The Hebrew word "sheol" is left not translated all sixty-five times it is used in the American Standard Version, New American Standard Version, and many others. A Hebrew word that is not translated in an English translation does not help the English reader understand what was said, but it is better than mistranslating it as the King James Version did and teaching a lie. Why do many translations translate all other words and leave this one not translated? Was the reason that if sheol were translated, it would be contrary to what the translators believed, or is it an attempt to side step the question and not have to deal with it. Were the translators afraid that if they told us the truth their translation would not be accepted?
ALL SIXTY-FIVE TIMES SHEOL IS USED
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT IN SEVEN TRANSLATIONS
| ASV | NIV
SHEOL in the | NASV | 2010
Old Testament | KJV | NKJV | NRSV | Update
1. Genesis 37:35 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
2. Genesis 42:38 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
3. Genesis 44:29 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
4. Genesis 44:31 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
5. Numbers 16:30 | pit | pit | Sheol | grave |
6. Numbers 16:33 | pit | pit | Sheol | grave |
7. Deuteronomy 32:22| Hell | Hell | Sheol | death |
8. 1 Samuel 2:6 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
9. 2 Samuel 22:6 (1)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
10. 1 Kings 2:6 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
11. 1 Kings 2:9 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
12. Job 7:9 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
13. Job 11:8 (2)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
14. Job 14:13 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
15. Job 17:13 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
16. Job 17:16 (3)| PIT | SHEOL | Sheol | death |
17. Job 21:13 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
18. Job 24:19 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
19. Job 26:6 (4)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | death |
20. Psalm 6:5 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
21. Psalm 9:17 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
22. Psalm 16:10 (5)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
23. Psalm 18:5 (6)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
24. Psalm 30:3 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
25. Psalm 31:17 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
26. Psalm 49:14 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
27. Psalm 49:14 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
28. Psalm 49:15 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
29. Psalm 55:15 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
30. Psalm 86:13 (7)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
31. Psalm 88:3 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
32. Psalm 89:48 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
33. Psalm 116:3 (8)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
34. Psalm 139:8 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | depths|
35. Psalm 141:7 |Grave's| Grave | Sheol | grave |
36. Proverbs 1:12 (9)| GRAVE | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
37. Proverbs 5:5 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
38. Proverbs 7:27 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
39. Proverbs 9:18 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
40. Proverbs 15:11 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | death |
41. Proverbs 15:24 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
42. Proverbs 23:14 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | death |
43. Proverbs 27:20 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | death |
44. Proverbs 30:16 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
45. Ecclesiastes 9:10| grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
46. Song of Solomon 8:6 | grave | grave | grave#| grave |
47. Isaiah 5:14 (10)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
48. Isaiah 14:9 | Hell* | Hell | Sheol | grave |
49. Isaiah 14:11 (11)| GRAVE | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
50. Isaiah 14:15 (12)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
51. Isaiah 28:15 (13)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
52. Isaiah 28:18 (14)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
53. Isaiah 38:10 (15)| GRAVE | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
54. Isaiah 38:18 (16)| GRAVE | SHEOL | Sheol | death |
55. Isaiah 57:9 (17)| HELL | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
56. Ezekiel 31:15(18)| GRAVE | HELL | Sheol | grave |
57. Ezekiel 31:16 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
58. Ezekiel 31:17 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
59. Ezekiel 32:21 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
60. Ezekiel 32:27 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
61. Hosea 13:14 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
62. Hosea 13:14 | grave | grave | Sheol | grave |
63. Amos 9:2 | Hell* | Hell | Sheol | grave |
64. Jonah 2:2 (19)| HELL* | SHEOL | Sheol | grave |
65. Habakkuk 2:5 | Hell | Hell | Sheol | grave |
KJV, King James Version; == NKJV, New King James Version, == ASV; American Standard Version, == NASV; New American Standard Version, == NRSV; New Revised Standard Version, == NIV; New International Version
#Song of Solomon 8:6 is the only time grave is used in place of sheol in the New Revised Standard Version.
*Margin reads "or the grave" in Isaiah 14:9, Amos 9:2, and Jonah 2:2 in the King James Version.
Note: even though sheol, hades, and grave are capitalized in some translations, they are common nouns and should not be capitalized.
The Jewish Publication Society called “Torah” transliterates sheol all 65 times.
There are nineteen changes in the King James and the New King James (See (1) to (19) in the above chart). If there were a way to know when to translate sheol into Hell, and when not to, the translators of the only two of the major translations that have Hell in the Old Testament should have known, and should be in agreement. Are they? The New King James Version takes Hell out of many passages where it is in the King James Version. When they translated a common noun (sheol-grave) into a proper noun (Hell), they did not agree often. Men never agree on what they want when they change the word of God.
If the translators of the New American Standard Version had been honest with their reader they would have translated sheol; it looks as if they were afraid to tell us the truth, but were did not want to lie by translating sheol into Hell so they used the Hebrew word knowing that many of there readers would understand sheol and Hell to the same place.
“The uniform substitution of ‘sheol’ for ‘the grave,’ ‘the pit,’ and ‘hell,’ in places where these terms have been retained by the English Revision, has little need of justification. The English Revisers use ‘Sheol’ twenty-nine times out of the sixty-fore in which it occurs in the original. No good reason has been given for such discrimination. If the new term can be fitly used at all, it is clear that it ought to be used uniformly” Preface to the American Standard Bible.
Obviously, if "sheol" means "Hell" it should never have been translated "grave" in the King James, or any other translations, for they are different places. It is also obvious that it cannot mean both.
W. E. Vine: "First, the word means the state of death. ‘ For in death, there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks' (Ps 6:5; cf. 18:5). It is the final resting place of all men: 'they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave' Job 21:13...second, 'sheol' is used of a place of conscious existence after death" "Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words," page 227.
If, as he said, sheol is both:
1. Sheol is a place with no conscious existence where there is no remembrance after death-W. E. Vine.
2. Sheol is a place of conscious existence after death-W. E. Vine.
He could not (or anyone) ever know for sure when sheol was used the first or second way in any verse. How could they? Does everyone just use the one they want to? Although he is Protestant, this is not anything like the orthodox Protestant version of all going to directly to Heaven or Hell at death. He seems to have abandoned the orthodox Protestant view, and made many of the dead be in the grave.
How does he think the same place could be both a place of death with no remembrance, and at the same time a place of life with conscious existence, but not life in Heaven or Hell? He is speaking of conscious existence in sheol-the grave after death; therefore, he is saying the orthodox Protestant view of all being transported instantaneous to Heaven or Hell at death is not true. He tries to prove the second with Genesis 3:7-35 "I will go down to sheol in mourning for my son" New American Standard Version. The New Century Version says, "unto the day I die." "You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; neither will thou allow your holy one to undergo decay" (Psalm 16:10 New American Standard Version). "And lie silent in the grave" (Psalm 31:17 New International Version). "As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned" (Job 24:19 New International Version). "So MAN lies down and does not roused from their sleep. If only you would hide ME in the grave" (Job 14:12-13 New International Version). It is man that lies down in sleep, not an immaterial something that is in a person unto the death of the person; Job wanted God to hide him (“me”) in the grave, not just his body while the real Job was in Heaven; just as the snow is consumed by heat, the grave (sheol) consumes the bodies in it. In the very verses W. E. Vine uses to prove his second use of the word, God could not be saying the first any clearer. In these passages and others, it is so certain and undeniable that sheol is the grave that many (like W. E. Vine) had to create a new sheol. A different gospel is preached with two sheols (or hades). One for the