In the King James Version of the Bible there are three differents words  translated into the word "hell".  These Greek words have totally different  meanings.  The words are Hades, Tartaros, and Gehenna.      In bibical usage, the Greek word Hades is used only 11 times in the  New Testament, and is roughly the equivalent to the Old Testament word Sheol... meaning the grave or pit (compare Acts 2:27 with Psalms 16:10).  Hades may be  likened to a hole in the ground. (In the Bible it has nothing to do with fire!)      Most modern bibical translators admit that the use in the English word hell to translate Hades and Sheol are an unfortunate and misleading practice.        Why?  Because when seeing the word "hell" many readers impute to it the  traditional connotation of an ever-burning inferno, when this was never  remotely intended in the Greek language or in Old English!      In its true bibical usage Hades does indeed refer to the state or abode of  the dead, but not in the sense of spirits walking around in some sort of  "shadowy realm."  Hades is simply the abode we call the grave.  All dead go to  this hell.      The second "hell" of the Bible, Tartaros, is mentioned only once in  scripture, 2 Pet.2:4; "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast  them down to hell (TARTAROS), and delivered them into chains of darkness to be  reserved unto judgment..."      Following their rebellion to unseat God from His throne (Isa.14:12-14;  Rev.12:4), the archangel Lucifer (now Satan) and a third of the created angels  (now demons) were ejected from heaven (Luke 10:18).  They were cast down to  Tartaros, a place or condition of restraint that God has imposed on the  mutinous angels as they await ultimate judgment (Jude 6; 1 Cor.6:3).      Tartaros, then, is a "hell" that applies only to evil, rebellious angels or demons (It is interesting that the ancient Greeks used this word to describe  the place in which Zeus confined the rebellious Titans).  Nowhere in the Bible  is there any mention of men being put into this particular "hell".      The the third word that is translated as "hell" in the Bible is Gehenna. It comes from the Hebrew GAI HINNOM, meaning "valley of Hinniom."  Hinnom is a  deep, narrow ravine located to the south and southwest of Jerusalem.      In Old Testament times it was a place of abominable pagan rites, including  infant sacrifice (It was there that the apostate kings Ahaz and Manasseh made  their children "pass through the fire" to the god Molech.  The rites were  specifically celebrated in Tophet, the "place of abhorrence," one of the chief  groves in the valley).      King Josiah of ancient Judah finally put an end to these abominations.  He  defiled the valley, rendering it ceremonially unclean (2 Kings 23:10).  Later  the valley became the cesspool and city dump of Jerusalem; a repository for  sewage, refuse and animal carcasses.  The bodies of dispised criminals were  also burned there along with the rubbish.  Fires burned continuously, feeding  by a constant supply of garbage and refuse.      Aceldama, the "field of blood", purchased with the money Judas received for the betrayal of Christ (Matt.27:8) was also in part of the valley of Hinnom.      So what does this valley called Gehenna have to do with hell?        In Rev.19:20: the Satan inspired political dictator and a miracle-working  religious figure, the False Prophet, working with him will resist the  re-establishment of the government of God by Jesus Christ at His Second Coming. Their fate is revealed by the apostle John: "And the beast was taken, and with  him the false prophet...  These both were cast alive into a lake of fire  burning with brimstone."          Where will this temporary lake of fire (this "hell") be?      The prophet Isaiah wrote of this lake of fire prepared for the Beast: "For  Tophet (in the valley of Hinnom) is ordained of old, yea for the king it is  prepared, he hath made it deep and large, the pile thereof is fire and wood,  the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it" (Isa.30:33).      One thousand years later, Satan himself will be cast into this rekindled  fiery lake where the Beast and False Prophet were cast! (Rev.20:10).      But what of the wicked who have died over the millennia?  Does the Bible  say that they are now suffering fiery punishment for their sins in a lake of  fire?      In the sequence of Rev.20 the incorrigibly wicked are resurrected to be  thrown into the lake of fire after Satan is cast there! (Rev.20:15). What will  become of these wicked?  Will they writhe in flames for eternity?        The wicked will be burned up from the intense heat of the coming Gehenna  fire on the earth.  They wil be consumed, annihilated, destroyed!  This  punishment will be everlasting (permanent and final).  The Bible calls it the  "second death" (Rev.20:14; 21:8), from which there is no possibility of a  further resurrection.      The Bible does teach eternal punishment, but not eternal punishing.                                 The prophet Malachi provides a graphic description. "For, behold, the day  cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do  wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up..." (4:1).  To the righteous, God says that the wicked shall be "ashes under the  soles of your feet..."(Mal.4:3).      Gehenna was a place of destruction and death, not a place of living  torture!  Jesus was talking to Jews who understood all about this Gehenna or  valley of Hinnom.  Utter destruction by fire was complete.  Nothing was left,  but ashes!       Every text in the Bible translated from this Greek word Gehenna means  complete destruction, not living torture (not eternal life in torment)!  The  Bible says, in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death", not eternal life in  torture.  The punishment revealed in the Bible is Death... the cessation of  life.