TOPHETH tō’ fĭth (Heb. תֹּ֔פֶת, KJV TOPHET, an area of the Valley of Hinnon, q.v., located in the Wādi er-rabābeh, the deep-sided valley which traditionally separated Jerusalem from Judah on the eastern slope of Mt. Zion [Neh 11:30]). The name was prob. derived from a word meaning “cook stove,” “oven” pronounced t^epāt but purposefully perverted to Topheth by the substitution of the vowels of the Heb. בֹּ֫שֶׁת, H1425, cognate to Ugaritic btt, “shame,” “abomination.” The rabbinic etymology from Heb. תֹּפ֒, H9512, “drum” is farfetched. The name occurs only in the OT. It was a sacred grove or garden of the Canaanites, later the center of Baal worship by apostate Jews (Jer 32:35). The cultic activity seems to have involved the ritual sacrifice of first-born infants. Although some doubt has been expressed as to whether such a gruesome rite actually existed, infant jar-burials from various periods of Pal. have demonstrated the plausibility of the accounts in the prophetic writings. And death by exposure has been practiced by tribal peoples around the world, the victims being female infants and sets of twins. Topheth is mentioned once in 2 Kings 23:10, once in Isaiah 30:33 and eight times in the seventh and nineteenth chs. of Jeremiah. The cult at Topheth was most popular in the reigns of Ahaz and Manasseh who are said to have sacrificed their own sons in Hinnom, though undoubtedly at Tophet (2 Chron 28:3; 33:6). A textual variant occurs in Isaiah 30:33 where the MT reads תָּפְתֶּ֔ה, in reference to the final destruction of the king of Assyria. The term is a dual reference to Aram. שָׁפַת, H9189, and possibly some Akkad. term that lies behind it, meaning a “fireplace,” “burning ghat” and the name of Topheth. The prophecy makes clear the destruction of the might of Assyria in a grisly fashion and an abominable place. Under the restoration of Josiah the shrine of Topheth was desecrated and destroyed (2 Kings 23:10) but the memory of the awesome place lived on and became a symbol of the desolation and judgment of sin. It was filled with refuse from the walled city throughout later antiquity and its precise location is lost.