Hinnom

The valley of the son of Hinnom — also called the valley of the sons of Hinnom, the valley of Hinnom, and within it the high place known as Topheth — runs west and southwest of Jerusalem. In the historical books it serves as a tribal boundary marker and a settlement edge; in the prophets and the regnal histories it becomes the site where Judah's kings burned children in fire to Molech and to Baal, and where Yahweh announces the place's future renaming as the valley of Slaughter.

A Boundary West and Southwest of Jerusalem

The valley first appears as a line on the tribal map. Joshua's allotment for Judah traces the border up "by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the side of the Jebusite southward (the same is Jerusalem); and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the uttermost part of the valley of Rephaim northward" (Jos 15:8). Benjamin's southern line is described from the opposite direction in the same terms: the border ran "down to the uttermost part of the mountain that lies before the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the valley of Rephaim northward; and it went down to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En-rogel" (Jos 18:16). The two notices place the valley on the seam between Judah and Benjamin, hugging the southern flank of pre-Davidic Jerusalem.

After the exile the valley still marks the southern edge of Judahite habitation. In Nehemiah's roster of resettled towns the line of villages — Zanoah, Adullam, Lachish, Azekah — extends "from Beer-sheba to the valley of Hinnom" (Neh 11:30).

Topheth: The High Place in the Valley

Within the valley stood Topheth, a built installation set apart for fire-rites. Jeremiah names it directly: "they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, neither did it come into my mind" (Jer 7:31). Josiah's reform pulls the same site down — "he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2Ki 23:10).

Isaiah uses Topheth as a figure for the appointed end of Assyria's king: "For a Topheth is prepared of old; yes, for the king it is made ready; he has made it deep and large; its pile is fire and much wood; the [Speech] of Yahweh, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it" (Is 30:33).

Children Offered in the Fire

Two southern kings are named as users of the valley for child-sacrifice. Of Ahaz: "Moreover he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his sons in the fire, according to the disgusting behaviors of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the sons of Israel" (2Ch 28:3). Of Manasseh: "He also made his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he interpreted omens, and used magic, and did witchcraft, and dealt with spiritists and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger" (2Ch 33:6).

Jeremiah's oracles fix the practice and its recipients in the valley itself. The people "have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they didn't know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with innocent blood" (Jer 19:4). The cult is dual — Baal and Molech together: "they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech; which I did not command them, neither did it come it into my mind, that they should do this disgusting thing, to cause Judah to sin" (Jer 32:35). Yahweh's repeated disclaimer in these oracles — that he did not command the practice and that it never came into his mind — frames child-sacrifice as a thing forbidden to Israel from outside any divine warrant.

The Valley of Slaughter

Jeremiah's word at the entry of the gate Harsith — "go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I will tell you" (Jer 19:2) — culminates in a renaming. The place is to lose both of its names. In the temple sermon: "the days come, says Yahweh, that it will no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in Topheth, until there is no place [to bury]" (Jer 7:32). At the gate Harsith the same renaming is repeated: "this place will no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter" (Jer 19:6). The reason is given in the parallel oracle that closes the broken-pottery sermon — "they will bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury" (Jer 19:11). The valley used for the killing of children becomes the valley used for the burying of corpses; its old names cease.

The Valley of Vision

The topical tradition notes that Isaiah's "burden of the valley of vision" may refer to the same place. "The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?" (Isa 22:1). The oracle continues: "For it is a day of discomfiture, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains" (Isa 22:5). The identification with Hinnom is not made explicit in Isaiah's text; the valley of vision sits beside the better-named valley of Hinnom in the topography of judgment-oracle around Jerusalem.