2 Kings 23:10

Topheth] The name literally means 'spittle' or 'spitting,' and so designates the locality as a place of abhorrence. The valley.. Hinnom] usually identified with the valley that flanks the modern city of Jerusalem on the W.; but if the ancient city occupied only the eastern of the two hills upon which the present city stands, the valley here mentioned may have been the depression between them (subsequently called the 'Tyropaeon'). Topheth, however, was in any case situated in the broad space formed by the junction of the three valleys immediately S. of the city. It was from the sacrificial fires lighted there for human sacrifices, as well as from those that were afterwards kindled in the same place to destroy the refuse of the city deposited in it that the Heb. name Ge Hinnom in the form Gehenna came to be used to denote the place of punishment for the unrepentant after death. Molech] see 1 Kings 11:7; The rite here referred to is prohibited in Deuteronomy 18:10.