¹⁶ “‘The sons of Judah have done what is bad in my eyes,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘They have set their disgusting things in the house upon which my name has been called, in order to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom [outside the south wall of Jerusalem], in order to burn [what?] their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.’”​—Jer. 7:30, 31; note Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5.

17. (a) What question comes up about pity toward the human sacrifices and the parents who offered them? (b) Who originated the idea of such human sacrifices?

¹⁷ So, now, when it comes to pity, for whom do we have more pity? For the idolatrous parents who faced an accounting with Jehovah? Or for the sons and daughters screaming as they were being offered as human sacrifices to the false god Molech (King), on a high altar at Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom? (Jer. 32:35) How could those heartless parents associate such worship of the fiendish idol-god Molech with worship at the holy temple just to the north of the valley? It was not at Jehovah’s command that they offered up such live human sacrifices to a false god. The idea of such human sacrifices came into the heart of the religious apostates back there, but never into the heart of Jehovah God.

²³ “‘Therefore, look! days are coming,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘when it will no more be said to be Topheth and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the killing; and they will have to bury in Topheth without there being enough place. And the dead bodies of this people must become food for the flying creatures of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth, with nobody to make them tremble. And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of exultation and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become nothing but a devastated place.’”​—Jer. 7:32-34; 19:6-9.

24. When did the typical fulfillment of that solemn prophecy occur?

²⁴ The carrying out of this solemn prophecy did not occur during the reign of King Josiah, who did an idol-smashing work and defiled the places that had been devoted to the worship of Molech and other demon gods. (2 Ki. 23:3-20) The turning of Topheth and the valley of Hinnom into a valley of the killing, strewn with the Judean corpses, with no graves to keep flesh-eating birds and beasts from devouring them, occurred in 607 B.C.E., when long-besieged Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and the miserable survivors were deported and the city was left a devastated place. For 70 years Jerusalem and Judah lay desolate.​—2 Chron. 36:17-21.