Tophet definition

Tophet





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3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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}.]
     [1913 Webster]
  


           And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the
           children of Hinnom.                      --2 Kings
                                                    xxiii. 10.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     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.
           [1913 Webster]
  
                 The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
                 And black Gehenna called, the type of hell.
                                                    --Milton.
           [1913 Webster]

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 Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Tophet, a drum; betraying
  

















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