Jeremiah 7:31

31 In Hinnom Valley they have built an altar called Topheth, so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire. I did not command them to do this - it did not even enter my mind. ¹

Jeremiah 7:31 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 7:31

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 ) ( 18:16 ) : 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 not be moved:''

but in this he is mistaken; for "Tophet" was not the name of an idol, but of a place, as is clear from this and the following verse. There is some agreement between this account of Jarchi, and that which Diodorus Siculus ^F26 gives of Saturn, to whom children were sacrificed by the Carthaginians; who had, he says, a brasen image of Saturn, which stretched out his hands, inclining to the earth; so that a child put upon them rolled down, and fell into a chasm full of fire: which I commanded them not:
not in my law, as the Targum; nor by any of the prophets, as Jarchi paraphrases it; he commanded them, as Kimchi observes, to burn their beasts, but not their sons and daughters. The instance of Abraham offering up Isaac will not justify it. The case of Jephthah's daughter, if sacrificed, was not by divine command. The giving of seed to Moloch, and letting any pass through the fire to him, is expressly forbidden, ( Leviticus 18:21 ) ( 20:23 ) : neither came it into my heart;
it was not so much as thought of by him, still less desired, and much less commanded by him. Jarchi's note is,

``though I spoke to Abraham to slay his son, it did not enter into my heart that he should slay him, but to make known his righteousness.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 Bibliothec. Par. 2. l. 20. p. 756.

Jeremiah 7:31 In-Context

29 "Mourn, people of Jerusalem; cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a funeral song on the hilltops, because I, the Lord, am angry and have rejected my people.

30 "The people of Judah have done an evil thing. They have placed their idols, which I hate, in my Temple and have defiled it.

31 In Hinnom Valley they have built an altar called Topheth, so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire. I did not command them to do this - it did not even enter my mind.

32 And so, the time will come when it will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley. They will bury people there because there will be nowhere else to bury them.

33 The corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them off.

Cross References

• 1. 7.31 a 2 K 23.10;Jeremiah 32.35; bLeviticus 18.21.