in honour of the infamous idol Moloch, and where they then threw their cinders and half-burnt bodies.
Tradition further declared that the corpses of Sennacherib’s soldiers had been thrown there in a heap, so that the valley swarmed with worms that had come out of their corpses, which were also half burnt and marked with fire. This place was called ' the valley of the son of Ennom — or of Benennom —'; [1] whence, by change of B to G, we get Gehennom — Gehenna — Gehenne; by which word hell — the hell of the lost, with its devouring flames and gnawing worms — was afterwards expressed; of which our Saviour says that 'their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.’
It is, then, to this valley of corpses — also called the valley of death — that Jesus Christ compares the frightful punishment of those who treat their brethren as madmen and fools. If He decrees such a punishment for insults only, how must those be tormented who strike and kill? The Son of God does not even mention such, as not choosing to suppose that they could exist among His own people; but is content with leaving it to be inferred how acts of violence
- ↑ 2 Kings xxiii. 10; 2 Paral. xxviii. 3.
