What does it mean, "the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched?"

---

Mark 9:44-48 “where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 46 where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’ 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— 48 where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’” Here Jesus uses the Greek term “gehenna” and refers to the “valley of Hinnom;” this was the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem that burnt continually and to the Jew, it was symbolic of the end-time hell fire with which Satan and his angels would be punished. The abovementioned was used by Jesus and it is probably a quotation of the following text in Isaiah: Is. 66:24 “And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” The language used here centres around the historical judgment pronounced by God over the Assyrian army during the reign of Hezekiah. See Isaiah 37:21-36 and 2 Kings 18:17-19:36. This is a type of the greater victory of God over His opponents at the end of time, with the historical image of the corpses that are not buried but are consumed by the worms. Here we again find no support for eternal punishment. The process has earlier historical associations when corpses were consumed by the rotting process, and the eternal or unquenchable fire would remain burning until everything that could burn, had burnt up.