CHAPTER SIX
The Sixty-Five Sheol Passage
The Eleven Hades Passages
Outline of chapter six:
THE SIXTY-FIVE TIMES SHEOL IS USED
AS TRANSLATED IN THE KING JAMES VERSION
(1) DOWN INTO A PIT IN THE EARTH (In 3 passages)
(2) THE NATIONS IN SHEOL (In 18 passages)
(3) INDIVIDUALS IN SHEOL (In 18 passages)
(4) BOTH THE GOOD AND BAD IN THE GRAVE TOGETHER in 9 passages
(5) BOTH THE GOOD AND BAD IN HELL (In 17 passages)
HADES IS USED ELEVEN TIMES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
THE WAY SHEOL IS TRANSLATED
IN THE KING JAME VERSION
The only word that is translated Hell in the Old Testament is translated Hell only 31 of the 65 times it is used in the King James Version, and only 19 of the 65 times it is used in the New King James Version. In most cases, the King James translators put the wicked in Hell, and the just in the grave even though most Protestants do not agree with the King James Version, and believe the just go directly to Heaven at death, not to sheol. The Hebrew Old Testament has them all in one place, the grave (sheol). Almost all other translations have removed Hell from the Old Testament (American Standard Version, New American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version and most others), but as long as the King James and New King James Versions are used, those who are new in Christ, and those who still need milk and not solid food will be misled by them.
Sheol is not used with eternal in any of the sixty-five times it is used in the Old Testament, and there is no eternal torment in any of them.
WHEN SHEOL IS TRANSLATED GRAVE THERE ARE:
Sheol is not represented as a place of eternal torment in fire in any of the sixty-five passages, but today Hell always means eternal torment in fire; all that believe the King James Version believe a lie in thirty-one passages.
Everlasting or eternal is not in any of the sixty-five passages.
In the King James Version one Hebrew word is translated into three words that have completely different meaning. The thirty-four times it is translated grave and pit are a hole in the ground for the dead, but according to today’s theology the thirty-one times it is translated Hell is not a place on this earth; they are a place where no one is dead or will ever be dead, this thirty-one are a place or eternal life, but the other thirty-four are not.
That the translators of the King James Version translated sheol into Hell less than half the time shows they found it not to fit with their theology. They made one place "sheol" be three different places, grave, pit, and Hell. They did not, and most today who believes in Hell do not believe the grave and Hell to be the same place. How did the translators know when the same word was one place (grave), or when it was another place (Hell)? Where did that get the authority to say God used the same Hebrew word with two entirely different meaning even when it is in the same passage, sheol was made to be two completely different places. To translate the same word, sometimes in the same passage, both grave–a common noun, and Hell–a proper noun is like translating the same word into white thirty-one times and black thirty-one times. Is it that they could not find a way to put their view, the Protestant view, into the Bible and had to settle for the best they could, even if it was not what they believed, even if it did not always put all the saved in Heaven immediately after death, or did not put all the lost immediately in Hell? There is nothing in the Hebrew that would make it mean one place (grave) in one passage, and another completely different place (Hell) in another; they picked the passages where they thought they could put their Theology in the Bible and get away with it.
THE THIRTY-ONE "GRAVE" TRANSLATIONS
It is hid from those who use the King James Version that "grave" in these thirty-one passages is the same word that is translated "Hell" in thirty-one passages and “pit” in three passages. Did the translators do this deliberately? The definition of death by today's theology is that death is only separation of an immortal soul from God. If that were right, then the separated soul could not be in sheol (the grave), for if it were then it could not be in Hell where they believe it to be.
WHERE ARE THE DEAD?
According to the Old Testament
Where the dead are depends on which translation you use.
I read the Bible for many years without seeing this so I can understand how many read it and cannot see through their theology, and cannot see what God has so clearly said, that not now or at the judgment we can have no excuse for not understanding and believing His word. No excuse for teaching something in His name, which is in opposition to what God did say.
