Jeremiah 7:30

"For the children of Judah have done that which was evil in my sight, saith Jehovah: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. 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 not, neither came it into my mind."

In the New Testament, the word Gehenna, a synonym for "hell" is derived from the "valley of the son of Hinnom," that infamous ravine south of Jerusalem where the brazen statue of Molech was situated, and which was the scene of Judah's child-sacrifices to that pagan deity. Josiah had defiled it; but apparently Jehoiachim had rededicated it; and, as Feinberg stated it, "This passage reveals that their children were actually burned."[25]

"Which I commanded not ..." (Jeremiah 7:31). Of course, God disclaimed any such thing as the sacrifice of children as having any connection whatever with what he had ordained. Let it be noted here that "going beyond" what God has commanded for his worship proved a great disaster for Judah; and we do not believe that modern Protestantism in "going beyond" what God has commanded in such things as the worship of God with man-made instruments of music can possibly be pleasing to God. (See Revelation 22:18; Acts 17:25; and 2 John 1:1:9).

"The have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name ..." (Jeremiah 7:30). 2 Kings 21:5 records the acts of Manasseh in this desecration; but it leaves us wondering if the vulgar immorality of the pagan worship was actually perpetrated in the temple itself in connection with the pagan deities thus installed. The strong inference would appear to favor the actual practice of licentiousness in the temple itself.

"Thus Israel revealed her deep degradation by introducing into the house of her God such unspeakable practices as ritual prostitution and other fertility rites."[26]

The horrible practices just mentioned, along with the incredible sacrifices of their sons and daughters to Molech, shouted to high heaven for the vengeance of God against such practices. Matthew Henry commented that Judah, "Burned their children alive, killed them, killed them in the most cruel manner imaginable, to honor and appease those idols that were devils and not gods."[27]