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Gefle

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

chief town of the Gulf Swedish län of Gefleborg; on the of . Bothnia, 71 miles N. by W. of Upsala third The port for Dalecarlia, Gefle ranks Sweden, among the commercial towns of burg. Among the noteworthy buildings century) are the castle (16th and 18th has been and the town hall. Gefle, which fire rebuilt since its destruction by in and 1869, has a school of navigation, manufacture carries on shipbuilding, the of sail-cloth, cotton, and tobacco, and fisheries. It carries on an active trade, timber, the principal exports being iron, and tar. Pop. about 32,000. GEHENNA (ge-hen'ä) (Hebrew Ge Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom), in Scriptural geography a valley anciently to a man, an, Hinnom, of whom belonging nothing is known (Josh. xviii: 16), and inherited by his son or sons, whence it is called the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (Josh. xv: 8), or of the children of Hinnom (II Kings xxiii: 10). In Joshua it is described as S. the Jebusite capital, which afterward be came Jerusalem (xviii: 16). Here, during the later period of the Jewish kings, men made their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech or Moloch, the II Chron. xxxiii: 6), or actually burnt them in the fire (II Chron. xxviii: 3). Tophet was in it (II Kings xxiii: 10), and a prophetic passage mentions the size and fierceness of the fires there burning for the "King" [Molech means king] (Isaiah xxx: 33). Josiah put an end to these cruel practices, and defiled the It was place (II Kings xxiii: 10). doomed afterward to become an overcrowded cemetery (Jer. vii: 32). When the Jews outgrew all love of human sacrifice, they regarded the place with horror, the rabbis deeming it the gate of hell. The valley, which the Arabs call Gehennam, is thoroughly known. It with rugged limeis narrow and deep, the stone cliffs excavated for tombs, and all. mountain sides overtopping For the Gehenna of Scripture, see HELL.

What Has Changed in the Last Century

The name is the first thing to go: Collier's "Gefle" of 1921 is now spelled Gävle, the modernised Swedish form, and it heads Gävleborg County rather than "Gefleborg". The town of "about 32,000" has grown to roughly 77,000 in the city and about 100,000 in the wider municipality. Iron, timber and tar have given way to a port handling containers and forest products, and the city is better known internationally for Gevalia coffee and for the giant straw Christmas goat erected each year since 1966, which arsonists have burned down dozens of times. The 16th-century castle and the grid laid out after the great fire of 1869 both survive, so the physical description still fits.

Written for this edition, 2026.