The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Tophet

TOPHET, a spot in a fertile valley S. E. of ancient Jerusalem, called the valley (ge) of Hinnom, or of the children of Hinnom, and hence Gehenna in the New Testament, and watered by the brook Kedron. It was the place where the idolatrous Jews passed their children through the fire to Moloch. At a later period it was used as a spot to throw the garbage of the streets, the carcasses of beasts, and the dead bodies of men to whom burial had been refused; and as a fire was kept constantly burning to consume all that was brought, the word was used metaphorically for hell.