Hinnom

Hinnom (the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, Hebrew gê ben-hinnōm) was a deep, narrow ravine running along the southern and western sides of Jerusalem, separating the hill of Zion from the so-called Hill of Evil Counsel. The name derives from an otherwise unidentified figure called the son (or sons) of Hinnom, perhaps a pre-Israelite landowner. Its topographic position made it a natural boundary and drainage channel for the ancient city.

The valley became infamous as the site of Molech worship, where apostate Israelites—including at times kings Ahaz and Manasseh—burned their children in fire as offerings. King Josiah defiled the site as part of his religious reforms, making it unfit for continued worship. Its accursed association gave rise to the Greek form Gehenna (contracted from gê hinnōm), which Jesus used as a vivid image of eschatological judgment. In later Jewish and Christian imagination, Gehenna became the designation for the place of final punishment—a theological evolution rooted in the historical horror of what had occurred in this ravine beneath Jerusalem's walls.