Jeremiah 7:31

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 fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. HIGH PLACES OF TOPHET - the altars (Horsley) of Tophet; erected to Moloch, on the heights along the south of the valley facing Zion. BURN THEIR SONS - (). COMMANDED THEM NOT - put for, 'I forbad expressly (; ). See ; ; remarks....

Jeremiah in this verse also inveighs against those superstitions by which the Jews had corrupted the true and pure worship of God. He says, that they had _builded high places, _which was prohibited in the law. (Leviticus 26:30.) Now God, as it has been before said, prefers obedience to all sacrifices, (1 Samuel 15:22 :) hence the Prophet justly condemned them, that they forsook the Temple and built for themselves high places or groves, and also altars. He then mentions one particular place, even _Tophet in the valley of Hinnom _The prophets, in order to render the place detestable, no doubt designated the infernal regions by תפת _, Tophet, _and גיא הנם, _gia enom. _For when Isaiah speaks, in the thirtieth chapter, of the eternal punishment of the wicked, he mentions T

29-34 In token both of sorrow and of slavery, Jerusalem must be degraded, and separated from God, as she had been separated to him. The heart is the place in which God has chosen to put his name; but if sin has the innermost and uppermost place there, we pollute the temple of the Lord. The destruction of Jerusalem appears here very terrible. The slain shall be many; they having made it the place of their sin. Evil pursues sinners, even after death. Those who will not, by the grace of God, be cured of vain mirth, shall, by the justice of God, be deprived of all mirth. How many ruin their health and property without complaining, when engaged in Satan's service! May we learn to relish holy joys, and to sit loose to all others though lawful....

Verse Jeremiah 7:31. _TOPHET - IN THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM_] Tophet was the place in that valley where the continual fires were kept up, in and through which they consecrated their children to Moloch....

Jeremiah summons the people to lament over the miserable consequences of their rejection of God. In the valley of Hinnom, where lately they offered their innocents, they shall themselves fall before the enemy in such multitudes that burial shall be impossible, and the beasts of the field unmolested shall prey upon their remains. Jeremiah 7:29 The daughter of Zion, defiled by the presence of enemies in her sanctuary, and rejected of God, must shear off the diadem of her hair, the symbol of her consecration to God, just as the Nazarite, when defiled by contact with a corpse, was to shave his crowned head. TAKE UP A LAMENTATION ... - Or, lift up a “lamentation on the bare hill-sides” Jeremiah 3:2....

EXPOSITION Ch. 7-10.—Severe rebukes of idolatry alternating with announcements of the impending judgment. The circumstances connected with this discourse, or part thereof, appear to be detailed in Jeremiah 26:1. Among the parallelisms between the two sections, notice especially the reference to the fate of the temple of Shiloh (comp. Jeremiah 26:14 with Jeremiah 26:6). The date of the original utterance of the prophecy is thus fixed for one of the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 10:1, however, requires separate consideration....

AND THEY HAVE BUILT THE HIGH PLACES OF TOPHET,.... Where was the idol Moloch; and which place had its name, as Jarchi thinks, from the beating of drums, that the parents of the children that were burnt might not hear the cry of them: which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom; a valley near Jerusalem, and lay to the south of it, Joshua 15:8: TO BURN THEIR SONS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS IN THE FIRE: which was done, as Jarchi says, by putting them into the arms of the brasen image Moloch, heated hot. The account he gives of Tophet is this, "Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might

THE PROPHET'S TEMPLE ADDRESS (7-9) CHAPTER 7 _ 1. Amend your ways and your doings (Jeremiah 7:1) _ 2. No prayer-answer to be expected (Jeremiah 7:16) 3. Sacrifices rejected; Obedience demanded (Jeremiah 7:21) 4. Jerusalem's rejection (Jeremiah 7:29) Jeremiah 7:1. We call this next address of the prophet “the temple address,” because he was commanded to stand in the gate of the LORD's house. There he stood, a solitary figure, and said: “Hear the Word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in a

JEREMIAH 7:29 TO JEREMIAH 8:3. MOURNING FOR JUDAH'S DEAD. Let Jerusalem mourn, and raise a dirge on the heights (where she sinned by her idolatry), because of the near approach of the punishment for the desecration of Yahweh's house, and for the offering of human sacrifice, which Yahweh never ordered. The land shall be full of corpses (Jeremiah 7:32 _mg.),_ and all joy shall cease. The valley of Hinnom shall be renamed Slaughter, and burials will have to be made even in the (unclean) Topheth. Even those who have died previously shall be dishonoured by exposure to the sun, moon, and stars, which they have worshipped, whilst the living shall wish themselves dead....

HIGH PLACES. IDOLATROUS PLACES. Not the same word as Jeremiah 7:29. TOPHET. In the valley of the son of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10; Isaiah 30:33.Isaiah 19:6; Isaiah 19:11). HINNOM. Now _Wady er Rababeh_ (Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16. 2Ki 23:10. 2 Chronicles 28:3;...