Topheth

Topheth (or Tophet; Hebrew meaning "place of burning" or possibly from Aramaic toph, "fireplace") was a site in the Valley of Hinnom (Ge-Hinnom) southeast of Jerusalem where, in the period of the later monarchy, Israelites sacrificed their children by fire to the god Molech — a practice explicitly condemned by Jeremiah (Jer. 7:31–32; 19:6). Kings Ahaz and Manasseh both "made their sons pass through fire" (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6), and the practice was associated with the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.

King Josiah defiled Topheth as part of his religious reforms, so that no one could make a son or daughter pass through fire to Molech (2 Kings 23:10). Jeremiah prophesied it would be renamed "the Valley of Slaughter" when the bodies of those judged by God would be too numerous to bury. The valley's ongoing association with fire, filth, and corpses likely contributed to its becoming the name Gehenna (Greek form of Ge-Hinnom) — Jesus's primary term for the place of final judgment.