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Ben-Hinnom (Valley of Ben Hinnom)
Meaning
The Valley of Ben Hinnom also called the “Valley of the Sons Hinnom” was a location just outside of Jerusalem. If today you were above the city looking at the Temple Mount the valley would be located just to the right or southeast of the walls of Jerusalem. This was a sight of idolatry in the early days of Israel when the wicked kings ruled such as Ahaz and Manasseh. Both of whom were said to have offered up their own children to the fire of Topheth. Topheth (place of burning) was located the edge of the valley and it was here that the people made sacrifices to Baal and the fires of Molech.
Therefore, this location became synonymous with idolatry and child sacrifice. And it was these practices which brought God’s wrath upon both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judah. However, in Judah’s case she had good kings such as King Josiah, who brought reform and turned the people’s heart back to the Lord. Under the reforms of King Josiah the places of idol worship were destroyed and the Valley of Hinnom became a trash heap where the people burned garbage. During New Testament times the location became a constant smoldering trash dump and the people renamed the place “Gehenna” which became synonymous with the name for Hell.
“Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had done. For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made molded images for the Baals. He burned incense in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.” (Book of 2nd Chronicles 28:1-4)
“And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.” (Book of 2nd Kings 23:1, 7-8, 10-11)