Topheth was a place in the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem. Israel dishonored the Lord there by offering human sacrifices to the god Molech.
King Josiah, as part of his religious reform, destroyed Topheth and tore down its altars (2 Kings 23:10). These reforms opposed practices established earlier by his grandfather Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:6). Jeremiah, a prophet who lived during Josiah’s time, later condemned the return of such practices (Jeremiah 7:31–32).
Jeremiah prophesied that the valley would one day be called the “Valley of Slaughter.” He said this because the Babylonians would defeat Judah there when they attacked Jerusalem. Jeremiah repeated this prophecy during his parable of the potter’s flask. He said that Jerusalem would be destroyed so completely that it would be like Topheth (19:12).
By Jeremiah’s time, Topheth also seems to have become a kind of city dump. People threw away broken pottery there. It was also used for burials that could not take place in the main cemeteries of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19:11).
While Topheth is not mentioned in the New Testament, it is linked to Gehenna (the Aramaic form of "valley of Hinnom"). Gehenna refers to the place of destruction and is typically translated "hell" in the New Testament (Matthew 5:22, 29–30; 10:28; 18:9; Mark 9:43–47; Luke 12:5).