Judah’s false worship went beyond just the temple to many other places in the land. They had built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.
This valley was immediately to the southwest of ancient Jerusalem. It was a place of pagan worship which Josiah had destroyed during his reforms (2 Kings 23:10–11). Reference to it, now by Jeremiah, suggests that it was rebuilt, probably during Jehoiakim’s reign and is typical of Judah’s evil.1 The particular evil that took place there was to burn their sons and daughters in the fire.
The rituals included human sacrifices, something that was explicitly forbidden by the Lord in the covenant law he gave to Moses (Leviticus 18:21; Leviticus 20:2–5).
Jeremiah seems to deliberately use a deformation of the Hebrew word tepat in naming Topheth.
The meaning of tepat is fireplace or cooking stove
and the deformed version rhymes with boset which means shame
. The name is therefore a rejection by the Lord of all the shameful acts that happened there.2
31 Ils ont bâti des hauts lieux à Topheth dans la vallée de Ben-Hinnom, Pour brûler au feu leurs fils et leurs filles: Ce que je n'avais point ordonné, Ce qui ne m'était point venu à la pensée.