Thee, death can not celebrate Thee" (Isa. 38:17,18).

No words of ours are needful to make this passage clear. Those who accept the Scriptures as the last

word on any subject will know the meaning of "the gates of hell" in Matthew 16:18, and those who wish

to retain their own traditions, in spite of the testimo ny of Moses and the prophets, would not be persuaded

though one rose from the dead. In Revelation 20:14 we read that "death and hell (hades) were cast into

the lake of fire". If hades be rightly translated "hell", then we have hell cast into hell, which is neither

sense, good doctrine, nor of any help to those who say that hell goes on for ever. Hades is, as we have

said, the equivalent of sheol, and as we propose a fairly comprehensive study of that word later, we can

pass on here to the other words used by Matthew.

Gehenna is translated "hell" and "hell-fire" in Matthew (A.V.) as follows:

"shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matt. 5:22)

"Thy whole body should be cast into hell" (Matt. 5:29,30).

"Able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28).

"Having two eyes to be cast into hell fire" (Matt. 18:9).

"Twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Matt. 23:15).

"How can ye escape the damnation of hell?"(Matt. 23:33).

It is evident that gehenna is not an English word, and before we can rightly understand any of these

references to it we must have some knowledge of the place intended. Gehenna is the name of the "valley

of the son of Hinnom" that lay W. and S.W. of Jerusalem. We learn from 2 Kings 23:10 that Josiah:

"defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or

his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech".

Speaking of this awful practice the Lord said:

"And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn

their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into My heart"

(Jer. 7:31).

In passing, we might note the strong figure used by the Lord, "neither came it into My heart", and also

realize that the teaching concerning the eternal conscious suffering of human beings necessarily places in

the heart of God something infinitely more terrible. Tophet, however, means destruction, as a reference to

Isaiah 30:33 will show, and the statement that "the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth

kindle it", links it with 2 Thessalonians 1:8,9, which results in "everlasting destruction" and not

"everlasting torment".

In order to stop the abominable rites of Molech, Josiah "defiled Tophet" by "filling it with the bones of

men" (2 Kings 23:14). From that time forward it became the common cesspool and rubbish heap of the

city. Into this valley were cast the carcases of animals, and of criminals who had been denied burial.

Fires were kept burning to prevent pestilence from spreading, and what escaped the destruction of fire and

brimstone was eaten of worms. To this the prophet Isaiah refers in 66:24 :

"And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against Me: for

their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all

It is common knowledge that the advocates of "everlasting conscious punishment" do not fail to

emphasize the words their worm, and their fire, and draw from these words arguments to prove that they

who are thus described must be conscious. The presence of the word "carcases" in Isaiah 66 is a complete

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