What Does 2 Kings 23:10 Mean?
And he soiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no one might cause his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.THE KEY
Topheth is made unclean so the passage that consumes a child can no longer be performed there.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts you with a site made unclean to stop anyone from sending a son or daughter through fire to Molech. It names the violence plainly: a child is made to pass through fire in the service of a god. The child’s body is not a passageway for worship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a religious purpose can make violence toward children sacred; the verse calls the place defiled and disables the route.
THE ROOT
לְהַעֲבִיר
lehaʿavir
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
to cross over or pass from one side to another
The verb makes the act a forced crossing: a child is made to pass through fire. The verse pairs that crossing with the defiling of Topheth, so the place that enables it is rendered unfit for the rite.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to cross or pass over
עָבַר
This is the verb’s basic motion, made horrific here by the fire the child must cross.
ʿēver: the other side; beyond
עֵבֶר
This related form keeps the idea of crossing toward a far side, revealing the spatial force carried by “pass through.”
וְטִמֵּא
ve-timmēʾ
GROWS FROM
טמא
ṭ-m-ʾ
to be unclean or to render unclean
“soiled” in this verse is ve-timmēʾ. Defilement here has a concrete consequence: Topheth is rendered unfit for the practice carried out there. The verse connects the site’s changed condition with stopping a child from being made to cross through fire.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmēʾ: unclean
טָמֵא
This form describes the condition imposed on Topheth.
ṭumʾāh: uncleanness, impurity
טֻמְאָה
This related noun makes visible the state that removes the site’s ritual fitness.
THE PATTERN
When worship becomes a channel for destruction, its practices and machinery are exposed and dismantled.
And you shall tear down their altars, and shatter their standing stones, and burn their groves with fire, and you shall cut off the hewn images of their gods, and make the names of them perish out of that place.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 in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it rise up into my heart.And they came to Jerusalem. And Jesus entered the temple and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and turned over the tables of the coin-changers and the seats of those who sold doves.THE THREAD
Do not give any of your seed to pass through the fire to Molech, and do not pierce the nature of your God. I am the LORD.Both verses use the Hebrew verb להעביר (lehaʿavir), “to make pass through,” from עבר (ʿ-b-r), “to cross over.” Leviticus names the prohibited crossing; 2 Kings shows Topheth made unclean so that it cannot continue there.
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