Sheol - A Hole or The Whole

“Welcome to hell on earth.”  

That was the pitiless reception given to inmates unlucky enough to have survived the treacherous trip to Devil’s Island, a tropical paradise turned torturous prison off the coast of French Guiana. 

In one hundred years of operation only twenty-seven of seventy thousand ever escaped its diabolical grip. Forty percent died in their first year on "the colony of the damned;" barely one in fourteen endured to see their release date. Starved and shackled, the condemned were walking skeletons brutally beaten by sadistic jailers, hopelessly trapped by shark filled waters, and ruthlessly vexed by venomous predators of the merciless jungle. 

The unimaginable horrors of Devil’s Island have been well documented. Sparking bestselling books and blockbuster movies, some of the few who escaped wrote riveting accounts of their nightmarish existence on the hellish jut. We know what it was like because they told us, and their first hand accounts were confirmed by the testimony of many others.  

A hell on earth indeed - a fearful place and a place to fear.       

Brave King David feared hell. “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow,” he lamented. “Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me,” the relieved psalmist rejoiced. “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee (Psalm 116:3-7).”  

Did David fear an inferno, a terrifying torture chamber, a Devil's Island? Was he rescued from going to the traditionalist hell? No, not hardly - the hell David feared from which the Lord delivered him was Sheol, the abode of the unconscious dead. 

“For thou hast delivered my soul from death,” David continued, “mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:8, 9). 

David feared dying. God let him live. “O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave (Sheol): thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit” (Psalm 30:3).

Death is something to fear. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Christ) also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:14, 15).  

Here’s a dilemma for defenders of endless torment. If the hell of which David spoke was a Devil's Island, the Hades of Dante’s Inferno, or the flames of the Rich Man’s torment, that would mean "the sweet Psalmist of Israel" and "man after God’s own heart" felt himself in danger of going to such a hell. If it was some kind of “paradise” side of hell, the hospitable “Abraham’s Bosom," as some theologs fancifully suggest, why would David fear its “pains” and cry out for deliverance from it? 

Neither seems plausible - in danger of the one kind of hell or fearing the other. But if it were fear of death - death itself - then there is no dilemma.   

It was the “sorrows of death" and "pains of hell” (Sheol) that shook David. Sheol is found 65 times in the Hebrew Bible, translated hell 31 times, grave 31 times, and pit 3 times in the King James Version of the Old Testament. 

What exactly is Sheol? Do the scriptures, like escapees of Devil’s Island, describe it as a torturous prison? Let’s find out.

Sheol is generic for grave - a grave or the grave. It is either a hole, or the whole - a hole of a grave, or the whole of the grave - a grave or the gravedom. 

When the context speaks of a specific, literal, individual hole in the ground used to bury a dead body, Sheol is translated grave. When the context speaks of a figurative, general, and plural whole of all of the dead, Sheol is translated hell.  

Hell is the metaphorical kingdom of the grave, the common destiny and universal abode of all the dead. It is perfectly consistent - a literal hole, or a figurative whole. 

In each case it is a grave or the grave(dom). In either case it is speaking of death. In every case someone died, was dying, or would die.   

The three times Sheol is translated pit it is also speaking of death. When Korah and his followers “went down alive into the pit,” Sheol was that “pit” (recorded twice) in which “the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up." 

The preacher said this was proof of their kind of hell, but failed to disclose that “there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed” them and “they perished” (Numbers 16:30-35). 

The other “pit” was a grave of more than one in which “they shall go down to the bars of the pit (Sheol), when our rest together is in the dust” (Job 17:16). 

In these three Sheol is neither an individual hole of a grave, nor the figurative whole of the grave, but a pit that served as a grave. 

Strong’s Concordance defines Sheol as the “underworld (place to which people descend at death).” “Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death” (Proverbs 7:27) “But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of Sheol” (Proverbs 9:18). 

The depths of Sheol are the chambers of death - where the dead are. 

Sheol, though translated three ways, is still only one word, and consistently means the abode of the dead, whether a literal hole of an individual grave, figurative whole of the kingdom of the grave, or a pit that served as a grave. 

So, how is it that a word speaking of death has come to signify torment? How have the chambers of death been transformed into the torture chamber of the damned? It is very puzzling. 

