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Gehenna is a word tracing to Greek, ultimately from Hebrew Gai-Ben-Hinnom meaning Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and is still called Gai Ben Hinnom in Modern Hebrew(גיא בן הינום), though this is sometimes shortened to Gai-Hinnom in rabbinical texts. An alternate way to translate this word is Gehinnom. Originally it referred to a garbage dump in a deep narrow valley right outside the walls of outside Jerusalem (in modern-day Israel) where fires were kept burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench. It is also the location where bodies of executed criminals, or individuals denied a proper burial, would be dumped.
There are stories of fires that were kept burning via the adding of brimstone ( sulfur). Light a match and one knows what sulfur dioxide smells like. Smiths Dictionary of the Bible Volume I, explains,
The dump was full of rotting garbage which sent up a stench that could be smelled for mileA mile is any of several units of distance, or, as physicists say, of length. Today, one mile is mainly equal to about 1609 metres on land and 1852 metres at sea and in the air, but see below for the details. Current definitions The meanings of mile thats.
It is mentioned in the Old TestamentThe Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures constitutes the first major part of the Christian Bible, usually divided into the categories law, history, poetry (or wisdom books) and prophecy. All of those books were written before the birth of Jesus. Canon o several places, notably 2 ChroniclesThe Book of Chronicles is a book in the Hebrew Bible (also see Old Testament). It was originally written as one book, but at some time the book came to be divided into two, probably in accordance with more managable scroll sizes, and thus in Christian bib 28:3; 33:6; 2 KingsThe Books of Kings Sefer Melachim in Hebrew) are two books of the Jewish Tanakh and included by Christians in their Bible (the Old Testament). They contain accounts of the kings of ancient Israel and Judah. The two books of Kings comprise the fourth book 23:10; JeremiahThe Book of Jeremiah consists of twenty-three separate and independent sections, arranged in five books. The introduction, ch. Reproofs of the sins of the Jews, consisting of seven sections, (1. 14-17:18; (6. A general review of all nations, in two sectio 7:31; 19:2-6; 32:35. We quote Jeremiah, 19:2-6, which speaks of the JewThe word Jew is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to either a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for as worshipping paganPaganism (or Heathenism ) is a catch-all term which has come to bundle together (by extension from its original classical meaning of a non- Christian religion) a very broad set of not necessarily compatible religious beliefs and practices that are usually idols and committing abominations:
"19:2. And you shall go out to the Ben-Hinnom Valley which is at the entrance of the Harsith Gate, and you shall call there the words that I will speak to you. 19:3. And you shall say; Hearken to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; so said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold I am bringing evil upon this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle. 19:4. Because they forsook Me and they estranged this place and burnt incense therein to other gods, which they had not known, they, their forefathers, and the kings of Judah, and they filled this place with the blood of innocent people. 19:5. And they built the high places of Baal to burn their children with fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, neither did I speak nor did it enter My mind. 19:6. Therefore, behold days are coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter."
Ancient Jews onced sacrificed their children to pagan idols in the fires in Gehenna, and this was an abomination; in 2 Kings, 23:10, King Josiah forbade the sacrificing of children to Moloch at Gehenna (though Baal is not mentioned in this particular verse). Rashi claims that the Topheth was the Molech. Since priests would bang on drums so that the father would not hear the groans of the child when he would be burned by the hands of the pagan image, Molech, they called it Topheth.