Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Tophet"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Tophet
=Topheth, from Heb. toph "a drum," because the cries of children
here sacrificed by the priests of Moloch were drowned by the
noise of such an instrument; or from taph or toph, meaning "to
burn," and hence a place of burning, the name of a particular
part in the valley of Hinnom. "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 Isa. 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. (See {HINNOM}.)
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tophet \To"phet\, n. [Heb. t[=o]phet, literally, a place to be
spit upon, an abominable place, fr. t[=u]ph to spit out.]
A place lying east or southeast of Jerusalem, in the valley
of Hinnom. [Written also {Topheth}.]
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the
children of Hinnom. --2 Kings
xxiii. 10.
Note: It seems to have been at first part of the royal
garden, but it was afterwards defiled and polluted by
the sacrifices of Baal and the fires of Moloch, and
resounded with the cries of burning infants. At a later
period, its altars and high places were thrown down,
and all the filth of the city poured into it, until it
became the abhorrence of Jerusalem, and, in symbol, the
place where are wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence And
black Gehenna called, the type of hell. --Milton.
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