HELKATH-HAZZURIM (hel'kath-haz'zu rim), eb. 172,7, khel-khath' hats-tsoo-reent', smoothness of the rocks; others, field of the sharp edg_es), a plot of ground near the pool of Gibeon (2 Sam. it:16). The name was given from the bloody duel fought there (Van de Velde, Alenzoir, p. 32o).
HELL (bel), (Heb. sheh-ole', the unseen state.) The term used in Old English to designate the world of the dead generally, with all the sad and painful associations of the dark region into which the living disappear. In modern English it has the specific sense of the place and condition of penalty destined for the finally impenitent among the dead. With this it expresses also the abode of evil spirits.
1. Scripture Terms. Much that belongs to this subject has already been considered under the head Hades. It is there shown that hell is represented by the word Sheol in the Old and by dans (Hades) in the New Testament. But as both these words mean also the grave or the condition of the dead, hell, as the place of final punishment for sinners, is more distinctively indi cated by the term Gehenna (-yecvva), which is the word translated 'hell' in Matt. v :22, 29, 30; x:28; xviii :9; xxiii :15, 33; Mark ix :43, 45, 47; Luke xii :5 ; James iii :6. It is also distinctively indicated by such phrases as 'the place of torment' (Luke xvi :28 ; 'everlasting fire' (Matt. xxv :40; 'the hell of fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched' (Mark ix :44). The dreadful nature of the abode of the wicked is implied in various figurative expressions, such as 'outer darkness, 'I am tormented in this flame,' 'furnace of fire,"unquenehable fire,"where the worm dieth not,"the blackness of darkness,"tor ment in fire and brimstone,"the ascending smoke of their torment,"the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone' ( Matt. viii :12; xiii :42 ; xxii :13 ; xxv : 3o; Luke xvi :24; comp. Matt xxv :41 ; Mark ix: 43-48; Jude 13 ; comp. Rev. xiv :io, 11 •, xix :2o; xx34; xxi :8). The figure by which hell is represented as burning with fire and brimstone is probably derived from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as that which describes the smoke as ascending from it (comp. Rev. xiv :to, 1, with Gen. xix :24, 28). To this coincidence
of description Peter also most probably alludes in 2 Pet. ii:6.
2. FiguratiVe Allusions. The names which in many of the other instances are given to the punishments of hell, arc doubtless in part figura tive, and many of the terms which were commonly applied to the subject by the Jews are retained in the New Testament. The images, it will be seen, are generally taken from death, capital punish ments, tortures, prisons, etc. And it is the obvious design of the sacred writers in using such figures, to awaken the idea of something terrible and fearful. They mean to teach that the punishments beyond the grave will excite the same feelings of distress as are produced on earth by the objects employed to represent them. We are so little ac quainted with the state in which we shall be here after, and with the nature of our future body, that no strictly literal representation of such punish ments could be made intelligible to us. Many of the Jews, indeed, and many of the Christian fathers, took the terms employed in Scripture in an entirely literal sense, and supposed there would be actual fire, etc., in hell. But from the words of Christ and his apostles nothing more can with certainty be inferred than that they meant to denote great and unending miseries.
3. Punishments of Sin. The punishments of sin may be divided into two classes: (1) Nat ural punishments, or such as necessarily fol low a life of servitude to sin. (2) Posthve pun ishments, or such as God shall see fit, by his sov ereign will, to inflict.
(1) Natural. Among the natural punishments we may rank the privation of eternal happiness (Nlatt. vii :21, 23 ; xxii :13 ; xxv :41 ; comp. 2 Thess. i :g) ; the painful sensations which are the natural consequence of committing sin, and of an impenitent heart; the propensities to sin, the evil passions and desires which in this world fill the human heart, and which are doubtless carried into the world to come. The company of fellow sinners and of evil spirits, as inevitably resulting from the other conditions, may be accounted among the natural punishments, and must prove not the least grievous of them.