Hell – an arbitrary translation

It has already been pointed out in another article that the translation “hell” in the translations is arbitrary and many translations close to the basic text do not even mention “hell” anymore. The reason for this is not liberalism or wishful thinking, but this correction follows from careful examination of biblical references. The so-called “hell” is foreign to the Bible. This has far-reaching consequences for life and faith.

The word “hell” is not found in Hebrew or Greek. Rather, the translation “hell” is done quite randomly, for several quite different words. It is a misleading translation. For the uninitiated Bible reader, thoughts are thus smuggled into the Bible that never had a place there. These are the Greek terms that were translated as hell sometimes here and sometimes there – but never uniformly – in the New Testament:

• Hades
• Gehenna
• Tartaroo (a verb – to throw into Tartarus).

None of these terms has for itself the meaning of a hell. So the problem is that there is no clear basis for this doctrine of a hell. In order to arrive at this doctrine, a wide variety of statements are selectively translated with “hell” and then interpreted detached from the context and only according to the problematic translation. Those who have never been taught otherwise may be critical of this statement. I can understand this because I myself am very familiar with this way of thinking. However, the statement can be verified.

I have become detached from the idea of a hell the more I have examined the Bible for it. For there I found no image of hell in my examination, as I had been taught. I am not alone in such a positively critical approach. I have had the privilege of meeting many people (including Bible teachers and pastors) who have critically examined this theological heritage and come to quite different conclusions. This is a healthy development.

Landslide in theological thinking

The biblically based evidence to nullify the word “hell” is overwhelming. Proponents of the doctrine of hell also feel this. Again and again, they recognize that differentiation is indeed necessary here. However, one does not always want to let go of the idea of hell – as if it were a step too far.

One rightly senses that with the letting go of hell, something like a landslide in theological thinking could also take place. After all, it is not only about hell, but indirectly about many other concepts as well. Among other things, it concerns the understanding of one’s own salvation as opposed to the fate of the “lost“(eternal life versus eternal hell). So is the understanding of judgment (hell is seen as punishment that satisfies God’s justice ). These two things affect the understanding of mission (Don’t we need to warn other people about hell?). This is how one topic leads to the next.

Anyone who takes a close and critical look at these connections will come to the conclusion that hell is the real basis of many thoughts – and not the love and grace of God in Christ Jesus. In some circles, one’s entire self-image is affected should one come to the realization that hell does not exist in the Bible. Suddenly, the whole religious self-image is on shaky ground. This can be a big challenge.

Will Gehenna become a projection screen for hell?

Those who do not want to make a radical cut with tradition, but also see the need for a revision of dogma, try to reduce hell to one of the concepts mentioned. This is what happens then: It is acknowledged that the basic languages of the Bible do not have a word for hell and that the New Testament is about very different terms, not all of which speak of hell. Hades and Tartaroo are dismissed from the construct of hell. What remains is the term Gehenna. Gehenna now is hell – so the conclusion. Hell is projected onto Gehenna and reduced to this concept. If we can prove that this is a misattribution, there will be nothing left of hell. That’s what this is all about.

You can test in two ways:

1. It is assumed that “hell” exists, so translations are sought that support this view
2. You realize that the Bible text speaks of “Gehenna” and not “hell,” and you want to come to understand the meaning of Gehenna.

The first way of looking at it will have trouble with the biblical testimony. The second approach will give good insights into biblical reporting. Let’s take a look at how this works.

Hell exists only in the New Testament

It may come as a surprise, but hell is not mentioned with a single word in the Old Testament. It depends on the language and the translation. Examples from the German language: Luther 1984 has the word hell in the Old Testament only 1x, and that is in Job 11:8. In the Luther 2017 edition this note has disappeared, instead “hell” has been translated into Hosea 13:14. It is not consistent and most translations do not even know hell in the Old Testament.

So there is no hell in most of the Bible. Thus, the enormous importance attached to hell does not reflect a consensus across all biblical writers. All testimonies cited for a “hell” are taken from the New Testament and there they are found only in certain translations. Strictly speaking, according to tradition, hell does not come into play until Jesus appears. Only when the Savior comes shall hell be mentioned for the first time. I can understand that some say thereupon (as I already heard that): Then it would be better if this savior had not come at all, because then there would have been no hell!

