The Valley of the Son of Hinnom appears in the biblical record as the location where the people of Judah constructed high places of Baal and caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire to Molech. This act is presented as an abomination that God neither commanded nor conceived, one that caused Judah to sin. The practice is identified as the ancient pagan custom of child sacrifice, offered to secure blessings such as fertile fields or victory in battle. God declares that because of this transgression Jerusalem would be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and pestilence. The same pattern of child sacrifice is shown to render any society ripe for destruction, as indicated in the warnings given to Abraham concerning the Amorites and in the statutes recorded in Leviticus that link such defilement to expulsion from the land. In the material the Valley of the Son of Hinnom therefore functions as the concrete historical illustration of the principle that the deliberate taking of children's lives, whether ancient or modern, flows from the rejection of God's authority and invites His judgment upon the entire nation.

The word "hell" in Jesus' warning about a fire that will not be quenched (Mark 9:43) is translated from the Greek Gehenna, which means the Valley of Hinnom. This was a valley on the south side of Jerusalem where refuse was continually burned. Jesus used it as a type of the place where the wicked will receive their final punishment. The unquenchable fire there does not burn forever. God likewise warned through Jeremiah that He would kindle an unquenchable fire in Jerusalem's gates, yet Jerusalem is not still burning. An unquenchable fire burns until everything flammable is consumed, and then it goes out. This is what happened in the Valley of Hinnom: once the residents stopped throwing their garbage there, the fire burned out. The fire into which the wicked will be thrown is the Lake of Fire, where they die the second death and are completely destroyed, leaving only ashes. Jesus' use of the valley therefore points to total destruction, not eternal torment.