In the paragraph in Isaiah which gives the oracle concerning the destruction of Assyria, Jehovah is represented as Himself coming from afar to execute vengeance on the oppressors of Israel. His people look on and sing their song of gladness, while judgment is done upon their enemies certainly and comidetely. The declaration of the certainty and completeness of the over-
throw of the Assyrian takes the form of an announcement that for the king, or for his god, 'a Toplicth,' a place of burning and abhorrence like that in the unclean valley of Hinnom, ' ia prepared of old ' and ' made ready,' a place of fir« which Jehovah Himself hath made 'deep and large,' the pile whereof is ' lire and much wood ' j ' the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it' (RV). It is a destruction utter and abhorrent, prepared and ordained in the Divine counsels. In .leremiah the associations and applications of the word are different. It is used in connexion with Judah's sin and the doom of Jerusalem. There is Ji retributive Judgment of God, the prophet declares, that is to overtake the stubborn, idolatrous, impenitent people, against which the sanctity of ShUoh and Jerusalem and the Temple wiU be no protection. The place which witnessed their wickedness shall witness their punishment. Topheth and the valley of Hin- nom shall no more be known as such, but shall be called ' the valley of slaughter.' Where the Jews had built their high places and had made their children pass through the fire to Molech, there they shall see the awful defilement and over- whelming destruction of war (ch. 7'''''*'). This ia repeated in ch. 19''" in connexion with the figure of the broken vessel. The city is to be polluted by appalling carnage ; the hardened people are to be punished with a destruction so terrible that Topheth shall be filled with their dead bodies ' till there be no place.' The new announcement, too, of retribu- tion that is made by Jeremiah in response to Pashhur's vengeance is introduced by the state- ment (ch. 19") that he 'came from Topheth whither the Lord sent him to propliesy.'
These being the occurrences of the word, what can be gathered with respect to the position and the exact sense of Tophethi Some have taken Topheth to be simply a synonym for Gehinnom. But it is clear that the two terms do not designate precisely one and the same thing. Several of the passages in view speak of Topheth as in the valley of Hinnom — a locality, or, it might be, an object in it. This does not settle, however, the question of the situation of Topheth. It is still uncertain where the Hinnom Valley lay, and with what it is to be identified in the topography of the Holy City. Authorities are still divided on the ques- tion whether it is the valley to the east of Jeru- salem, the Kidron Valley (Sir C. 'Warren) ; the central valley, the Tyropoeon (Savce, Robertson Smith, Schwarz, etc.) ; or the Wailij er-Rabiibi or Rubdhch, the deep ravine to the west and south, between the slopes of the ' Ilill of Evil Counsel' and the steep sides of Zion (see article HiNNOM, Valley of). This leaves the precise position of Topheth in suspense. It is true that in the narra- tive of Josiah's reforms in 2 K 23 much is said of Kidron, but it does not follow that Topheth waa on the east of Jerusalem. Far less \.aa that position be argued out from the statement in Jer 19^ that the valley of Hinnom is 'by the entry of the east gate,' as it is erroneously rendered by the AV. For the gate Harsith or Harsuth mentioned there is not the 'Sun-gate' or the 'east gate,' but probably the ' Sherd-gate,' ' the gate of potsherds ' (RV), so called perhaps from the fragments of potter's work scattered about there. Neither does the allusion to ' the graves of the children of the people ' (2 K 23") carry us far, although Sir Charles Warren thinks we may infer from it that Topheth was near the common burial-place. Nor, again, ia much to be made of tradition. Jerome describes the place as a green and fertile spot in the Huinom Valley 'watered by the springs of Siloam' — Ilium locum significat, qui Silom fontibus irrigatur el est ainoenus atque neinorosus hodieque hortorum prcebet
TOPHET, TOPHETH
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delirias (on Jer 7"). This mifrlit point to its being at the mouth of tlie Tyroptuon or on the south of the Kidron. Tradition, ajjiiin, places the site of Aceldama amonj; the rock-hewn tombs of the ' Hill of Evil Counsel,' and Eusebius speaks of ' the place tailed Thnphcth ' as if it had been rejjarded on to his own day as situate ' in the suburbs of /Elia,' near ' the Fuller's Pool and the Potter's Fielil or the place Aceldama' (Onom. sub voc. Qiiped), But there must have been some inconstancy in the traditional account, or either Jerome or Eusebius must have made a mistake. For Jerome speaks of Aceldama as on the south {ad aiestralcm plagam montis Sion), while Eusebius says it was ii/ fiopeiott. If, however, the ' Potter's Field ' is ' the Field of Blood,' and the gate Hnrsitk (Jer 1'-) is the ' Sherd- gate,' Topheth might be located somewhere on the south and west oT Jerusalem and on the eastern side of the Hinnom Valley. Sir Charles Warren (cf. Smith's DB, sub voc. 'Hinnom') points out that where the Wady er-Rubdbch joins tlie Kidron there is ' an open plot of ground ' wliich might be ihe spot that Jarome identified with Toplieth. These references, however, are meagre, and leave as uncertain as to the strength or the antiquity of the tradition behind them.