Hell, then, is a New Testament phenomenon. There, the word appears only in certain translations and she is selectively and often contradictorily interpreted as such. According to most translations, the word is first mentioned by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

“21 Ye have heard that it was said unto the ancients, Thou shalt not kill: but whosoever shall kill shall be liable to judgment. 22 But I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. But whoever says to his brother, “Raka,” will be condemned to the high council; and whoever says, “Fool,” will be condemned to the hell of fire. 23 So when you bring your gift to the altar and remember there that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go first, make peace with your brother, and then come and bring your gift. 25 Meet your opponent quickly while you are on the way with him! Lest the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge to the servant, and thou be cast into prison. 26 Truly I say to you, you will not come out from there until you have paid the last coin. 27 Ye have heard that it is said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. 28 But I say to you that anyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 But if your right eye gives you cause to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you that one of your members perish and not your whole body be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand gives you cause to sin, cut it off and throw it from you. For it is better for thee that one of thy members perish, and not that thy whole body be cast into hell.”
Mt 5:21-30 (Rev. Elberfelder)

In all three places in the above passage, the word “Gehenna” is used. This is about “Gehenna of fire” (5:22) and that “your whole body will be thrown into Gehenna” (5:29 and 5:30). Jesus does not explain these expressions. Therefore, it must be assumed that He was speaking of known things. However, is it known to us, or do we have to think about it first, ask about it? For us, as readers of this section, the understanding at that time plays a big role. Only when we understand what this text triggered in the listeners, and how they understood it, can we come to an assessment ourselves.

Thus, in an exegesis of this passage, the statement can only be understood by considering the context, as well as the understanding of the Jews at that time. Jesus did not introduce a new doctrine of hell here, but mentioned something that was known to the Jews. Reference is made to the law and the prophets(Mt 5:17-19), and the kingdom of heaven, the messianic kingdom (Mt 5:19) is discussed.

It is in this messianic context and against the background of the Old Testament promises that the talk of Gehenna makes sense. Although we find nothing about a “hell” in the Old Testament, the term “Gehenna” is taken directly from the Old Testament.

The valley of Hinnom

The Greek “Gehenna” is merely a Greek spelling of the Hebrew “Geh Hinnom” or “Valley of Hinnom.” This valley, just outside the walls of Jerusalem, begins roughly at today’s Jaffa Gate, curves around the Old City, and opens into the Kidron Valley, which begins between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. Today, the valley of Hinnom is a park and concerts are performed there. You can organize a picnic today undisturbed in Gehenna.

In ancient times, however, Geh Hinnom was not a happy place. That has a lot to do with the heinous things that happened there. In the Old Testament one reads about this valley from the dark times and the meaning, which the valley got through this, is also found back in prophetic writings and statements about the messianic kingdom.

The first time we hear of this place is in the book of Joshua:

“And the border went up the valley of Ben-hinnom, southward to the hillside of the Jebusites, which is Jerusalem. And the border went up to the top of the mountain that rises in front of the valley of Hinnom toward the west, which is at the end of the Refaïm valley toward the north.”
Joshua 15:8

Here we read that the valley is right next to Jerusalem. At one time it refers to the Valley of Hinnom, at another time to the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, which means the “Sons of Hinnom”. Here are some things associated with this valley:

“Twenty years old was Ahaz when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He also made castings for the Baalim. And it was he that offered incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom, and he burned his sons in the fire according to the abominations of the nations which the LORD had driven out from before the sons of Israel.”
2Chr 28,3

Idols were worshipped here. Smoke sacrifices took place and children were burned for the Ba’als or Moloch cult. All of this was “after the atrocities of the nations” from which Israel was supposed to distance itself.

