Tophel

Tophel appears once in Scripture as a wilderness landmark in the opening verse of Deuteronomy: "These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab" (Deuteronomy 1:1). The cluster of placenames sets the geographic context for Moses's final great sermon — somewhere in the Arabah depression south of the Dead Sea between the Paran wilderness and the Edomite frontier. Tophel is identified with the modern town of Tafileh in southern Jordan, about fifteen miles southeast of the southern tip of the Dead Sea.