expressions are used in describing the fiery judgment upon sin and
sinners. The effect of the fire is everlasting and eternal, and by a
common usage in language the adjective that describes the effect is
applied to the agent by which the effect is wrought.

A specific example of everlasting fire in the punishment of evil is
given in Scripture. Sodom and Gomorrah, those wicked "cities of the
plain," were destroyed by a rain of fire from heaven. These cities,
Inspiration says, "are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance
of eternal fire." Jude 7. The fire was everlasting, eternal, in its
effects. The cities of the plain were everlastingly consumed. But the
fire went out when the destruction was complete. Unquenchable fire is
fire that cannot be quenched. It consumes utterly, until nothing is
left; then it goes out of its own accord.

_4. "Where Their Worm Dieth Not."_--Jesus warned of the certain
destruction of sin and sinners in the fire of Gehenna; for this is the
word translated "hell" in Mark 9:43.

Hades, which is often translated "hell," is the grave, not the place of
punishment. Gehenna, here used of the place of punishment, was the name
of the valley where the refuse of Jerusalem was cast for burning. The
map of Jerusalem, in any ordinary Bible with maps, shows just outside
the southern wall a gorge marked "Valley of Hinnom" (Gehenna). It was
here that the people, in the olden times, had sacrificed their children
to Moloch.

"In order to put an end to these abominations, Josiah polluted
it with human bones and other corruptions. 2 Kings 23:10, 13,
14."--_Hastings's "Dictionary of the Bible."_