A hole in the ground is vastly different than the traditional conception of hell, yet the orthodox say the same word that means the one also means the other. A place to bury a dead body is poles apart from a place to torment an immortal soul, yet champions of the latter say Sheol also expresses the former. But it doesn't make sense that this one word could mean both. But it makes plain and perfect sense that this one word would always mean the abode of the dead, whether grave or hell, literal or figurative, the hole or the whole.

Is it possible that Sheol is the traditional hell? If so, don't you suppose it would be easy enough to tell by how the word is used? There was no confusion as to the evident terrors of the “hell on earth” of Devil’s Island. Those who lived it adequately described it. If Sheol is such a hell under the earth, shouldn’t it equally be evident from the Biblical witnesses? 

Surely we would find at least several dozen of the sixty-five occurrences of Sheol to vividly describe a blazing torture chamber of the traditional hell. If not, why not?

And I'm not advocating a different word choice for hell. It’s extremely enlightening that Sheol is translated hell thirty-one times because it shows clearly what it is and what it's not.  

Is there fire? 

Of all the Sheol texts, only two include any mention of fire, and in both cases it is a fire that consumes. As considered above, the descending of Korah’s gang in the “pit” (Sheol) is the first, in which the “fire… consumed” and “they perished” (Numbers 16:30-35). The second: “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell (Sheol).” 

Ah, could this be the traditional hell? Nope. This kindled fire “shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains” (Deuteronomy 32:22, Cf. 2 Peter 3:10). 

Ah, but the objects of this anger “shall be burnt.” Yes, but they are "burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction” (32:24). This is their “latter end” (32:29). Consumed, perished, devoured, destruction, and end are not words anyone would use to depict endless agony, but are the very words used throughout Scripture to describe the final fate of the wicked.  

The first fire consumed it's prey when the earth opened its mouth, and the other fire will consume the earth. Is it not a most peculiar thing that Sheol is presumed to be an eternal fiery prison and yet only two out of the 65 times it’s used say anything at all about fire, and then it’s very clearly a consuming fire? 

And, mind you, that is only one out of the 31 times it is translated “hell” and that lone instance uses the language of a miserable end, not endless misery. Remarkable! 

Surely every honest inquirer would have to admit this is extremely odd if Sheol is truly an eternal Devil's Island. 

Is there torment? 

No, Sheol never expresses or implies any infliction of torment. As seen above, the sorrows and pains of hell is the cry of David dreading dying. If Sheol is equivalent to the traditional hell the context of its usage should clearly describe such a horrible place. It doesn't. And it doesn't because it isn't.  

So, what does Sheol describe? Death; death itself, and its physical receptacle usually dug about six feet deep (“my bed in the darkness”- Job 17:13), or the figurative residence of all the dead (“the dead are there”- Proverbs 9:18). 

Sheol is paralleled with "death" 16 times total (6 times with grave, 10 with hell). It is contrasted to "life" at least eight times. It is literally down (14 times down into the grave) or figuratively down (8 times down into hell). 

Not once associated with torment, Sheol, when translated "hell" is attached to corruption twice (Psalm 16:10; Jonah 2:1, 6) and destruction four times (Deuteronomy 32:22-24; Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11, 27:20). “The wicked shall be turned into hell (Sheol)” is contrasted with “the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever” (Psalm 9:17, 18), indicating that to be “turned into hell” means to “perish for ever.”  

And when Sheol “enlarged herself” it was not because the middle gulf between paradise and torments collapsed (some promote such a fanciful idea), but because many died from famine and drought: "their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself… and their multitude… shall descend into it" (Isaiah 5:13, 14).

Something else obvious about Sheol is that it was the common destiny of all, righteous or not. “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol? Selah” (Psalm 89:48). Jacob lamented “I will go down into Sheol unto my son (Joseph) mourning” (Genesis 37:35). It was in the belly of the whale that Jonah cried “out of the belly of hell (Sheol)” (Jonah 2:2). 

Though David fearfully anticipated going there (Psalm 18:5; 116:3), he was sure he wouldn’t be left there (Psalm 16:10), and knew that even if he made his bed there, God would still be there (Psalm 139:7, 8). There, there. This proves Sheol is not exclusively an enclosure for the incorrigible, a Devil's Island for the evil, but rather the universal human terminal.

Earlier I very purposely called Sheol "the abode of the unconscious dead." There is no conscious torment. There is no consciousness. In the Old Testament death is the dark, silent land of forgetfulness where thoughts perish, there is no remembrance, and the dead know nothing:   

Psalm 6:5: For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave (Sheol) who shall give thee thanks? 

