Jeremiah 7:32

32 "But soon, very soon" - God's Decree! - "the names Topheth and Ben-hinnom will no longer be used. They'll call the place what it is: Murder Meadow. Corpses will be stacked up in Topheth because there's no room left to bury them!

Jeremiah 7:32 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 7:32

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord
And they were coming on apace; a little longer, and they would be come; for it was but a few years after this ere Jerusalem was besieged and taken by the army of the Chaldeans, and the slaughter made after mentioned: that it shall no more be called Tophet:
no more be used for such barbarous and idolatrous worship; and no more have its name from such a shocking circumstance: nor the valley of the son of Hinnom;
as it had been from the times of Joshua: but the valley of slaughter:
or, "of the slain"; as the Targum, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; because of the multitude of men that should be killed there, or brought there to be buried; as follows: for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place:
till there be no more room to bury there; or, "because there was no place" F1 elsewhere; the number of the slain being so many: this was in righteous judgment, that where they had sacrificed their children, there they should be slain, at least buried.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Mwqm Nyam) "quod, [vel] eo quod nullus (alius. sit) locus", Munster; "ideo quod non (erie) locus", Schmidt.

Jeremiah 7:32 In-Context

30 "The people of Judah have lived evil lives while I've stood by and watched." God's Decree. "In deliberate insult to me, they've set up their obscene god-images in the very Temple that was built to honor me.
31 They've constructed Topheth altars for burning babies in prominent places all through the valley of Ben-hinnom, altars for burning their sons and daughters alive in the fire - a shocking perversion of all that I am and all I command.
32 "But soon, very soon" - God's Decree! - "the names Topheth and Ben-hinnom will no longer be used. They'll call the place what it is: Murder Meadow. Corpses will be stacked up in Topheth because there's no room left to bury them!
33 Corpses abandoned in the open air, fed on by crows and coyotes, who have the run of the place.
34 And I'll empty both smiles and laughter from the villages of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. No wedding songs, no holiday sounds. Dead silence.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.