Ver. 8. And the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom— This valley, which lay to the east of Jerusalem, was so pleasant, and covered with so many groves, that the cruel worshippers of Moloch thought proper to place there the idol of their god, to whom they sacrificed their children. 2 Kings 23:10. Jeremiah 7:32. & al. It is thought to have belonged formerly to the family of some great personage, named Hinnom, and that from the compound word Gehinnom, the valley of Hinnom, is derived the word Gehenne, which is taken in Scripture for hell. Matthew 18:9; Matthew 23:33. When the pious Josiah had taken away the idol of Moloch, this valley continued as a place of execration, into which they threw all the filth of Jerusalem, dung, excrements, carcases, and whatever else is cast off to the lay-stalls; and where, according to the Jewish doctors, they kept continual fires, whether to consume the bones and other combustibles thrown there, or to prevent infection. After this, it is not surprising to find this abominable valley considered as a kind of picture of the place of punishments prepared by divine justice for the wicked in the life to come. The Jebusite, so called from one of the sons of Canaan, Genesis 10:16 became the capital of his descendants, who possessed the fortress called Sion, till the time of David. Jebus, properly speaking, was in the territory of Benjamin, and Sion, its citadel, in that of Judah. It was afterwards called Jerusalem. See on chap. Joshua 10:13.
And the border went up to the top of the mountain— That is, of Moriah, that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward; so that this mountain had on the east the valley of Hinnom, and on the south that of the Rephaim, or giants, which extended as far as Bethlehem, according to Josephus, Antiq. lib. 7: cap. 4. Thus the line, which separated the two tribes, left to that of Benjamin the greatest part of Jerusalem, on which the temple was afterwards built; and the smallest part to the tribe of Judah.