Remembering the future: The Topheth as dystopia in Jeremiah 7 and 19

Abstract

After investigating biblical and external evidence of the Topheth in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, this article argues that the vision of the Topheth’s future is a dystopia for Jerusalem in the rhetoric of Jeremiah 7 and 19. The memories of transgressions at the location are projected into the future to generate a vision of judgement, and these are paralleled with the transgressions and judgement of Jerusalem and Judah. This dystopia is remembered through its connections to the landscape and the future renaming of the place as the ‘valley of Slaughter’.