For Tophet [is] ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made [it] deep [and] large: the pile thereof [is] fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
Ver. 33. For Tophet is ordained.] Heb., Tophteh which some derive of Pathah, to entice or seduce, because hell draweth customers; and is called also infernus ab inferendo, from the great resort that is to it. But others fetch the name from toph, a drum, because those idolaters who sacrificed their children to Moloch or Saturn, in the valley of Hinnom, struck up drums to drown the cries of those poor tortured children. Hence it is here used for hell, together with that eternity of extremity which the damned there endure; and this the Assyrians are here threatened with, yea, their very king, whose preservation from the stroke of the angel was but a reservation to a worse mischief here and hereafter. For patentes potenter torquebunter, great men, if not good, shall be greatly tormented; and the more they have of the fat of the earth, the more they are sure to fry in hell. Such, therefore, had need to add true grace to their high places, else they shall prove but as a high gibbet to bring them to more disgrace in this world, and torment in the next.
Of old.] Heb., From yesterday. Hence some infer that hell torments are always fresh and new, as if they had begun but yesterday; and "every sacrifice there is salted with fire," Mar 9:49 that is, it burneth, but consumeth not; fire being of a burning, but salt of a preserving nature.
He hath made it deep and large.] Capacious enough to receive a world full of wicked ones. Psa 9:17
The pile thereof is fire and much wood.] Hell fire is no metaphorical thing, but a material, true, proper, real, and corporeal fire. Matthew 18:9 ; Mat 25:41 Luk 16:23 For vehemency of heat, saith Augustine, it exceedeth ours as far as our fire doth exceed fire painted on the wall. That friar said too little of it who said that one might feel it burn seven miles off. Etna, Vesuvius, Pietra Mala (which is a mountain in the highest part of the Apennines that perpetually burns), come not near it. Some gross Papists have imagined Etna to be the place of purgatory. Odilo, abbot of Cluniscum, persuaded Pope John XIX that he had there seen the tormented souls wailing: whereupon that pope appointed the feast of All-souls.
The breath of the Lord, as a stream of brimstone.] This formidable fire, then, is fed with most tormenting temper, rivers of brimstone, and kindled with the breath of the Almighty throughout all eternity. Simile quiddam videmus in thermis, ubi sulphureae scaturigines magno fremitu effervescunt. Some resemblance hereof we have in the hot baths, &c.