The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 404

ftourlsh!'d ae beforo. Josinh conceived the Ary1m root, taph, or tap, "to burn," whence ide& thRt, if the high ple.ees were "defiled,'' Greek 6cl1rn1v, Tl,Ppa, Latiu ,Jpidl.lB, 11:lod. it would be impossible to renew the worship Persinn ta/tan, Sanskrit tap, etc., e.nd reg1nd e.t them. From Gebe. to Beerahebe.. GebR the meaniug e.s simply "the place of burn- takes here the plROe of Bethel e.s the northern ing" (see the comment on Isa. xxx. H3). limit of Judnh. It we.s situated e.t e. 'l"ery Which is in the valley of the children of short diste.nce from Bethel, Rnd was made Jlinnom. The valley of Hinnom, or of the to supersede it on e.ccount of the idolatries sons of Ilinn,,m, is generally nllowccl to be by "hkh Bethel had been disgraoed. The that which sweeps round the more wrstern exact site is probably the modern Jeba, of the two hills wherPon Jcrnsnlem wo.s on the southern edge of the W11dy Suweinit. built, iu a direction at. first south nnd then And brake down the high ple.oes of the ea.et, uniting itself with the Kidron volley gates. The high-ple.ce worship had, it a little to the south of Ophcl. Tht1 origin would seem, invaded Jerusalem itself. In of the name is uncertain; but it is most some of the gates of the city, which were likely that the Beni-Hinnom were n tribe •• large opeu buildings for public meetings of Canaanite,, settled on this side of Jeru- and interc~urse" (Biihr), altars, or more salem iu the time of Joshu11 (Josh. xv. 8). elaborate places of worship, had been estab- The "valley" is a ro.vine, deep and narrow, lished, and e.n unauthorized ritual of the with steep, rocky sides. Wheu the Moloch- high-place type had been set up. That were wor:ihip first began in it wo cannot say; -rather, that which was-in the entering but it was probnbly before the time of in of the gate of J'oshna the governor of the Solomon, who built e. high place for Moloch city. This and the succeeding cle.uses e.re (l Kings xi. 11), on one of the heights by limitations of the general statement con- which the ve.lley is enclosed. (On the <"erning the '' high places of the gates," and horrible profe.nRtions of the l\foloch-worship, indicate that two - gates only had been see Jer. vii. 31, 32; xix. 4-13; mii. 35.) polluted by high-pie.cc worship, viz. "the After the Captivity, the valley of Hinnom- gate of Joshua," and the gate lrno'ITTI KaT' Ge-Hinnom-was reckoned an acrursed and le(o~~ as " the city gate." Neither of these abominable place, e. sort of earthly counter- ce.u be determinately fixed, since they are part of the place of final punishment, which only mentioned in the present pasd8ge. thence derived its name of "Gehenna" Which were on a man's left h=d at the (r,evvcz); (see Matt. v. 22, 29, eto.). That gate of the city ; rather, and also that no man might make his son or hie daughter which was on the 'left-hand sid,e in the gate to pass through the fire to lltolooh (see of the city. (So Thenius, Keil, and Bahr.) the comment on eh. xvi. 3). Yer. 9.-Yevertheless I.he priests of the Ver. 11.-And he took away the horses high places ea.me not up to the altar of the that the kings of Judah hed given to the Lord in J'eruaalem. Though Josiah recalled sun. The custom of dedicating horses to to Jerusalem the Levitice.l priests who ha.d the sun we.a practised by many e.ncient recentlv been attached to the l"arious high nations; but it is only in Persia that wo places,· yet he did not attach them to the find !Jorses and chariots so dedicated (Xen., temple, or assign them any part in its ' Cyrop.,' viii. 3. § 12). The idee. of the services. Their participation in a semi- sun-god as e. charioteer, who drove his idolatrous service had disqualified them for horses daily across the sky, is one common the temple miuistmtions. But they did ea.t to severe.I of the Axye.n nations, as the of the llllleavened bread among their Greeks, the Romans, the Hindnos, and brethren. They were allowed, i.e., their others; but we do not fiml it either in me.iutene.nce out of the priestly revenues, Egypt or among the Semitic peoples. The os were priests disqualified by e. pers•Jne.l sacrifice of the horse to the sun was mort: blemish (Lev. :i:::i::i. 21, 22). Practically general (Herod., i. 216; Xen., 'Cyrop.,' viii. they lived on the altar gifts intended for 3. § 24; • Anab.,' iv. 5. § 35; Rig Veda, the priests (Lev. vi. 9, 10, 22), in which it vol. ii. pp. 112, et seqq., etc.), but does not was uule.wful to mix leaven. seem to have been adopted by the Hebrews. Ver. 10.-And he defiled Topheth. "To- It is not at all clear when.cc the "kings of pheth " or " Tophet " was the name given Judah "-i.e. Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon- to the place in the valley of Hinnom where derived the idea. of maintaining sacred the sacrifices were offered to Moloch. The chariots ond horses to be used in their sun- root of the word is thought by some to be worship. They certainly could not have taph (")"'), "a drum," bee.a use the cries of received it e.s Keil thinks, "through the the children burnt there were drowned by .Assyrians .... At the entering in of the houe the Lea.ting of drums. Others suggest as of the Lord-the horses, i.e., were kept the root, t.,,ph (91:-:-,), "to spit," becuuse the nee.r ,,ne of the entrances to the temple, place was "spat at" by the orthodox. But to be ready for use in so.cred processions Geeenius and Botlcher derive it from an -by the chamber of Nathan-meleoh tho en. XXIII. 1-37.J THE RECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 455