What Sheol is in the Bible
Many Bibles translate the Hebrew word Sheol in different ways: “grave,” “hell,” “abyss,” “the tomb.” That is why it is easy to get confused. We leave the word as it is, Sheol, and here we explain what it means according to the Bible itself.
The place of the dead
In the Old Testament, Sheol is the place of the dead, the grave, where everyone goes down at death. When Jacob believes that his son Joseph has died, he says: “I will go down to my son mourning, to Sheol” (Genesis 37:35). Jacob was a man of faith; for him Sheol was not a punishment, but the destination of every human being who dies.
That is why Sheol is described as a place where the activity of this life ends: “there is no work or reckoning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
God is there too
Sheol is not beyond the reach of God: “If I go up to the heavens, there you are; and if I make my bed in Sheol, look, you are there” (Psalm 139:8).
Jonah, from the bottom of the sea, prays like someone who is already in the place of the dead: “from the belly of Sheol I cried for help, and you heard my voice” (Jonah 2:2).
The hope: God rescues from Sheol
The Old Testament already looks beyond death. David says: “you will not abandon my soul to Sheol; you will not let your faithful one see the pit” (Psalm 16:10). And through Hosea God promises: “From the hand of Sheol I will ransom them; from death I will redeem them” (Hosea 13:14).
The New Testament shows how that hope is fulfilled. Peter quotes Psalm 16 and says that David was speaking of the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:27-31). Paul takes the words of Hosea to celebrate the victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:55).
Is it the same as hell?
Not exactly. In the Greek of the New Testament, the word that corresponds to Sheol is Hades, the place of the dead. But Jesus also speaks of Gehenna, the place of the final judgment (Matthew 10:28). Translating all these words as “hell” mixes things that the Bible distinguishes; that is why each one keeps its name and its explanation here.
What the Bible does make clear is that death does not have the last word for whoever trusts in God. To keep reading, see how the word is used in all the places where it appears.