The Tofet in the Valley of Hinnom

The Valley of Hinnom is also associated with a specific place of worship. The “Tofet” was a sacrificial place in this valley. The second book of Kings tells of how Josiah the king closes a time from idolatry (as predicted, see 1Kgs 13). Even in the temple there were idol images, there was temple prostitution to foreign gods, and everywhere Israel had fallen away from its God. For not only in Jerusalem, but also in other places, the Israelites had served foreign idols and set up places of worship. Josiah sets the record straight (2Kö 23). In this context, the tofet is also mentioned:

“And he made unclean Tofeth, which was in the valley of Ben-hinnom, that no man should make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Moloch.”
2Co 23:10

Making the tofet unclean here means that the place of worship was treated in such a way that cultic acts could no longer be performed on it. Thus, the “making unclean” here is the actual “cleansing,” namely a cleansing of idolatry.

The word Tofet is explained in two ways. Once it is etymologically translated as “to spit”, namely “to spit at”, and then it is meant to refer to the atrocities that were committed there – as something abominable. Gesenius, on the other hand, in his “Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament” refers to another etymological origin, according to which the word would be related to Tofeteh, a “place of burning (the dead).” He sees the word as a loanword from Persian, perhaps denoting the burning of the dead, as Isaiah 30:33 speaks of it (it refers to a funeral pyre ready for the king of Assyria).

So the burning of dead bodies in the Valley of Hinnom has historical roots and the fires in this valley were very concrete. On the one hand, children were burned there, but on the other hand – quite contrary to the burial rite in Israel – human bodies were also burned, which is something that is also mentioned in the New Testament in a prophetic context. But more about that in a moment. First, let’s see how else Tofet and the Valley of Hinnom are mentioned in the Old Testament.

Prophecies of Jeremiah

Jeremiah lived in the same time as Josiah (Jer 1:1-3) and takes up the same imagery we read about earlier in 2Kings 13. He prophesied about Israel as well as about the nations. Israel was warned that judgment would take place if they forsook the Lord.

“Say then to them: This is the people who do not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and do not accept discipline! Faithfulness has been lost and erased from their mouths. Shave your long hair and throw it away and raise dirge on the bare heights! For the LORD has rejected and cast out the generation against which he is angry. For the sons of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, says the LORD. They have placed their abominations in the house over which my name is proclaimed, to make it unclean. And they have built the high places of Tofet, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I have not commanded, nor has it ever occurred to me. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when they will no longer say Tofet nor Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter. And one must bury in Tofet, because there is no more place. And the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one will scare them away. And I will cause to cease in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of gladness and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become desolate places.”
Jer 7:28-34

As we read here, it is prophetically said that the valley for the innumerable dead (from the judgment) will be called a valley of slaughter, and which ones will be buried there because there is no place left otherwise. Likewise, the prophet writes this a few chapters further on:

“So saith the LORD; Go and buy of the potter a jar of clay, and take with thee some of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests. And go out into the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is before the entrance of the Shear Gate, and proclaim there the words which I will speak unto thee, saying, Hear the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing disaster on this place, so that the ears of everyone who hears it will ring. Therefore, because they have forsaken me and alienated this place from me and offered incense in it to other gods, gods they do not know, neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah, and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocent people and built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command nor speak and which did not come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when this place will no longer be Tofet still Valley Ben-Hinnom will be called, but Valley of Slaughter. Then I will frustrate the plan of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives. And I will give their corpses to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to eat. And I will make this city a horror and a hissing: everyone who passes by it will be horrified and hiss at all its plagues. And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat one another’s flesh during the siege and the affliction with which their enemies and those who seek their lives will afflict them. And thou shalt break the pitcher in the sight of the men that went with thee, and shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Likewise will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be restored. And you get buried in the Tofet because there’s no place left to bury you. In the same way I will deal with this place, declares the LORD, and with its inhabitants, to make this city like Tofet. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall become unclean like the place of Tofeth; all the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to all the host of heaven and have given drink offerings to other gods.

