To·phet

(tō′fĕt′, -fĭt)

1. In the Bible, a place outside Jerusalem where the Canaanites offered children as sacrifices to Moloch.

2. The place where wicked souls are punished after death; Hell.

[Middle English, from Hebrew tōpet; see wtp in Semitic roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Tophet

(ˈtəʊfɛt) or

Topheth

(Bible) Old Testament a place in the valley immediately to the southwest of Jerusalem; the Shrine of Moloch, where human sacrifices were offered

[from Hebrew Tōpheth]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

To•phet

or To•pheth

(ˈtoʊ fɪt, -fɛt)

n.

1. (in the Bible) a place near Jerusalem where children were offered as sacrifices to Moloch.

2. the place of punishment for the wicked after death; hell.

[1350–1400; Middle English « Hebrew tōpheth a place name]

Mentioned in

Bible

References in periodicals archive

This passage does not state that the Israelites were performing child sacrifice to the God of Israel, but it does say that some were worshipping Yahweh at the central sanctuary and were involved in child immolation elsewhere, conceivably at the Jerusalem Topheth. Another text from Ezekiel suggests that the God of Israel once endorsed the practice, however.

DEBATING THE LEGITIMACY OF HUMAN SACRIFICE IN MODERN HINDUISM AND BIBLICAL TRADITION

And they have built the shrines of Topheth in the Valley of Benhinnom to burn their sons and daughters in fire--which I never commanded, which never came to My mind.

Circumcision in America

"Topheth", the technology of the nation's idolatry, and "Hinnom", the industrial valley where Judah's God-deaf autonomy belches out its pollution, are renamed so that the people can no longer deny what is going on around them.

Entering the wreckage: grief and hope in Jeremiah, and the rescripting of the pastoral vocation in a time of geopolitical crisis

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