Verse 33
Topheth refers to a funeral pyre. The Hebrew word means a disgraceful "burning place" or "fireplace." The Lord had prepared it long ago for the king of Assyria (cf. Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10; Revelation 21:8). Sennacherib met his defeat in Jerusalem when the Lord slew many of his soldiers there, but he personally died in Nineveh shortly after that. Topheth was an area in the valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem where the Israelites sometimes sacrificed their children to the Ammonite idol Molech (2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31).
"When the OT speaks of burning bodies it is taken as a sign of vengeance or degradation (cf. 1 Samuel 31:12; Amos 6:10; Leviticus 20:14; Leviticus 21:9; Joshua 7:25; ISBE 1:812; IDB 1:475)." [Note: Watts, p. 406. ISBE is the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1979), and IDB is the Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (1962).]
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