And Jeremiah came from Tofetwhere the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he came into the court of the house of the LORD, and said to all the people, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city, and upon all the cities thereof, all the evil that I have spoken against them. For they have hardened their necks not to hear my words.”
Jer 19

So Jeremiah had to say these words and this comparison at the Tofet itself, just outside the city walls. Afterwards, he returns to the temple and once again reaffirms the statements made to the people directly from the sanctuary. The contrast and the expressiveness could not be greater here.

This judgment was later carried out by Nebuchadnezzar and the prophecy was fulfilled. It is a very eventful time and the events are described very impressively (Jer 19-21, Jer 52, Ezekiel 12:1-20 2Chr 36:11-21). It is thus on this occasion that the Valley of Hinnom first becomes a scene of divine judgment, foretold by the prophet and later so fulfilled. The valley became the “valley of slaughter”.

The Valley of Hinnom as the Place of a Future Judgment

The prophet Isaiah speaks in many places of a future time as the “Day of the Lord”. It is a day of great upheaval, of judgment and wrath to get through to the Messianic Kingdom. In these descriptions we also read about the Tofet:

“And therefore the LORD will wait to be gracious to you, and therefore he will arise to have mercy on you. For a God of justice is the LORD. Happy all who wait for him!”
Isa 30,18

“Then the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD shall bind up the breach of his people, and heal the wound of his stroke.”
Isa 30:26

“Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, with his burning anger and mighty rising. His lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire, and his breath like an overflowing stream that reaches to the neck: to swing the nations, with the vibrating sieve of nothingness, and to put a misleading bridle on the chins of the nations. You will have the song on your lips as on the night when the feast is celebrated, and joy in your heart as he who goes up playing the flute to come to the mountain of the LORD, to the rock of Israel. Then the LORD will cause to be heard the majesty of his voice, and will cause to be seen the descent of his arm, with fierce anger and a flame of devouring fire, under downpour and cloudburst and hailstones. Yes, by the voice of the LORD Assyria will be crushed when he strikes it with the rod. And it shall come to pass, every stroke of the rod of correction, which the LORD shall bring down upon it, shall be with the playing of the tambourine and the zither. And with a curved arm, he will fight against it. For a fireplace (hb. tofeteh) has long been prepared. It is also prepared for the king, deep and wide he has made it. Their pyre is for the fire and has wood in quantity. Like a river of brimstone, the breath of the LORD sets it on fire.”
Isa 30:27-33

So if that day comes when the LORD will bind up the breach of his people of Israel, this text suggests that it will take place in Jerusalem. There is then prepared a fireplace – the word, which is related to Tofet. Here, the dawn of the Messianic Kingdom is described, when the LORD Himself reigns again among Israel – through His anointed. As it says in Psalm 2:

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot vain things? Kings of the earth arise, and princes join themselves together against the LORD and against his anointed: “Let us break their bands, and cast away their cords from us.” He who is enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord mocks at them. Then he addresses them in his anger, in his fury of wrath he terrifies them, “Yet have I consecrated my king on Zion, my holy mountain!” Let me make known the order of the LORD! He spoke to me: “My son you are, I have begotten you this day. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for an inheritance, for your possession the ends of the earth. With a rod of iron you may smite them, as potter’s ware you may break them.” And now, you kings, act wisely; be rebuked, you judges of the earth! Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish in the way: for easily is his wrath kindled. Happy all who shelter with him!”
Psalm 2

This outlook is also shared by the writers of the Psalms (e.g. Psalm 96-99). From all these biblical passages – to which many more can be added – the expectation of Israel is shown that God will one day meet Israel and the nations with mercy and judgment. Israel will be central here as a country, as will Jerusalem.

“The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz beheld concerning Judah and Jerusalem: And it shall come to pass at the end of the days, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall stand firm as the head of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many nations shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us by his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he will judge between the nations and pronounce justice for many peoples. Then they will forge their swords into plowshares and their spears into vine knives. No longer will nation against nation raise the sword, and they will no longer learn war. House of Jacob, come, let us live in the light of the LORD!”
Isa 2:1-5

The restoration of Israel, the prospect of a righteous age in which the Lord Himself will reign through His Messiah in Israel and on earth, is broadly measured in the prophets. There is a blessing included in it not only for Israel but for all nations. Judgment will come and the Messiah will rule with “a club of iron.” This is what was also known in the time of the Gospels when Jesus spoke to the Jews.

