From Sheol to hell

[TonyChanYT]

The word "Sheol" occurs 64 times in the OT. It is always singular.

It is the realm of the dead, Proverbs 7:

27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

Sheol is singular; chambers are plural.

Genesis 44:

29 If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.

It is a place of the dead.

It is below the ground, Numbers 16:

30 But if Yahweh make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain to them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.

At least symbolically, it is below ground.

There is a fire at some deep level, Deuteronomy 32:

22 For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

God can bring you down and up, 1 Samuel 2:

6 "Yahweh kills, and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.

Psalms 30 hints about the resurrection:

3 Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Souls are kept in Sheol.

More hints in Psalms 49:

15 God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.

Psalms 86:

13 For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

There are different levels in Sheol.

Jesus borrows the image of worms in the last verse of Isaiah 66:

24 “As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.

Hosea 13 alludes to the good news:

14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol.
I will redeem them from death!
Death, where are your plagues?
Sheol, where is your destruction?

The OT does not clearly mention the concept of eternal conscious fiery torments for the wicket. It does hint at the good news of the resurrection of the dead.

In the NT, Jesus continues this progressive revelation of Sheol and develops the concept of hell, NIV Mark 9:

47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

See also

• Sheol = Hades?
• Does the Bible teach conscious torment over an infinite period of time?.