Hinnom
Hinnom - a deep, narrow ravine separating Mount Zion from the so-called "Hill of Evil Counsel." It took its name from "some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom." It is first mentioned in Josh. 15:8. It had been the place where the idolatrous Jews burned their children alive to Moloch and Baal. A particular part of the valley was called Tophet, or the "fire-stove," where the children were burned. After the Exile, in order to show their abhorrence of the locality, the Jews made this valley the receptacle of the offal of the city, for the destruction of which a fire was, as is supposed, kept constantly burning there.
The Jews associated with this valley these two ideas,
(1) that of the sufferings of the victims that had there been sacrificed; and
(2) that of corruption and destruction. It became thus to the popular mind a symbol of future punishment. In this sense the word is used eleven times in our Lord's discourses (Matt. 23:33; Luke 12:5; Matt. 5:22, etc.).
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