Jesus refers to the judgments in the valley of Hinnom

When Jesus speaks of Gehenna, of this valley of Hinnom, and of the judgments that take place there, it says, for example, thus:

“I say to you, My friends: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but afterwards are unable to do anything beyond it. I will now show you whom you should fear: Fear him who has authority, after killing, to cast into Gehenna also. Yes, I say to you: This one fear!”
Lk 12,4-5

This does not fit at all with the idea of being tortured in some “hell”. It is not about a place outside this earth (beyond), but about a situation on this earth. The disciples and friends of Jesus are warned that they may be persecuted and killed in the process. However, this is nothing compared to what could happen to the adversaries in the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom (the Kingdom of Heaven Jesus speaks of in the Gospels). They run the risk that their dead (!) bodies will be thrown into Gehenna. This refers directly to the situation in Isaiah 30 and symbolizes divine judgment. In Gehenna, the bodies of executed adversaries will be burned. For only one has the authority to do this – the Lord Himself. That was the statement of Isaiah 30.

That Jesus now speaks of this time of judgment on earth, and has the valley of Hinnom in mind as the place of judgment, is also clear from other passages:

“Whoever takes offense at one of these little ones who believe in Me, it would be better for him if rather an ass millstone were placed around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Now if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off! Better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not perish and the fire does not go out!”
Mark 9:42-44 (cf. Mark 9:45-48).

Gehenna is described here as “the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not perish and the fire does not go out.” However tempting it may be for some to imagine here an “eternal torment of hell with endless fire and immortal worms,” the context is quite different.

Where the worm does not die and their fire does not go out

The place where the fire does not go out and the worm does not perish had already been described by the prophet Isaiah. Jesus recognized the place in Isaiah and logically calls it “Gehenna” because it is the Valley of Hinnom.

“And it shall come to pass: New moon by new moon, and Sabbath by Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the LORD. And they will go out and look at the corpses of the people who have broken with me. For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abomination to all flesh.”
Isa 66:23-24

So Jesus refers directly to this statement of Isaiah. It is the last verse in the book of Isaiah and is in a longer section on the prospect of Jerusalem for the coming Messianic kingdom (Isa 66:10; Isa 66:13; Isa 66:20). This has nothing to do with an “eternal hell”.

The statements of Jesus can only be evaluated in the context of His mission and His proclamation. We must not catapult them into a fictitious afterlife nor interpret their testimony arbitrarily. The clues from the context demand that we interpret this passage strictly in the context of the Messianic period and of the judgments, about which we have read some before.

It is sometimes represented that there are “immortal” worms. This is then justified with Mark 9. Likewise, it is said that there would be an “eternal” fire. With this, hell is then heated up. This is all a bit strange, because the Scriptures clearly show that today only One has immortality: Jesus Christ (1Tim 6,15-16). There are no immortal worms, any more than dead people would simply be kept alive by God for eternity so that He could torment them endlessly with worms and fire. We are here in the abysses of human thought and very far from Scripture.

In the light of the Messianic promises, however, some things are much clearer: the Messiah rules with a rod of iron from Jerusalem (Ps 2:8) and there will be many executions. The bodies of the executed will be thrown into Gehenna (Luke 12:4-5), where, because of the constant supply, the worm will not die and the fires for cremation will not go out.

This is the Gehenna of the New Testament – entirely founded in Old Testament prophecy. For Jesus’ listeners, this was plain language, for they knew the scriptures.

How’s that for teeth grinding?

That may be true, someone might object, but doesn’t it say something about gnashing of teeth? Doesn’t that mean that the people judged there are tortured?

Well, the first thing to note is that dead people can no longer be tortured. They are dead. That is why nowhere is gnashing of teeth mentioned directly in connection with Gehenna. Those who are executed do not live until the resurrection. We rightly say that many a person is “delivered” from suffering through death. And it was the “dead bodies” that are thrown into Gehenna. This is sober Bible contemplation. Dying does not bring greater sensation, but is the cessation of all sensation.

