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New Defender's Study Bible Notes
7:31 burn their sons and daughters in the fire. This terrible perversion of the principle of sacrifice was temporarily halted by King Josiah, presumably because of this condemnation by Jeremiah (II Kings 23:10). It became known as “the valley of slaughter” (Jeremiah 7:32), probably because Josiah there slew the idolatrous priests who officiated at these holocausts (II Kings 23:20). Eventually the valley became the continually burning refuse dump for Jerusalem. This “place of Hinnom” became known in the Greek language as gehenna (translated “hell” in the New Testament), because it has the appearance of a “lake of fire.” The name then was adapted to describe the actual future hell, the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15) to which all those who reject Christ will ultimately be consigned.