How to Pronounce Gehenna
geh-HEHN-uh
Gehenna is pronounced geh-HEHN-uh: three syllables, stress on the second. Also heard: Geh-HEH-nuh, geh-HEN-uh.
What is Gehenna?
(originally Ge bene Hinnom; i.e., “the valley of the sons of Hinnom”), a deep, narrow glen to the south of Jerusalem, where the idolatrous Jews offered their children in sacrifice to Molech (2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 19:2-6). This valley afterwards became the common receptacle for all the refuse of the city. Here the dead bodies of animals and of criminals, and all kinds of filth, were cast and consumed by fire kept always burning. It thus in process of time became the image of the place of everlasting destruction. In this sense it is used by our Lord in Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5.
Adapted from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), public domain.