But where does it say anything about “gnashing of teeth”? There are several places that require more space to cover than seems reasonable in this post. But they are in the same context, namely the establishment of the messianic kingdom. For example, it is said:

If, after the master of the house has risen and locked the door, you stand outside and begin to knock on the door and call out, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” He will answer you: I know nothing about you! Where are you from? – Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank before Your eyes, and You taught in our places. – But he will reply: I tell you: I know nothing about you! Where are you from? Remove your selves from me, all you workers of iniquity! There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but yourselves outside as rejected ones. From the east and the west, from the north and the south, they will arrive and lie down at table in the Kingdom of God. And behold, there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
Lk 13:25-30

Gnashing of teeth and wailing, then, outside the gates of the kingdom (so to speak), namely outside the gates of Jerusalem and without being partakers of the blessings of the kingdom. Again, this has nothing to do with our situation today as a community. Nor can it be extrapolated to all people of all times. This text, too, can only be interpreted within its own context. It should be associated just thereby also with Jerusalem and with the fire which burns there before the gates in the valley of Hinnom (Gehenna). It concerns the judgments that mark the transition from the current age (eon) to the coming age (the coming eon):

“Now just as the dew weeds are weeded and burned with fire, so it will be at the close of the Aeon. The Son of Man will commission His messengers, and how will weed out of His Kingdom all the snares and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Mt 13:40-43 (explanation of the parable of the harvest)

All too easily, it is inferred that the wailing and gnashing of teeth takes place in this “furnace of fire.” But why? It is not described. Therefore, it can also be the bystanders who grind their teeth. And let’s think again about the image of the Tofeth and the Valley of Hinnom, this is right outside the gates of Jerusalem and outside the gates of the Kingdom. Outside are the executed, the lawless, the rejected. Inside are the children of the kingdom.

The psalm writer knew the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous:

“Good is the man who is kind and lends! He will carry out his things according to the law. For forever he shall not waver; to an everlasting remembrance shall the righteous be. He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steadfast; he1 does not fear until he looks down on his oppressors. He scatters, gives to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn rises up in honor. The wicked will see it and be angry; he will gnash his teeth and perish. The desire of the wicked is lost.”
Ps 112:5-10

That will be the scenario. Also the last chapter of Isaiah still gives information here, if we read the last verses again:

“And it shall come to pass: New moon by new moon and Sabbath by Sabbath, all flesh will come to worship before me, says the LORD. And they will go out and look at the bodies of the people who broke with me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not go out, and they will be an abomination to all flesh.”
Isa 66:23-24

The bodies of the executed lie just outside the gates of Jerusalem waiting to be burned. They are an abomination to all who pass there. It stands to reason that it is not the corpses that gnash their teeth, but rather the people who pass by there and see the stern justice of the Messiah. “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry!” says Psalm 2. We cannot compare this with today’s time of grace.

So what is Gehenna?

Gehenna, as we have seen, is a symbol of the judgment that will be exercised in the Messianic kingdom and a place just outside Jerusalem. It cannot be detached from Jerusalem. In various references, the prophets had spoken of the establishment of the messianic kingdom and the role of Jerusalem. There the speech of Gehenna fits in, as Jesus spoke about it.

All this has nothing to do with an eternal hell in the hereafter.

Deepening

For further reading, here are all the biblical passages from “Valley of Hinnom, Tofet and Gehenna”:

• Valley of Hinnom
  Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16; 2Kings 23:10; 2Chr 28:3; 2Chr 33:6; Neh 11:30; Jer 7:31-32; Jer 19:2; Jer 19:6, Jer 32:35.
• Tofet
  2Kings 23:10; Isa 30:33; Jer 7:31-32; Jer 19:6; Jer 19:11-14.
• Gehenna
  Mt 5:22; Mt 5:29-30; Mt 10:28; Mt 18:9; Mt 23:15; Mt 23:33; Mk 9:43; Mk 9: 45; Mk 9: 47; Luk 12:5; Jas 3:6.