Gehenna \Ge*hen"na\ (g[-e]*h[e^]n"n[.a]), prop. n. [L. Gehenna,
Gr. Ge`enna, Heb. G[=e] Hinn[=o]m.] (Jewish Hist.)
The valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where some of the
Israelites sacrificed their children to Moloch, which, on
this account, was afterward regarded as a place of
abomination, and made a receptacle for all the refuse of the
city, perpetual fires being kept up in order to prevent
pestilential effluvia. In the New Testament the name is
transferred, by an easy metaphor, to Hell.
[1913 Webster]
The pleasant valley of Hinnom. Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
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Gehenna
(originally Ge bene Hinnom; i.e., "the valley of the sons of
Hinnom"), a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where
the idolatrous Jews offered their children in sacrifice to
Molech (2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 19:2-6). This valley
afterwards became the common receptacle for all the refuse of
the city. Here the dead bodies of animals and of criminals, and
all kinds of filth, were cast and consumed by fire kept always
burning. It thus in process of time became the image of the
place of everlasting destruction. In this sense it is used by
our Lord in Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark
9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5. In these passages, and also in James
3:6, the word is uniformly rendered "hell," the Revised Version
placing "Gehenna" in the margin. (See HELL; HINNOM.)
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