THE THIRTY-ONE "HELL" TRANSLATIONS
In the Hebrew, sheol is a common noun as is grave in English (sheol a common noun in Hebrew = grave a common noun in English). How can a common noun be translated into a proper noun (sheol a common noun in Hebrew = Hell a proper noun in English)? It is against all rules of translation to change a common noun into a proper noun. The King James Version left it a common noun thirty-four times, but thirty-one times they changed it into a proper noun. The same word, which is a common noun, is translated into two common nouns, grave and pit, and one proper noun, Hell. Which one did they think it is, common or proper? How did they know when they should change this common noun to a proper noun? They put Hezekiah, a godly king in the grave (Isaiah 38:10 but put the wicked in Hell (Psalm 9:17) despite the fact that God used the same word (sheol-grave) for where both would go after their death. The New American Standard Version did not translate it, but used the Hebrew word in the English translation; however, they capitalized it as if it were a proper noun. The New International Version translates the common noun "sheol" into the common noun "grave" sixty times and into the common noun "death" five times and did not capitalized it.
In none of the sixty-five passages where sheol is used is it said to be a place of fire or torment. It is said to be a place of silence and darkness, but never fire. Sheol is never used with the word eternal or everlasting, and sheol will be destroyed (Hosea 13:14).
HOW SHEOL IS TRANSLATED ALL SIXTY-FIVE TIMES
IN THE KING JAME VERSION
(1) DOWN INTO A PIT IN THE EARTH (In 3 passages)
(1) Numbers 16:30 "But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them. And they go down quick into the PIT (sheol-Hell)." They and all that belong to them fell into the pit in the ground. It is undeniable that the "pit" is a hole in the ground that they fell into. Does anyone think this hole in the ground is Hell? The translators of the King James Version did not seem to. They went down into sheol alive, their earthly bodies alive with all their belongings fell into the hole in the ground, which was their grave. Can the earthly body go alive to a place for the soul? Can anyone take all their earthly belongings with them to Hell or Heaven? This simply says they were buried alive, and that all their belongings were buried with them, not that they took their belongings with them to Hell. Physical things, such as all their belongings and weapons of war (Ezekiel 32:26-27) are put in graves, but not in "Hell." Neither could they have taken their things to the bad side of hades that many believe in, or a subterranean chamber under the earth where some think all the dead go.
(2) Numbers 16:33 "And the earthed opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the PIT (sheol-Hell), and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation." It was their earthly bodies that went into their grave (sheol) while they were alive; they had not died unto the earth closed upon their bodies, “they perished from the midst of the assembly.” Do any that believe in Hell think they went to Hell while their bodies were alive? It was not their immortal souls that went to Hell, or to either side of a subterranean chamber under the earth; God called this hole in the ground in which they were buried alive, sheol, not Hell.
(3) Job 17:13-16 "If I wait, the GRAVE (sheol-Hell) is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness...They shall go down to the bars of the PIT (sheol-Hell), when our rest together is in the dust." The dead rest in the dust in bed in darkness, a description of being asleep in the grave, but definitely not a description of being awake in Hell or Heaven; both Korah and Job went to sheol, not to Heaven or Hell. The same word in the same context is translated both grave and pit.
(2) THE NATIONS IN SHEOL (In 18 passages)
Nations in the grave (In 4 passages)
Passages that are speaking of the destruction of nations and says nothing about the destruction individuals, nothing about where any individual will be after death.
In the King James Version,
Do some evil nations die and go to the grave, but other evil nations are tormented in an eternal Hell? Do nations of this earth go to a place of torment that most now believe to be not on this earth?
These eighteen passages have nothing to do with individuals; although what is said in these passages do not in anyway fit with today's theology of "Hell," they are often changed from speaking of nations to speaking of individuals to prove a place of eternal torment for individuals, mostly by the Jonathan Edwards type of Hell fire preacher who take them out of their context of speaking about the end of nations, and make them be speaking of lost individuals that they will have no end, but will live forever being tormented by God.
(1) Isaiah 14:11 "Your pomp is brought down to the GRAVE (sheol), and the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you." In the same context in the King James Version sheol is translated:
And in all three it is Israel's "taunt against the king of Babylon" (Isaiah 14:4), and is speaking of the destruction of Babylon, and Babylon joining the other dead nations in the grave (Isaiah 14:9-10). They do not seem to know whether they wanted to put Babylon in "Hell" or in the "grave." How inconsistent could they be? They were just as inconsistent throughout the Old Testament. "Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you, and worms are your covering" New American Standard Bible. The worms that eat the body are in the grave, not maggots in Heaven or Hell; Babylon was dead and in its grave.
