8. And though they hid themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence;
9. And though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
10. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it will slay them; and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.”
Amos 8 and 9 is speaking of God punishing the nation of Israel for their sins, not tormenting souls in Hell after their death. "Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt...And I will destroy it from the face of the earth" (Amos 9:7-10). There was no place where Israel could flee from God. Even if they dug into the grave (sheol) God would find them. Many of the graves were caves or a room dug out of rock and sealed up. Does anyone think that a living person, or a nation can dig into the place where they say the "immaterial invisible" souls that were in the lost are being tormented after the death of the person it had been in? Does anyone seriously believe any living person can literally dig into Hell? The King James Version has Israel digging into Hell to try to avoid the wrath of God. Can "souls" in Hell run away, and can souls in Hell be slain with the sword? Will there be a sword in Hell? This is Israel that because of their unfaithfulness cannot find a place to hide from His wrath, not even by hiding in a grave or pit. The very idea of the nation of Israel or individuals digging down into the earth into the Hell that is taught today is absurd, just as ridiculous, and unreasonable as Israel digging into a chamber under the earth where God has souls stored.
E. M. Zerr: “As a general comment on this and several verses following. It should be stated that them and kindred pronouns stand for the people Israel who have been so unfaithful to God…Hell and heaven are used figuratively because they are opposite terms, and denote the complete presence of God no matter where a man might flee” Amos 9:1-2, Bible Commentary, volume 4, page 314, Gogdill Foundation Publications, 1955.
E. B. Pusey: “Mount Carmel, which rises abruptly out of the sea, with depths of that ocean which it overhangs. Carmel was in two ways a hiding place. 1) Through its caves (some say 1,000, some 2,000) with which it is perforated, whose entrance sometimes scarcely admits a single man; so close to each other, that a pursuer would not discern into which the fugitive had vanished…a whole army of enemies as of nature’s terrors, could hide themselves in those rock-clefts…2) Its summit, about 1800 feet above the sea, is covered with pines and oaks, and lower down with olive and laurel trees. These forests furnished hiding places to robber-hordes.” From Albert Barnes Notes on the Old Testament, Amos 9:3, 1953. Not even Mount Carmel could not hide Israel from God.
There was no place Israel could hide from God. It is beyond understanding as to how the translated thought they could change sheol into Hell and make this passage teach the Hell they believed in, a place were God will forever torment bodiless souls, not the nation of Israel. All ten of these places are places where Israel could not run to hide from God, even diggings into Hell (grave) is to hide from God. One more time, if this were Hell it would be nothing like the Hell the translators were trying to put into the Bible. Who would think that anyone would dig into Hell even if they could?
(14) Habakkuk 2:5 "Yea also, because he transgress by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as HELL (grave-sheol), and is as death, and cannot be satisfied." Habakkuk is a book of prophecy about Chaldea. Chapter 2:4-17 Chaldea conquered many nations. "He enlarges his appetite like Sheol...He also gathers to himself all nations" Habakkuk 2:5 New American Standard Bible. They were like a man intoxicated with power, and their desire to conquer and rule other all other nations was as the grave (sheol) that can never be satisfied. See Proverbs 27:20. Again there is absolutely nothing about eternal torment after death, or about anything after death in this passage even despite the fact that sheol-grave was changed to Hell by the King James Version.
If, as some teach, sheol is a place somewhere underground where the souls of the dead are kept, then when sheol is used 18 times in reference to nations, would not dead nations still exist and are being kept in sheol (someplace underground) with the souls of the dead? How could the same common noun be both a grave for dead nations and some kind of underground warehouse for living souls?
(3) INDIVIDUALS IN SHEOL (In 18 passages)
The good in the grave in 11 passages
(1) Genesis 37:35, 42:38, 44:29, and 44:31 WHO OR WHAT WAS GOING WHERE? "You shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the GRAVE (sheol)." The only word translated Hell in the Old Testament is sheol; the first three times sheol is used, if it means Hell is Jacob saying the immaterial, no substance soul that was in his son is being tormented in Hell, and when Jacob dies the immaterial soul that is in him will leave him and go down to "Hell to be with the soul that was in his son?" No, he is saying he will go down to the grave mourning the death of his son; he was not saying he expected to go to eternal torment in Hell. The King James translators know that Hell would not teach what they wanted to teach. They did not want Jacob in Hell. This and many others times they know they could not translate sheol into Hell.
If Jacob’s soul was going to Heaven at death, why did he say it was going down to his son in sorrow? If it was going to Heaven, he should have said it was going up to his son rejoicing. Those today who speak of going to Heaven always speak of going up, never down, and never speak of there being sorrow in Heaven. According to today’s theology it is the soul that was in a person that goes to Heaven or Hell when the person dies; if it was the soul that was in Jacob that went “down” to sheol (the only word in the Old Testament that is translated Hell), did the soul that was in Jacob go “down” to the grave, “down” to Hell, or “down” to Heaven? Is it any wonder that most translations have taken “Hell” out of the Old Testament?
