What is the Valley of Slaughter in Jeremiah 7:32?

Verses 29-34. The hair was cut off as a sign of mourning (Job 1:20). Jerusalem is to lament in the high places. They have defiled His house. On the heights of Tophet, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, they had burned their children as a sacrifice to Molech (2 Kings 23:10). The days were now to come when the same place should become the place of slaughter. The carcasses of the people should then be meat for the beasts of the earth; they should lie there unburied. Such was to be Jerusalem's rejection and judgment.

The rest of Jeremiah 7 (21 et seq.) reminds the people that obedience was the claim of Jehovah, not burnt-offerings to hide their transgressions and stiff wickedness, which grew worse and worse as the prophets followed the law. Jeremiah should speak of them; but they were incorrigible idolaters. Jerusalem only dishonoured the Lord and His house, and is therefore called to mourning. As the Lord had rejected the generation of His wrath, so the high places of Tophet in the valley of Hinnom's son should be superseded by the valley of slaughter till Tophet should have no more space for burial, and the carcases of Judah should be meat for birds and beasts; and all joy should cease and the land be desolate.

Jeremiah 8 fills up the picture. "At that time, says the Lord, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts." (Ver. 1-3.) Moreover, the prophet was to remonstrate with the people of Jerusalem on their perpetual and unrepentant backsliding (Ver. 4-6), more heedless than familiar birds, great or small, which attend to their fit times, yet with all assumption of wisdom. (Ver. 7, 8.) But what wisdom is in those who reject the word of the Lord? Their covetousness and perfidious neglect of the true interests of Israel must meet with due retribution at His hands. He will surely consume, reversing the counsels of prudence, disappointing their hopes, and causing the whole land to tremble before their adversaries, who will bite like serpents not to be charmed. (Ver. 9-17.)

This is often called 'the valley of the son of Hinnom,' but who Hinnom and his son were is unknown. Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16; Neh. 11:30. The valley running from east to west, on the south of Jerusalem, now bears the above name. In some part of this, supposed to be the east end, children were passed through the fire to false gods. Jer. 7:31-32; Jer. 32:35. To prevent this Josiah defiled TOPHETH in this valley. 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chr. 28:3; 2 Chr. 33:6. The prophet Isaiah gives the key to its being associated in the N.T. (under the name of GEHENNA) with eternal punishment: "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." Isa. 30:33. See HELL. In God's judgements the valley shall become the 'valley of slaughter.' Jer. 19:2-14.

Verses 1-13. He was to get a potter's earthen bottle accompanied by elders and priests, and go to the valley of the son of Hinnom. There he should proclaim the words Jehovah would breathe into him. The message is another judgment message and needs no further comment. In Tophet, the valley of Hinnom, they had worked their abominations, burnt their sons with fire. Now it should become the valley of slaughter, so that their carcasses should be eaten by the fowls and wild beasts. He would cause them to eat the flesh of their loved ones. It was fulfilled during the siege of Jerusalem (Lam. 4:10). Then he broke the bottle as a sign that thus the people and the city should be broken.

In Jeremiah 19 we have the sign of the potter's earthen vessel further developed. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom is brought forward, which is always significant of judgment. "Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter." Tophet indicates the great judgment which the Lord will execute when He Himself comes. It is not merely the place of execution by man. Plainly, the judgment of Jerusalem is the topic.

The earthen bottle of chapter 19 is figurative of Jerusalem and the people. In the previous sign the significance was the right of God to handle any nation or kingdom as He saw fit, and also His ability to do so: here it is the solemn sign that the city and its surroundings and people shall be publicly punished for their sin and idolatry in a way that when others hear of it their ears should tingle. It thus becomes an eloquent witness of the awfulness of sin, so that the vile names of Tophet and Hinnom could not be expressive enough to describe the place of their punishment; it should be called “The valley of slaughter” (v. 6). To the prophet the Lord said, “Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, and shalt say unto them, Thus says the Lord of hosts: even so will I break this people and this city” (vv. 10-11).

In Jeremiah 19 Jehovah summons the prophet to take a potter's earthen bottle before the ancients of the people and of the priests and in the valley of Hinnom to proclaim His new message. "Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; they have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them." (Ver. 3-9.)

Then (ver. 10) he was to break the bottle with the words, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods." (Ver. 11-13.) Nor was this all: the prophet on his return from Tophet stood in the court of Jehovah's house, and said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words." (Ver. 15.)

In the next chapter (ch. 19), Jeremiah has to perform another symbolic action. This time his assignment involves buying an earthen vessel, taking some of the elders of the people with him and going to the valley of the son of Hinnom. This dreadful place was renowned for the idolatry that involved sending children through the fire and sacrificing them to Molech (see 2 Ki. 23:10). Jeremiah had to announce judgment there: ‘Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle’ (v. 3). Then he had to break the vessel: ‘Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, and shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again’ (vs. 10–11).

This time it is not clay that can still be formed but an earthen vessel that has been hardened in the fire. It can only be broken. The message is a clear but solemn one: there is a time when discipline can be accepted for profit and there is a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart (Heb. 4:7) applies.

Prophetically, God announces in this way that He will judge Israel (the earthen vessel) but also that he will form a people that He will ‘build’ and ‘plant’ again (the Jewish remnant: see Isa. 10:20–22; Jer. 23:3; 31:7; Rom. 9:27).

After King Josiah had defiled the place it became the open sewer of the city. Fires were kept continually burning to consume the filth and impurity of the place. Worms fed on the garbage out of reach of the fire. Vultures gloated in crowds over the horrid scene. Stenchful smoke rose continually from the valley.

A writer says, “It was not till within less than thirty years of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, that the idol—the hideous ox-headed human figure of Moloch—and its accessories were swept away from the valley by the good Josiah and the place so defiled that it could never again be desecrated by the frightful worship. But so deeply had the horrors of the past printed themselves on the popular mind that henceforth the spot bore the name of Tophet—the abomination—the place to be spat upon; and in later times the very words Gehinnom—the Valley of Hinnom—slightly changed into gehenna became the common name for hell.”

After King Josiah had defiled the place it became the open sewer of the city. Fires were kept continually burning to consume the filth and impurity of the place. Worms fed on garbage out of reach of the fire. Vultures gloated in crowds over the horrid scene. Stenchful smoke rose continually from the valley.