(2) Ezekiel 31:15 “Thus says the Lord God; ‘In the day when he went down to the GRAVE (sheol) I caused a mourning.’” See notes on Ezekiel 31:16 where sheol is translated “Hell.”
(3) And (4) Hosea 13:14 "I will ransom them from the power to the GRAVE (sheol); I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O GRAVE (sheol), I will be your destruction." This is God redeeming the nation of Israel from captivity, not individual Jews being resurrected from the grave. The whole chapter is about the nation of Israel; God brought them out of Egypt (Hosea 13:4). "It is your destruction, O Israel, that you are against me, against your help. Where now is your king that he may save you in all your cities, and your judges of whom you requested, ‘Give me a king and a prince’? I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath" (Hosea 13:9-11). "O Israel, return unto Jehovah your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity" (Hosea 14:1). The translators did not believe any one would be redeemed, individuals or nations, from Hell; therefore, they have the redeeming being from the grave; if they had translated sheol into Hell they would have had Hell being destroyed by God (“O sheol I will be your destruction”), but the Hell they believed in could not be destroyed, and no one could ever be redeemed from it.
Because 1 Corinthians 15:54 says, “Then shall come to pass the saying that is written,” many think Paul quoted Hosea 13:14 in 1 Corinthians 15:55, but it is difficult to see how “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting?” is a quotation from “O death, I will be your plagues; O grave I will be your destruction" (Hosea 13:14). Hosea was speaking of Israel rebellion being their plagues and destruction. Paul was speaking of death being swallowed up in victory by the resurrection at the second coming of Christ.
Hebrew parallelism:
"I will ransom them (the nation of Israel) from the power to the GRAVE (sheol)”
“I will redeem them (the nation of Israel) from death”
Nations in Hell in 14 passages
(1) Deuteronomy 32:22 God's anger toward Israel. "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest HELL (sheol) (“To the depths of Sheol” New Revised Standard Version), and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains." Hundreds of years from Genesis to Deuteronomy had passed, and it was not unto the seventh time sheol is used before the King James translators thought they could put the Hell they believed in into the Bible. But, what does this passage say? Jeshurun forsook God (32:15).
This fire is on earth, and shall (figuratively) consume the earth, not torment individuals in Hell. Deuteronomy 32:23-26 says:
The "how" of this burning "unto the lowest hell (grave-sheol)," is described in Deuteronomy 32:21-26 in a way that it could not be the "Hell" that is believed in by many today, but is God's anger with the nation of Israel. This is almost a repeat of Leviticus 26:14ff of what would happen to Israel if they did not obey God.
“For they (Israel) are a nation lacking in counsel, and there is no understanding in them” (Deuteronomy 32:28).
All this, including the fire unto the lowest grave, is God's punishment to the nation of Israel at that time. All these punishments are those that can only be inflicted on the living, not on an immaterial, invisible part of a person that has no substance. There is not one word about any individual, or about anyone burning in Hell after death, or nothing is said about anything after the judgment at the second coming of Christ. If it were a Hell, there would be beast, poison serpents, swords, etc. in Hell. Suckling babies would be destroyed in Hell.
If "lowest Hell" spoken of in this passage were the "Hell" that is taught today, was Israel forever tormented by God in this "lowest Hell"? Or was Israel in captivity for a period of time, then came out of captivity, and was restored as a nation? See Psalm 86:13 below where in the King James Version David says he was delivered out of the “lowest Hell.” Had David literally been in Hell and delivered out of it before his death, or had David been delivered from death and the grave (sheol), or had the nation of Israel literally been in Hell, or had Israel had been in exile and had returned to their homeland? How many Hells did the translators believe in.
MORE THAN ONE HELL!
