I agree that annihilation can be easily interpreted in the text and I tend to lean that way but because of the ambiguity of the subject I am content with leaving it not fully knowing and take the warning as is that I don't want to go there.
The reference to Gehenna with the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched may not be speaking about eternal torment upon an individual but rather more of a place of eternal death that when you pass through you are forever gone, and then another behind you, and another behind them, a constant line that requires always stoked fires and results in never ending decay. to the individual it is final but to the place it never turns off. I get how this is tempting to fit it with annihilation and it fits a garbage dump sort of place like the origins of Gehenna where things go and don't come out but eventually rot and disappear, yet because it is constantly fueled with new things the fire and the worm keep on going.
The text uses "their worm doesn't die..." Which is my only pause. It's the same in Hebrew, a possessive is used giving the worm a very personal feel like one worm is assigned to one person and it never dies and keeps on gnawing because perhaps the flesh also keeps on going. We like annihilation because it's more comforting to know something is put out of their misery but then we read they have assigned worms that never die which begs the question does their host never die too? Regrettably although annihilation fits a "eternal death" description we can't deny that never ending decay upon an individual also fits like a death that never ends.
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