Hell is the final destination for those who do not trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. It is the place of eternal punishment for the enemies of God - both Satan and his demons (Revelation 20:10), and all human beings who reject Christ (Hebrews 10:26-27). In the gospels we hear Jesus speak about Hell a great deal. One term He used to talk about Hell was the Aramaic term Gehenna (Luke 12:5). Gehenna was a rubbish dump outside Jerusalem, which had fires burning in it all the time. In the Old Testament, the site of Gehenna is the valley called Ben-Hinnom. This place was associated with the worship of the false Canaanite god Molech, whose worship included the sacrifice of children by burning them in fire (e.g. 2 Chronicles 28:3, 33:6). Gehenna was an awful place, which was considered accursed by God, a dark place of fire and torment - a place which stank of death. Of course, Jesus does not mean that Hell is the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem but rather He uses Gehenna as a picture of what Hell will be like. Hell is a place of death (Revelation 21:8), darkness (2 Peter 2:17), fire (Jude 1:7), and torment (Matthew 13:41-42). Those who reject Jesus and refuse to repent of their sins will suffer there for eternity (Mark 9:43-48).
