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HINNOM

(Heb. hinnōm),

VALLEY OF

One of three valleys which cut through the region around Jerusalem. Most scholars believe that the western valley is the one the ancients called Hinnom Valley, which joins the Kidron Valley at the southeast corner of Jerusalem. It is also called the “valley of the son of Hinnom” (Jer. 7:32) or the “valley of the children of Hinnom” (2 Kgs. 23:10; NRSV “Ben-hinnom”), and it was so familiar that it was sometimes called simply “the valley” (2 Chr. 26:9). It served as a dividing line between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah (Josh. 15:8; 18:16).

At a place called Topheth in Hinnom Valley people worshipped Baal and offered their children as burned sacrifices to the god Moloch during the reigns of Solomon, Ahaz, and Manasseh (2 Kgs. 23:10; 2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 32:35). This caused Jeremiah to name it the Valley of Slaughter (Jer. 7:31-32; 19:5-6). The place was made into a garbage dump to desacralize it, making it unfit even for pagan worship. For centuries constant fires burned the refuse deposited there. The fires and stench along with the recollection of the horrors practiced there and the condemnation of those evils by God’s prophets generated the concept of Gehenna (lit., “valley of Hinnom”), a term designating the burning torture of condemned people, the “hell of fire” (Matt. 5:22). While the name referred to a specific geographical location, it also became for Jews and Christians a standard term for hell with its torments and punishment (Matt. 10:28; 25:30, 46).

Richard A. Spencer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HINNOM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)