of burning children to Moloch.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Evangelical
- Jeremiah 7:31
They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.
Commentary on Jeremiah 7:312 voices
(Verse 30, 31.) Because the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord: they have set up their stumbling blocks in the house where my name is invoked, to defile it. And they have built the high places (or altar) of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in fire: which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. We learn in the beginning of Ezekiel that the sons of Judah put a statue of Baal in the Temple of God.
Jerome· Commentary on JeremiahPatristic
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, Jos 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.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Jeremiah 7:32
So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.
Commentary on Jeremiah 7:322 voices
The valley of slaughter - The place where the slaughtered thousands of this rebellious people shall be cast, in order to their being burnt, or becoming food for the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, Jer 7:33. These words are repeated, and their meaning more particularly explained, Jer 19:6-15.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the BibleEvangelical
Nay, it is a piece of divinity, in expectation of what the dead body shall be at the resurrection. The want of it has sometimes been an instance of the rage of men against God's witnesses, Rev. xi. Here it is threatened as an instance of the wrath of God against his enemies, and is an intimation that evil pursues sinners even after death.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Puritan
- Jeremiah 19:6
So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
Commentary on Jeremiah 19:62 voices
(Verse 6.) Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. LXX: Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no longer be called ruin and πολυάνδριον (multiplicity) of the son of Hinnom, but πολυάνδριον (multiplicity) of slaughter. The valley of the son of Hinnom, which is called Gehenna in Hebrew (), from which it is thought to be named Gehenna, as we have said above.
Jerome· Commentary on JeremiahPatristic
Thus the name indicated the joy of the people at the fancied propitiation of the god by this sacrifice; in antithesis to its joyless name subsequently. valley of slaughter--It should be the scene of slaughter, no longer of children, but of men; not of "innocents" (Jer 19:4), but of those who richly deserved their fate.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
- Jeremiah 19:11–14
and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.
Commentary on Jeremiah 19:11–142 voices
Made whole again - literally, “healed.” In this lies the distinction between this symbol and that of Jer 18:4. The plastic clay can be shaped and re-shaped until the potter forms with it the vessel he had predetermined: the broken bottle is of no further use, but its fragments are cast away forever upon the heaps of rubbish deposited in Tophet.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
The apostle also knows vessels of wrath "made for destruction so that he might make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy." God has divided all people into these two vessels, those of wrath, those of mercy, those like Pharaoh and the Egyptians, those like Paul and those who have believed. But what is the treasury of the Lord in which are the vessels of wrath? Perhaps it is the church, in which such often go unnoticed.
Origen of Alexandria· FRAGMENTS ON JEREMIAH 31Patristic
- Jeremiah 32:35
They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin.
Commentary on Jeremiah 32:352 voices
Molech--meaning "king"; the same as Milcom (1Ki 11:33). I commanded . . . not--This cuts off from the superstitious the plea of a good intention. All "will-worship" exposes to God's wrath (Col 2:18, 23).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
(Verse 35.) And they built high places (or altars) to Baal, which are in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters as offerings to the idol Moloch. The word 'initiate' is written in Hebrew as 'Ebir', which Aquila and Symmachus translated as 'offer'. The Seventy and Theodotion interpreted it as 'sacrifice'.
Jerome· Commentary on JeremiahPatristic