Question: Why was Jerusalem’s Valley of Hinnom thought to be the location of Sheol, when the Tanakh writers were describing the area? Did it have some kind of volcanic activity that has now ceased?
Google: What is the significance of the Valley of Hinnom?
The Valley of Hinnom is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as part of the border between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:8). During the late First Temple period, it was the site of the Tophet, where some of the kings of Judah had sacrificed their children by fire (Jeremiah 7:31).
Thereafter, it was cursed by the biblical prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 19:2–6).[5] In later Jewish rabbinic literature, Gehinnom became associated with divine punishment in Jewish Apocalypticism as the destination of the wicked.[6] It is different from the more neutral term Sheol, the abode of the dead. The King James Version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word Hell.
The Valley of Hinnom is the Modern Hebrew name for the valley surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem and the adjacent Mount Zion from the west and south. It meets and merges with the Kidron Valley, the other principal valley around the Old City, near the Pool of Siloam which lie to the south-eastern corner of Ancient Jerusalem. It is also known as Wadi er-Rababi (Arabic: وادي الربابة "valley of the Rebab"). [1][7] The north-western part of the valley is now an urban park.
In Judaism, the term Gehinnom is used for the realm in which the wicked expiate their sins.[8]
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