Tophet


In the Hebrew Bible, Tophet or Topheth was a location in Jerusalem in the Gehinnom where worshipers influenced by the ancient Canaanite religion engaged in child sacrifice to the gods Moloch and Baal by burning children alive. Tophet became a theological or poetic synonym for Hell within Christendom.
The traditional explanation that a burning rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem gave rise to the idea of a fiery Gehenna of judgment is attributed to Rabbi David Kimhi's commentary on Psalm 27. He maintained that in this loathsome valley fires were kept burning perpetually to consume the filth and cadavers thrown into it.

Etymology

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Valley of Hinnom was used as a place for worshipers in Canaan to burn their own children alive as sacrifices. One section of the Hinnom Valley was called Topheth, where the children were slaughtered. Medieval Jewish commentators David Kimhi and Rashi claimed that the name Topheth is derived from the Hebrew word toph, meaning a drum, because the cries of children being sacrificed by the priests of Moloch were masked by the sound of the beating on drums or tambourines. According to Philip King, the derivation is uncertain, but may come from an Aramaic word meaning "hearth", "fireplace", or "roaster".
The term is spelled Topheth in most English bibles. However, it appears in versions such as the King James and New King James as "Tophet".

Biblical references

The following references are made in the Hebrew Bible. In YHWH states his contempt for child sacrifices.
The practice of burning children in Topheth was ended by Josiah, King of Judah, who "defiled Topheth" as part of his great religious reforms. Topheth is also mentioned in,, and. The closest biblical description available to Tophet is in Isaiah 30:33 where he describes it as a place of brimstone, which the Targum translates as Gehenna or hell.

Literary references

Various works of literature refer to Topheth, including John Milton's Paradise Lost, Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

In popular culture

The Devil in the film Oh, God! You Devil also was named Harry O. Tophet, played by George Burns.
In the 2009 American post-apocalyptic film The Road, "Behold the Valley of Slaughter—Jeremiah 19:6" is scrawled in spray paint on a billboard above an entrance to a bridge.
Needful Things, a 1991 horror novel by Stephen King, has a character reference Tophet in its opening pages.
In the animated series , Tophet is the name of an alien planet that experiences endless intense heat due to a tidally locked orbit with its host star.