2 Kings 23:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Kings 23:10
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
to be foul · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Topheth
הַתֹּ֔פֶתha.To.fet
H8612
Topheth · definite article + proper noun, a place name
valley
בְּגֵ֣יbe.Gei
H1516
a gorge (from its lofty sides · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
children
בֶןve.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Hinnom
הִנֹּ֑םhi.Nom
H2011
Hinnom · proper noun, a place name
man
אִ֜ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
son
בְּנ֧וֹbe.No
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
daughter
בִּתּ֛וֹbi.To
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
through
לְהַעֲבִ֨ירle.ha.'a.Vir
H5674
to cross over · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
fire
בָּאֵ֖שׁba.'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
Molech
לַמֹּֽלֶךְla.Mo.lekh
H4432
Molek (i.e. king) · preposition with the article + proper noun, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 30:33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the…
Jeremiah 19:6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but T…
Leviticus 18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
Jeremiah 7:31-32 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fi…
Joshua 15:8 And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite; the same is Jerusalem: and the border went up…
Jeremiah 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass throug…
Deuteronomy 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an obs…
Jeremiah 19:11-13 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 23:4-24
We have here an account of such a reformation as we have not met with in all the history of the kings of Judah, such thorough riddance made of all the abominable things and such foundations laid of a glorious good work; and here I cannot but wonder at two things: - 1. That so many wicked things should have got in, and kept standing so long, as we find here removed. 2. That notwithstanding the removal of these wicked things, and the hopeful prospects here given of a happy settlement, yet within a few years Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, and even this did not save it; for the generality of the people, after all, hated to be reformed. The founder melteth in vain, and therefore reprobate silve…
Topheth--so called from Toph--a "drum." It is the prevailing opinion among Jewish writers that the cries of the terrified children made to pass through the fire in that place of idolatrous horror were drowned by the sound of that instrument.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 23:10
He defiled Topheth - St. Jerome says that Topheth was a fine and pleasant place, well watered with fountains, and adorned with gardens. The valley of the son of Hinnom, or Gehenna, was in one part; here it appears the sacred rites of Molech were performed, and to this all the filth of the city was carried, and perpetual fires were kept up in order to consume it. Hence it has been considered a type of hell; and in this sense it is used in the New Testament.
It is here said that Josiah defiled this place that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire. He destroyed the image of Molech, and so polluted the place where he stood, or his temple, that it was rendered in ever…
And he defiled Topheth,.... A place so called, as is generally thought, from the beating of drums or timbrels in it, that the shrieks of the infants sacrificed here to Molech might not be heard by their parents, and they repent of delivering them to him, and take them away. So the Indians in India now, at the burning of wives with their deceased husbands, attend them with drums and trumpets; and at such time as the fire is put to the wood, the drums and trumpets make a terrible noise for fear their cries should be heard (b); See Gill on Isaiah 30:33, Jeremiah 7:31 this he defiled by casting any sort of filth or unclean thing into it, in contempt of the idolatry there committed, and to aliena…
The Church Fathers
"No one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire." The passage through fire is the symbol of combustion. In fact, the demons demanded that [their worshipers] burn their own children, and sometimes they were immolated, sometimes they only underwent the symbolic rite mentioned above, as if they had been actually placed into the fire and consumed, and so the expectations of the demons were satisfied. Sometimes fire was also passed above somebody to signify that he was by now enveloped in fire. Then salt was thrown, too, according to the customs of those who worship the devil.
