. Notes, explanatory and practical, on the Gospels: designed for Sunday school teachers and Bible classes . lley, near toJerusalem, on the south. A smallbrook or torrent usually ran throughthis valley, and partly encompassedthe city. This valley the idolatrousIsraelites devoted formerly to the horridworship of Moloch. 2 Kings xvi. 3. 2Chron. xxviii. 3. In that worship, theancient Jewish writers inform us, thatthe idol of Moloch was of brass, adorn-ed with a royal crown, having the headof a calf, and his arms extended, as ifto embrace any one. When they of- cil: but whosoever shall say, Thoufoo
. Notes, explanatory and practical, on the Gospels: designed for Sunday school teachers and Bible classes . lley, near toJerusalem, on the south. A smallbrook or torrent usually ran throughthis valley, and partly encompassedthe city. This valley the idolatrousIsraelites devoted formerly to the horridworship of Moloch. 2 Kings xvi. 3. 2Chron. xxviii. 3. In that worship, theancient Jewish writers inform us, thatthe idol of Moloch was of brass, adorn-ed with a royal crown, having the headof a calf, and his arms extended, as ifto embrace any one. When they of- cil: but whosoever shall say, Thoufool, shall be in danger of hell fire. fered children to him, they heated thestatue within by a great fire, and whenit was burning hot, they put the mise-rable child into his arms, where it wassoon consumed by the heat; and, inorder that the cries of the child mightnot be heard, they made a great noisewith drums and other instruments aboutthe idol. These drums were calledToPH; and hence a common name ofthe place was Tophet. Jer. vii. 31,32. The following cut may ftirnish auseful illustration of this After the return of the Jews fromcaptivity, this place was held in suchabhorrence, that, by the example ofJosiah, (2 Kings xxiii. 10.), it wasmade the place where to throw all thedead carcasses and filth of the city;and was not unfrequently the place ofexecutions. It became, therefore, ex-tremely ofi^ensive; the sight was ter-rific ; the air was polluted and pestilen-tial ; and to preserve it in any mannerpure, it was necessary to keep firescontinually burning there. The ex- treme loathsomeness of the place; thefilth and putrefaction ; the corruptionof the atmosphere, and the lurid firesblazing by day and by night, made itone oi the most appalling and terrificobjects with which a Jew was ac-quainted. It was called the rehennaof fire; and was the image which ourSaviour often employed to denote thefuture punishment of the wicked. In this verse it denotes a degree ofsuffering highe
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