Topheth

A pagan high place in the Valley of Hinnom (Ben-Hinnom), south of the city of Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed in the fire to the pagan deity Molech. The origin of the name is obscure and its exact location is also uncertain, though most scholars think it was probably situated at the point where the Hinnom Valley meets the Kidron.

The place is first mentioned by this name in 2 Ki 23:10 in a narrative of Josiah's reform. Child sacrifice was common enough among ancient Israel's neighbours to require specific instructions in the Mosaic regulations to proscribe it (Lev 18:1). This, however, did not deter King Ahaz and his grandson Manasseh from sacrificing their sons there in the Valley of Hinnom, even though Topheth was not mentioned by name (2 Chron 28:3 & 32:6). The crime of sacrificing their children in the fire to pagan deities was also one of the charges leveled against Israel that resulted into their exile under the Assyrians (2 Ki 17:17). The sacrifice of children was condemned and decried especially by Jeremiah (7:31) and Ezekiel (16:21; 23:37, 39). William Albright (Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan) believes that the practice came into Israel via the Phoenicians but it diminished in time due to the influence of Israel.