Jer. xix, 2, 6), a deep and narrow ravine, with steep, rocky sides, on the southerly side of Jerusalem, separa- ting Mount Zion on the south from the " Hill of Evil Counsel," and the sloping, rocky plateau of the " plain of Kephaim" on the north, taking its name, according to Stanley', from " some ancient hero, the son of Hinnom," having encamped in it {S. cmd Pal. p. 172). The earli- est mention of the valley of Hinnom in the sacred writ- ings is in Josh, xv, 8, where the boundarj'-line between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin is described with mi- nute topographical accuracy, as passing along the bed of the ravine from En-Rogel to the top of the momitain " that lietli before the valley westward," at the north end of the plain of Rephaim. It is described in Josh, xviii, 1(3 as on the south side of Jebusi, that is, Mount Zion, on M'hich the ancient stronghold of the Jebusitcs stood. The valley obtained wide notoriety as the scene of the barbarous rites of Molecli and Chemosh, first in- troduced by Solomon, who built " a high place for Che- mosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is be- fore Jerusalem (Olivet) ; and for Molech, the abomina- tion of the children of Ammon" (1 Kings xi, 7). The inhuman rites were continued by the idolatrous kings of Judah. A monster idol of brass was erected in the opening of the valley, facing the steep side of Olivet, and there the infatuated ii ''labitants of Jerusalem burnt their sons and their daugh^u. in the fire — casting them, it is said, into the red-hot • ms of the idol (Jer. vii, 31 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. .'3 : xxxiii, 0;. No spot could have been selected nea-- ti- Holy City so well fitted for the perpe- tration of these horrid cruelties : the deep, retired glen, shut in by rugged cliffs, and the bleak mountain sides rising over aU. The worship of Molech was aboUshed by Josiah, and the place dedicated to him was defiled by being strewn with human bones : " He defiled To- pheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to jMolech . . . and he brake in pieces the images, and cut down their groves, and filled their places with the bones of men" (2 Kings xxiii, 10, 14). The place thus became ceremonially unclean ; no Jew could enter it (2 Chron. xxxiv, 4, 5). From this time it appears to have become the common cesspool of the city, into v.'hich its sewage was conducted, to be carried off by the waters of the Kidron, as well as a laystall, where all its solid filth was collected. It was afterwards a public cemetery [see Aceldajia], and the traveller who now stands in the bottom of this valley and looks up at the multitude of tombs in the cliffs above and aroimd him, thicklj' dotting the side of Olivet, will be able to see with what vrondrous accuracy the curse of Jeremi- ah has been fulfilled : '• Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tojihet, nor The Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but The Valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophct till there be no more place" (vii, 32). We learn from Jose]ihus that the last terrible struggle between the Jews and liomans took place here {War, vi, 8, 5); and here, too, it ap- pears the dead bodies were thrown out of the city after the siege (v, 12, 7). The inhuman rites anciently prac- tised in the valley of Hinnom causeil ihc latter Jews to regard it with feelings of horror and deleslation. Tlie Rabbins suppose it to be the gate nl liell (Lightfoot, Opera, ii, 286) ; and the Jews applied the name given to the valley in some passages of the Sept. Tkivva, to the place of eternal torment. Hence we find in Matt. V, 22, " Whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in dan- ger of rfiv ■yiivvnv tov irv^toc — the Gehenna of fire." The word is formed from the Hebrew CSn X*^;, "Val- ley of Hinnom." See Hell. The valley was also call- ed ToPHETH (2 Kings xxiii, 10 ; Isa. xxx, 33 ; Jer. vii, 31), either from rsn, "spittle," and it would hence mean "a place to spit upon," or from'MnSri, "place of burning." See Tophet.
Most commentators follow Buxtorf, Lightfoot, and others, in asserting that perpetual tires were kept up for
the consumption of bodies of criminals, carcases of ani- mals, and whatever else was combustible ; but the rab- binical authorities usually brought forward in support of this idea appear insufficient, and Robinson declares (i, 274) that " there is no evidence of any other fires than those of Molech having been kept up in this valley," re- ferring to Rosenmiiller, Biblisch. Geoyr. II, i, 156, 164, For the more ordinary view, see Hengstenberg, Christol. ii,454; iv, 41; Keil on Kings ii, 147, Clark's edit,; and comp. Isa. xxx, 33 ; Ixvi, 24. See IMoLOCH. It is call- ed, Jer. ii, 23, " the valley," Kar i^oxijr, and perhaps " the valley of dead bodies," xxi, 40, and " the vallej' of vision," Isa. xxii, 1, 5 (Stanley, S. and P. p. 172, 482), The name by which it is now known is (in ignorance of the meaning of the initial syllable) Wdch/ Jehennam, or Wad;/ er-Hiihib (Williams, //o/y City, i, 66, Supplem.), though in INlohammedan traditions the name Gehenna is applied to the Valley of Kedron (Ibn Batutah, 12, 4 ; Staidey, ut sup.). See Gehenna.