What is Sheol?

Question 10119.

Sheol and Hades are the Old and New Testament words for the realm of the dead, and they cover the same ground. Sheol is the Hebrew term, used sixty-five times, and the Greek translators of the Old Testament almost always rendered it with Hades. So when we ask what Sheol is, we are asking about a single biblical idea expressed in two languages.

The word gives translators real difficulty. Older English Bibles rendered it grave, hell and pit almost at random, which has confused generations of readers. The ESV usually leaves it untranslated, and I think that is the right decision, because Sheol is not quite any of those English words.

The Hebrew word and its range

Sheol is of uncertain derivation, possibly from a root meaning to ask or to enquire, though nobody is certain. What is clear is its usage. It is where the dead are, it is spoken of as below, and everyone goes there.

Jacob says he will go down to Sheol mourning for his son. Korah and his company go down alive into Sheol. Job speaks of it as a land of gloom. The Psalms plead for deliverance from it.

So Sheol and Hades in their basic sense mean the realm of the departed rather than a place of punishment. That is the first correction most readers need, because the King James rendering of hell in many of these verses has created an impression the Hebrew does not support.

Is Sheol just the grave?

Some argue that it is, and that the biblical writers meant nothing more than the hole in the ground. There is something in that, since Sheol is often paired with the pit and with dust.

But it will not carry all the uses. The grave is a place for a body, and Sheol is repeatedly spoken of as receiving the person. There is a separate ordinary Hebrew word for a burial place, and Sheol is not it. Isaiah 14 pictures the shades of dead kings stirring to greet a new arrival, which is not something graves do.

So Sheol and Hades describe the condition of the dead as persons, not simply the disposal of their remains. That distinction matters a great deal when we come to the question of consciousness after death.

Are the dead conscious in Sheol?

The Old Testament speaks from two angles and both need holding. From the standpoint of the living, the dead in Sheol are silent, they do not praise God in the assembly, and they take no part in what happens under the sun. Those are true observations about their absence from here.

But the same Scriptures show Samuel disturbed and speaking when called up in 1 Samuel 28, and Isaiah 14 shows Sheol stirred to meet the king of Babylon. Personal existence continues.

This is the material that gets pressed into service for soul sleep, and I have answered that in my answer on soul sleep. Read the poetry as poetry and the tension dissolves.

Hope reaching into Sheol

The Old Testament is not without hope here, though the light is dim. Psalm 16:10 says you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption. Psalm 49 says God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Psalm 73 says afterwards you will receive me to glory.

Hosea 13:14 asks whether God will ransom them from the power of Sheol and redeem them from death, and Paul picks that up in 1 Corinthians 15 as a taunt sung at the resurrection.

So Sheol and Hades are not the end of the story even in the Old Testament. The hope is present in seed form, and the New Testament brings it into full daylight.

Peter’s use of Psalm 16

At Pentecost Peter quotes Psalm 16 and applies it to Jesus. David died and was buried, he says, and his tomb is with us to this day. But David was a prophet, and he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

That is the pivot of the whole subject. Jesus entered the realm of the dead and was not held by it. Peter says God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

And in Revelation the risen Jesus says he has the keys of Death and Hades. Sheol and Hades are no longer a locked door with the key on the inside.

Two compartments

Luke 16 shows Hades containing both a place of torment and a place of comfort called Abraham’s side, separated by a fixed chasm. That is the fullest picture the Bible gives us of the realm of the dead before the cross.

Most dispensational writers understand the comforted side to have been emptied at the ascension, when Jesus led captivity captive, so that believers now go directly to be with him. I have written on Abraham’s bosom and on the intermediate state.

On that reading, Sheol and Hades today hold only the unsaved dead, awaiting the second resurrection. The righteous dead are elsewhere, and their location has a name and a face.

Sheol and Hades are not the lake of fire

This distinction clears up an enormous amount of confusion. Revelation 20 shows Death and Hades giving up the dead who were in them, and then Death and Hades are themselves thrown into the lake of fire.

You cannot throw hell into hell. What John describes is the emptying and abolition of the intermediate holding state, followed by the final judgement and the final destination. Sheol and Hades are the corridor; the lake of fire is the room.

Careless preaching that uses hell as a single word for everything after death makes Revelation 20 unintelligible, and it is worth taking the trouble to keep the vocabulary straight.

Why the Old Testament says so little

Readers often notice that the Old Testament is reticent about the afterlife compared with the New. That is true, and there is a reason for it.

Revelation is progressive. God unveiled his purposes in stages, and the full light on life beyond death waited for the one who would conquer it. Paul says that Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Before that event the picture was genuinely dim, and the Old Testament writers were not pretending otherwise.

So the shadowy quality of Sheol in the Hebrew Scriptures is not a defect in their theology. It is where they stood in the story.

It also explains why the Old Testament saints held on so firmly to God himself rather than to a detailed map of the hereafter. Whom have I in heaven but you, says the psalmist, and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. He did not know how the details would work out. He knew who would be there, and for him that settled it. I find that a healthy corrective to our own appetite for information about Sheol and Hades and everything else beyond the veil.

What this means for us

Death remains an enemy, and the Bible never asks us to pretend otherwise. But it is a defeated enemy, and the one who holds the keys is the one who loves us.

For the believer, the realm of the dead is not the destination. To depart is to be with Christ. For the unbeliever, Scripture is sober and I will not soften it: Hades now, judgement afterwards.

And for all of us, the resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee. He went in and came out, and he did not leave the door as he found it.

One last thought about how we speak of Sheol and Hades at funerals. Precision here is a pastoral kindness rather than a pedantic hobby. When we blur the vocabulary we either frighten people about the destiny of a believer or reassure them about the destiny of someone who never trusted Christ, and both are failures of love. Getting Sheol and Hades right lets us say exactly what Scripture says, no more and no less, on the day when families remember every word.

So, now what?

If your Bible reading has been tripped up by the word hell in older translations of the Psalms, look up the Hebrew next time. A good deal of unnecessary distress has come from that single translation choice.

If you are afraid of dying, put your attention on Revelation 1:18 this week. He is the living one, he died, he is alive for evermore, and he holds the keys.

And if you have never faced the question of what lies on the other side, notice that Scripture treats it as the most ordinary thing in the world to think about. Why would you not?

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

Psalm 16:10, ESV