Topheth Will Become a Valley of Slaughter

Hair is cut for lament because Topheth burned children

Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. The children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 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 commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

The horror condemns killing children. It never licenses human sacrifice, retaliatory massacre, or sensational use of victims' remains. What did not come into the LORD's heart is the burning of sons and daughters.

The valley is renamed Slaughter, and civic joy is silenced

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

Burial crisis and silenced weddings portray a city that practiced child-killing. The prophecy is grief and judgment, not a script for displaying corpses or for punishing later generations as if they lit those fires.