Pliny's influence is very apparent in The Lapi- darium of Marbodus —
• From scaa remote the yellow Topaz came. Found in the island of the self-same name ; Great is the value, for full rare the stone, And but two kinds to cocer merchants known. One vies with purest jfold, of oran^'e bri^'ht ; The other glimmers with a faintt-r liylit ; Its yielding nature to the file gi\ es way, Yet bids the bubbling' caldron cease to play. The laud of ftems, culled from its copious store, Arabia sends this to the Latian shore : One only virtue Nature prants the stone. Those to relieve who under hemorrhoids j^oan.'
Ruskin, in his lecture on the symbolic tise of precious stones in heraldry, states tliat the topaz IS 'symbolic of the Sun, like a strong man runniii}; his race rejoicing, standing between light ana darkness, and representing all good work.' It is curious to comjiare this with Marbodus, in his Prose on the 1 welve Foundation Stones : ' Con- templativte soliduni vitte prjestat otlicium.'
J. Tavlok.
TOPHEL (Sjh, Ti^oX).— A place named in de- fining the situation of Dt 1'. It h.os been fre- quently identified (since Robinson, BliF' ii. 167, 187, following a suggestion of Hengsteiibirg) with et-'J'nfile in Gebal, about lo miles S.S. E. of the Detid Sea, but phonetic, apart from other, reasons make this identification very uncertain (see Driver or Dillm. ad loc).
TOPHET, TOPHETH. — A word of doubtful orit.'in, dis])uted etymology, rare occurrence, and somewhat uncertain meaning. Milton refers to it, and gives his idea of it in the lines —
•The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thenoe And black Gehenna call'd, the type of hell.'
PL I. 404, 406.
It appears only in the OT, and is never reproduced in tne NT. It is not found in the apocryphal books, and its earliest occurrences in Christian literature seem to be in Euscbius (Onum.) and
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TOPHET, TOPHETH
TOPHET, TOPHETH
Jerome (on Jer 7'')- Even in the OT its range is very limited. It is peculiarly a term of Jeremiah's. It is found once in tlie historical books (2 K •23'"), once in the poetical books {.lob 17*), once in Isaiah in a modilied form (Is 3I.F), and elsewhere only in Jeremiah (7"' '■'■ 19^' '^' "■ '''). Ewald is of opinion that the use of the term Topheth in the special sense wliich it luis in 2 Kings was not customary so early as Isaialrs time {Hist, of Israel, iv. 209, Longmans' tr.). The Hebrew form in all the occurrences but one is nrn. In the Isaianic pas- sage, however, it is nrirjj. This latter form is prob- ably constructed by extension from rjn, as we have n^'x from vx, nn;;'; from n?'? (so Dillm. Jes. ad loc.) ; although some (e.g. Stade, Gesch. i. 610) have had recourse, in endeavouring to explain it, to such expedients as changing the vocalization so as to get HBEij ( = ' his Topheth '), or detaching the final n and connecting it (as the interrogation q) with the word that follows (see the Dictionaries, and Klost., Bredenk., Cheyne {SBOT\, Marti, et al.). The pro- nunciation of the word is uncertain. In the Mas- soretic text the vocalization of bosheth, ' shame,' has probably been given it as a thing of evil name, and the LXX makes it Tapheth. In the ancient Versions, indeed, it takes different forms, e.g. Tkophclk (Vulg.), Td0c9 (LXX, Aq., Synim.), Qa(piB (LXX in some copies, Aq., Theod.), ©609 (Aq.). In Is 3U^ the rendering of the LXX is 6.ira.i.Tri8i)aTi or diraTTjOric-Q ; in Jer 19' Sidirruiris ; in Jer 19'^ 6 diaTitrTwv (in some copies) ; and in Jer 19" again SiaTTTiicrcu! (in some copies). The AV makes it Tophet in all cases except 2 K 23'°, where it is Topheth. RV has Topheth throughout.
The passage in Job may be at once discounted. There the word is an ordinary descriptive noun, formed probably from a root meaning to ' spit,' and so expressing something abhorred or abomin- ated. Job describes himself as become 'an open abhorring ' (RV text), ' one in whose face they spit ' (RV margin) ; wrongly rendered by the AV ' I was as a tabrct,' on the supposition that n;n ' spitting' is akin to '•p 'timbrel.' In the other pa.ssages the word is a local name, and means properly ' the Topheth,' the article being attached to it except where it has the prepositions 5, ? connected with it. Tlie extended form nn^ij, however, is anarth- rous, and is probably to be rendered ' a Topheth is prepared of old,' as in RV.
In its various occurrences the terra is associated, directly or indirectly, with the valley of shameful name, known in the OT variously as ' the valley of Hinnom' (only in Jos lu*" 18"'^ Neh ll*"), 'the valh'y of the son of Hirinom ' (e.g. Jos IS* 18'**, 2 Ch 28^ 33», Jer 7"^ ig-"), 'the valley of the cliildren of Hinnom ' (2 K 23"> Kithlbh), or simply 'the valley' (Jer 2=» 31-'<'), in wliich the idola- trous Jews, especially in the times of Ahab and JIanasseh (of. 2 Ch 28'' SS'^), practised the cruel rites of the worship of Molech, and offered human sacrifices. It is with reference to the reforms of Josiah and the steps which he took to defile the impious and horrid place, and prevent any man thereafter from making ' his son or his daughter to pa.ss through the fire to Molech,' that mention is made of Toiihctli in the narrative of the OT. The passage in 2 Kings is the passage of primary interest in the study of tlie term. But the pas- sages in the Prophets have also their contribution to make.