“Unto the lowest hell” King James Version
“Unto the lowest Sheol” American Standard Version
If there were a lowest Hell there would be other Hells above it.? Some that believe in Hell has changed this to the lowest level of Hell in an attempt to keep from having more than one Hell, but according to the King James Version there is a lowest Hell; therefore, must be one or more Hell’s above the lowest Hell. One Hell that has levels, as some change this is clearly a change to what is said even in the King James Version; not one passage says anything about Hell having lower and upper levels. It is undeniable that according to the King James Version there is more than one Hell, the lowest Hell with other Hells above it or it could not be the lowest. “Level of” is not in the Hebrew, it is “lowest sheol” or translated “lowest grave,” not the lowest level of sheol.
From Genesis to Deuteronomy, centuries had passed before the King James translators first put Hell in the Bible although sheol had been used often. Hundreds more years passed before the New King James translators translated sheol into Hell the second time.
Five out of the first thirty-six: The New King James Version translates "sheol" into Hell only five times out of the first thirty-six times "sheol" is used.
1. The 7th time sheol is used is the first time it is translated "Hell" and then it is the nation of Israel that is in “Hell”, not individuals, Deuteronomy 32:22.
2. The 20th time sheol is used is the second time it is translated "Hell" where the wicked nations that forget God “return to sheol” Psalm 9:17. Psalm 9:17-20 is speaking of nations that forget God and are judged by Him. Centuries has passed from when Adam sinned and was put out of the garden before the King James translators thought they had found a second place where it was safe to put “Hell” in the Bible. Did it not mean Hell in eighteen of the first twenty times sheol is used? Did it mean "grave" a place on this earth for centuries and then the same word was changed to "Hell," a place not on this earth? How did a word that is:
A place that is on this earth
Is changed to a place not on this earth?
Grave and Hell (as the word is used today) have nothing in common; how did the translators get the two completely different words out of the same Hebrew word?
3. The 28th time sheol is used is only the third time it is translated "Hell" Psalm 55:15. This is the first passage where it is an individual that is put in Hell (sheol, grave) in the King James Version. The first two times it was Israel that the translators put in Hell, not people.
4. The 33rd time sheol is used is only the fourth time it is translated "Hell" Psalm 139:8. Then it is David who said, “If I make my bed in sheol, behold, You are there.” Did David believe he would be in Hell, and that God would also be there? Is there a bed in the Hell that is taught today where there will be no rest day or night; the just will make the bed in sheol, will sleep in the grave unto the resurrection, but the just cannot make there bed in the Hell that is taught today.
5. The 36th time sheol is used is only the fifth time it is translated "Hell" Proverbs 5:5. In thirty-one times sheol is used before this is either translated grave or pit. Even in "Hell's Bible," the King James Version, the translators did not think sheol means "Hell" in thirty-one of the first thirty-six times it is used, and did not translate it "Hell."
(2) Psalm 9:15-17 "The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made...The Lord is known by the judgment which he executes: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands ... The wicked shall be turned into HELL (grave-sheol), and all the nations that forget God" ("return to Sheol" New American Standard Bible, Psalm 9:15-17). The same thing will happen to both the wicked persons and the nations that forget God. They both will go to sheol, the grave. Doe anyone some think evil nations live in torment in Hell after the nations no longer exists on this earth, or that the most evil nations do not have some good people in them that would not be in Hell? Both will be in the grave, both will be dead, not both in eternal torment together in Hell. According to the American Standard Version the wicked are the wicked nations. "The wicked shall be turned back unto sheol, even all the nations that forget God." Psalm 9:15-20 is speaking of the nations that forget God. There is no threat of after-death punishment of individuals in this passage.
(3) Isaiah 5:14 "Therefore my people (Israel) are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, HELL (grave-sheol) has enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure." Because Israel had left the Lord, the nation went into captivity. See Proverbs 27:20 above. Their captivity was a grave (sheol) to them as a nation; grave is used as a metaphor of their captivity, their death as a nation, a literal grave cannot enlarge herself. Can anyone tell my why the translators put the nation of Israel in Hell; does a nation in captivity make Hell be on the earth, and make Hell end when the captivity of that nation ends?
(4) Isaiah 14:9 "HELL (sheol "grave" in margin of King James Version) from beneath is moved for thee to meet you at your coming: it stirs up the dead (rephaim) for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto you, Are you also become we