TOFET
Name of uncertain etymology.
A high place built in the Valley of Hinnom. In the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah there were many inhabitants of Jerusalem who sacrificed their own children, burning them alive (Jer. 7:31) in honor of Moloch (2 Kings 23:10).
To prevent the resumption of these abominable practices, King Josiah desecrated Tophet. Jeremiah prophesied powerfully in these words: “For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; They put their abominations in the house on which my name was called, defiling it.
And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters with fire, which I did not command them, nor did it come into my heart” (Jer. 7:30- 31).
He next prophesied that multitudes, scourged by the Lord, would perish in this place (Jer. 7:32, 33; 19:6; 32:35); a similar place would be prepared for the king of Assyria (Is. 30:33).
This custom completely disappeared among the Jews, who were freed from the national sin of idolatries after the Babylonian captivity. However, it did not disappear from the Phoenician civilization until very late in history.
Tertullian (ca. 160-225 AD) states that in his own day these sacrifices were still celebrated in Carthage and in Africa in general, following the pagan cult of Baal.
The recent excavations of the Carthage Tophet give a startling illustration of this degeneration of the human spirit.