Psalm 49:17-19: For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul… He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

Psalm 88:10-12: Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 

Psalm 115:17: The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.

Psalm 146:4: His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6: For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:10: Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. 

Isaiah 38:18, 19: For the grave (Sheol) cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee.

Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 32 are two passages that defenders of endless torment say show that Sheol is indeed a place of conscious souls, if not conscious torment. 

Isaiah 14 is unique in that Sheol is translated both grave and hell in the same account: “Hell (Sheol) from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee… Thy pomp is brought down to the grave (Sheol)… thou shalt be brought down to hell (Sheol), to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:9-15). Talking trees (v. 8) and kings raised from their thrones (v. 9) unmistakably identify this story as non-literal as it goes back and forth from a grave to the gravedom. 

Besides, weakness (“art thou also become weak as we?”- vs. 10) and worms (“the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee”- vs.11) are the consequences. 

Weakness and worms, not torture and torment.  

In Ezekiel 32 “the strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell (Sheol)”, but this is also clearly metaphorical as the slain “are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads” (Ezekiel 32:21-27). 

To have “borne their shame” and have “their iniquities... be upon their bones” was their punishment, not ongoing agony. A bed for bones and a sword for a pillow is a picture of death, not a description of torture. Hell is Death’s Empire, not Devil’s Island.

Hell in the New Testament doesn’t contradict Sheol in the Old. Hades, the Greek equivalent of Sheol, ten times is translated hell, the universal gravedom, and once a literal grave (1 Corinthians 15:55). Two are in Acts where Peter quotes David from Psalm 16:10 and explains “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, neither his flesh did see corruption” (Acts 2:27. 31). 

All four times hell is found in Revelation it is Hades, and revealingly it is always in tandem with “death.” Christ has “the keys of Hades and of death” (1:18); the rider on a pale horse “was death, and Hades followed with him” (6:8); death and Hades deliver up its dead, and then “death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:13, 14). 

Two are “Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to Hades” (Matthew 11:23; repeated in Luke 10:15). One is “Upon this rock I will build my church,” Christ said, “and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Only one includes fire in hell, when the the rich man “in Hades… lift up his eyes, being in torments (Luke 16:23).

Gehenna as hell, a transliteration of “valley of Hinnom,” is found twelve times, half of which include “fire.” Idolatrous Jews sacrificed their “children to… the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom” (2 Chronicles 33:6). “This valley afterwards became the common receptacle for all the refuse of the city. Here the dead bodies of animals and of criminals, and all kinds of filth, were cast and consumed by fire kept always burning.”  ( “Gehenna,” Easton’s Bible Dictionary, retrieved 02/27/2020, eastonsbibledictionary.org/1453-Gehenna)

This poignant picture of an unquenchable, consuming fire is consistent with the context each time it is used. 

Six of the twelve are of when Christ said “it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Gehenna” (Matthew 5:29, 30; 18:9), in contrast to entering “into life” (Mark 9:43, 45, 47). 

Two are from Christ’s warning about being cast into hell: “fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:5). 

Then there is “Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of Gehenna fire” (Matthew 5:22). And James says “the tongue... is set on fire of Gehenna” (3:6). 

And finally two are from rebukes to scribes and Pharisees who “make one proselyte... twofold more the child of Gehenna;” Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Gehenna?” (Matthew 23:15, 33).   

Tartaroo (“cast into Tartarus”), used once, depicts hell as a dark holding cell, not a fiery torture chamber: “God spared not the angels that sinned, but Tartaroo (cast them down to Tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).

So, hell in the New Testament, consistent with Sheol as hell in the Old, is coupled with death, contrasted to life, is a place where the flesh can see corruption and God can destroy both soul and body in an unquenchable fire that consumes. 

Of all fifty-four times hell is in the Bible, isn’t it striking that only one speaks of torment in fire (Luke 16:23), and that one time is in a satirical parable about a buried body that says nothing about duration. 

Hades, Gehenna, and Tartaroo do not picture a place different from Sheol. 

So there you have it, the meaning of Sheol as consistently presented in Scripture- no tropical paradise, but neither is it an eternal torturous prison. It's a grave or the grave, a hole or the whole. 

It's not the Devil's Island of the traditional hell.