Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
their chrysolite is our topaz. Chrysolite is a silicate of magnesia and iron; it is so son as to lose its
polish unless carefully used. It varies in color from a pale-green to a bottle-green. It is supposed
that its name was derived from Topazos, an island in the Red Sea where these stones were procured.
Tophel
(mortar), (1:1) has been identified with Tufileh on a wady of the same name running north of
Bozra toward the southeast corner of the Dead Sea.
Topheth
and once To’phet (place of burning), was in the southeast extremity of the “valley of the son
of Hinnom,” (Jeremiah 7:31) which is “by the entry of the east gate.” (Jeremiah 19:2) The locality
of Hinnom is to have been elsewhere. [Hinnom] It seems also to have been part of the king’s
gardens, and watered by Siloam, perhaps a little to the south of the present Birket el-Hamra . The
name Tophet occurs only in the Old Testament. (2 Kings 23:10; Isaiah 30:33; Jeremiah 7:31,32;
19:6,11,12,13,14) The New does not refer to it, nor the Apocrypha. Tophet has been variously
translated. The most natural meaning seems that suggested by the occurrence of the word in two
consecutive verses, in one of which it is a tabret and in the other Tophet. (Isaiah 30:32,37) The
Hebrew words are nearly identical; and Tophet war probably the king’s “music-grove” or garden,
denoting originally nothing evil or hateful. Certainly there is no proof that it took its name from
the beaten to drown the cries of the burning victims that passed through the fire to Molech. Afterward
it was defiled by idols and polluted by the sacrifices of Baal and the fires of Molech. Then it became
the place of abomination, the very gate or pit of hell. The pious kings defiled it and threw down its
altars and high places, pouring into it all the filth of the city, till it became the “abhorrence” of
Jerusalem.
Tormah
occurs only in the margin of (Judges 9:31) By a few commentators it has been conjectured that
the word was originally the same with Arumah in ver. 41.
Tortoise
(Heb. tsab). The tsab occurs only in (Leviticus 11:29) as the name of some unclean animal. The
Hebrew word may be identified with the kindred Arabic dhab, “a large kind of lizard,” which
appears to be the Psommosaurus scincus of Cuvier.
Tou, Or Toi
king of Hamath. (1 Chronicles 18:9,10)
Tower
Watch-towers or fortified posts in frontier or exposed situations are mentioned in Scripture, as
the tower of Edar, etc., (Genesis 35:21; Isaiah 21:5,8,11; Micah 4:8) etc.; the tower of Lebanon. (2
Samuel 8:6) Besides these military structures, we read in Scripture of towers built in vineyards as
an almost necessary appendage to them. (1 Samuel 5:2; Matthew 22:33; Mark 12:1) Such towers
are still in use in Palestine in vineyards, especially near Hebron, and are used as lodges for the
keepers of the vineyards.
Town Clerk
the title ascribed in our version to the magistrate at Ephesus who appeased the mob in the theatre
at the time of the tumult excited by Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen. (Acts 19:35) The original
service of this class of men was to record the laws and decrees of the state, and to read them in
public.
Trachonitis
769
William Smith