The Language of Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth

When Jesus says, Ghehana, is he thinking of an afterlife place of punishment? Or is Jesus using the rhetoric of his tradition to motivate change in the people that he's talking to? So it's possible that people hearing this would have also thought of a metaphysical space. But what I can tell from looking at the texts today is that they're using this language to try to persuade audiences to behave in particular ways.