"He also defiled Topheth, etc." [2 Kings 23:10] What is said about King Josiah: "He also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no man might consecrate his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech"; these places are frequently mentioned in Scripture, especially in the book of Kings and the prophet Jeremiah. Now the Valley of Hinnom, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, is near the wall of Jerusalem, toward the east, in which the beautiful grove of Siloam is watered by springs. But Topheth, or Tophet (both spellings are used), was a place in the same valley, near the fuller's pool, which is mentioned in Scripture, and near the field of Aceldama, which is shown to this day on the southern side of Mount Sion. In Topheth, which was a very pleasant place, altars were set up to sacrifice to demons, and to consecrate their children to a wicked fire, or to offer burnt offerings, as it is written in the book of Chronicles about King Ahaz: "He it was who burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire." Ben-Hinnom indeed means the son of Hinnom. The Valley of Hinnom is called Gehinnom in Hebrew, from which in the New Testament, the name Gehenna is applied to the punishment of hell, because just as in the Valley of Hinnom, those who served idols in it perished, as testified by the prophets, so too will sinners be punished with eternal damnation for their sins. Therefore, when Jeremiah relates that the Lord commanded him and said, "Go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Pottery Gate"; soon after he says: "And this place shall no longer be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter: and I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword" (Jer. 19). Isaiah also most clearly calls Topheth hell; he, while describing the perpetual destruction of the devil under the name of Asshur, saying: "For through the voice of the Lord shall Asshur be beaten down, who smote with a rod. And the passage of the rod is prepared, which the Lord shall cause to rest upon him" (Isa. 30), forthwith added how and where he should perish, saying: "For Topheth is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; it is deep and large." Beautifully he says "And large," because Topheth means width.…
Dictionary and topics
Esdraelon — The Greek form of the Hebrew “Jezreel,” the name of the great plain (called by the natives Merj Ibn Amer; i.e., “the meadow of the son of Amer”) which stretches across Central Palestine from the…
Hinnom — A deep, narrow ravine separating Mount Zion from the so-called “Hill of Evil Counsel.” It took its name from “some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom.” It is first mentioned in Josh. 15:8. It had been…
Jeremiah — Raised up or appointed by Jehovah. (1.) A Gadite who joined David in the wilderness (1 Chr. 12:10). (2.) A Gadite warrior (1 Chr. 12:13). (3.) A Benjamite slinger who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chr.…
Josiah — Healed by Jehovah, or Jehovah will support. The son of Amon, and his successor on the throne of Judah (2 Kings 22:1; 2 Chr. 34:1). His history is contained in 2 Kings 22, 23. He stands foremost among…
Moloch — King, the name of the national god of the Ammonites, to whom children were sacrificed by fire. He was the consuming and destroying and also at the same time the purifying fire. In Amos 5:26, “your…
Pentateuch — The five-fold volume, consisting of the first five books of the Old Testament. This word does not occur in Scripture, nor is it certainly known when the roll was thus divided into five portions…
Topheth — and once To’phet (place of burning), was in the southeast extremity of the “valley of the son of Hinnom,” (Jeremiah 7:31) which is “by the entry of the east gate.” (Jeremiah 19:2) The locality of…
Valley — (1.) Heb. bik’ah, a “cleft” of the mountains (Deut. 8:7; 11:11; Ps. 104:8; Isa. 41:18); also a low plain bounded by mountains, as the plain of Lebanon at the foot of Hermon around the sources of the…
Instead of resting content with the fact that he was promised deliverance from the approaching judgment, Josiah did everything that was in his power to lead the whole nation to true conversion to the Lord, and thereby avert as far as possible the threatened curse of rejection, since the Lord in His word had promised forgiveness and mercy to the penitent. He therefore gathered together the elders of the nation, and went with them, with the priests and prophets and the assembled people, into the temple, and there had the book of the law read to those who were assembled, and concluded a covenant with the Lord, into which the people also entered. After this he had all the remnants of idolatry er…
Topheth was a precinct in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, which lay southwest of the city of David and led into the Kidron Valley. The detestable rite of child sacrifice had occurred there. • Molech has been identified with a number of deities (see 1 Kgs 11:5, 7, 33) and with the name of a sacrifice offered to Baal (Jer 7:31-32; 19:5-6; 32:35).
Rashi on 2 Kings 23:10
The Tophes. This was the Molech, it is named [תפת] because priests would bang on drums [=תופים] so that the father should not hear the groans of the child when he was burned by the pagan image,10According to Ralbag, the service of Molech involved the passing of a child by priests between two fires. Molech, they called it Tophes.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
· .Human sacrifices
— .Human sacrifices
Molech · Children sacrificed to — Children sacrificed to
Tophet · A place in the valley of the — A place in the valley of the
Valleys · Mentioned in scripture: Hinnom or Tophet — Mentioned in scripture: Hinnom or Tophet
Zeal · Should be exhibited: Against idolatry — Should be exhibited: Against idolatry
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
