And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
Topbeth - so called from Toph, a drum; the prevailing opinion among Jewish writers being that the cries of the terrified children made to pass through the fire in that place of idolatrous horror were drowned by the sound of that instrument. At the northeast angle of the city, on the slope nearest the city, where there are many Turkish graves, extending beyond the gate of Stephen, this part of the valley was called Hinnom. In it many cruel and idolatrous ceremonies were performed, and children passed through the fire to Moloch by their unnatural parents. The filth of the city was here collected and consumed; and from the fires that were continually kept burning for this purpose, its name was chosen as typical of hell, where "the fire is not quenched." It was defiled by Josiah, that no more human sacrifices might be presented in it to the bloody demon (see Barclay, p. 90).