Some say that the "grave" is the abode of departed spirits. My question to them is where did they learn that a grave is a place for living “souls” or “spirits”? A grave is a place for a dead person, not a living soul or spirit. There is not one passage in the Bible that speaks of "departed spirits" and certainly not one that speaks of living “departed spirits” being in a grave. This term come out of thin air. They manufacture this term and use is as if it were Biblical, and expect all others to accept their manufactured term without question when the same persons tell us, “Souls that were in the dead are not in the grave, they are now alive in Heaven or Hell.”
(5) Job 14:13 "O that you would hide me in the GRAVE (sheol), that you would keep me secret, until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!" Hell as it is taught today's is incomparably worse than the suffering Job wanted relief from. The translators did not dare to make this Hell for them they would have Job asking to go to Hell for relief from his sufferings; it would have made this passage be absolute nonsense, and completely impossible to harmonize with the Hell of today. "There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man" (Job 1:8) asking to go to "Hell" to escape his sufferings. Those who believe in Hell teach the sufferings in it are much worse than anything in this life. Job certainly would not have wanted to escape from the painful time he was having by going to a place much more painful, a place where there would be no end to suffering. "Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me? Why did the knees receive me, or why the breasts, that I should suck? For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then had I been at rest ... There the wicked cease from troubling: and there the weary are at rest" (Job 3:11-17). Beyond any doubt, Job did not know about or believe in Hell as it is taught today. Job did not want to go to today's Hell and be tormented. Why is it that no preacher who believes in "Hell" never speaks of "Hell" in the way Job spoke of sheol? The answer is simple, sheol did not mean a place of torment, but a place of rest, and those who preach "Hell fire" today just do not believe Job.
(6) Job 17:13 "If I wait, the GRAVE (sheol) is my house: I have made my bed in darkness. I have said to corruption, you are my father: to the worm, you are my mother, and my sister. And where is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the PIT (sheol), when our rest together is in the dust." It was clear even to the King James translators that Job was not saying Hell was gong to be his bed. He gives a description of the corruption and maggots of the grave. An undeniable statement that the grave was to be his house, not Heaven, Hell, or Abraham's bosom; he had no thought of a soul that was in him being eternally alive and being tortured in the Dark Age Hell, but all of both the good and the bad are resting in the dust. Death is never said to be a gateway to Heaven. It is described as a place of darkness and forgetfulness. In the same passage they translated the same word, sheol, into both grave and pit.
(7) Psalm 30:3 "O lord, you have brought up my soul from the GRAVE (sheol): you have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit." David was not saying he had been dead and the soul that is in him was in Hell and bought out of Hell. God had saved him from his foes and death; therefore, saved him from going to the grave. A soul did not come back from Hell. He was expressing his gratitude for his recovery and being saved from death, not being brought back from Heaven or Hell. "You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit" and "you have brought up my soul from the grave" is Hebrew dualism where the same thing is said in two ways. In verse nine David said, “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it declare Your fullness?” The dust of the dead is in the grave. This is Hebrew dualism where the same thing is said in two ways. David was not dead, but was giving thinks to God for saving him and keeping him alive said:
1. “O lord, you have brought up my soul from the grave (sheol).”
2. “You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit (bohr).”
Grave (sheol) and pit (bohr) are parallel. What is the meaning of pit (bohr) in the Old Testament; it is used 69 times and in the King James Version is translated pit 42 times, dungeon 13 times, well 9 times, cistern 4 times and fountain 1 time. All except maybe fountain, which would have been better translated well or cistern, means a hole in the ground (a grave, pit, or well which was dug by man, or a natural pit-hole), not a place where an immaterial, invisible something that is in a person would go down to, and not a chamber someplace under ground where all deathless souls are kept together unto the resurrection, or a chamber that has two sides, one side for the saved souls and one side for the lost souls.
PIT (bohr), which is used in Hebrew parallelism or dualism as being parallel in meaning to GRAVE (sheol) is a hole in the ground, and was a pit or well that was sometimes dug by man.
“Cast him (Joseph) into some pit (bohr)” Genesis 37:20
“Cast him into this pit (bohr)” Genesis 37:22
“Cast him into a pit (bohr): and the pit (bohr) was…” Genesis 37:24
“Reuben returned unto the pit (bohr); and behold, Joseph was not in the pit (bohr)” Genesis 37:29
“Should put me into the dungeon (bohr)” Genesis 40:15
“Brought him hastily out of the dungeon (bohr)” Genesis 41:14
“The captive that was in the dungeon (bohr)” Exodus 12:29
“Open a pit (bohr), or if a man shall dig a pit (bohr)” Exodus 12:33
“The owner of the pit (bohr) shall make” Exodus 21:34
“Nevertheless a fountain or pit (bohr)” Leviticus 11:36
“And wells (bohr) dug” Deuteronomy 6:1
“In high places, and in pits (bohr)” 1 Samuel 13:6
“Came to a great well (bohr)” 1 Samuel 19:22
“Brought him again from the well (bohr)” 2 Samuel 3:26
“The water of the well (bohr) of Bethlehem” 2 Samuel 23:15
“Drew water out of the well (bohr)” 2 Samuel 23:16
“In the midst of a pit (bohr) in time” 2 Samuel 23:20
“Slew them at the pit (bohr) of the shearing house” 2 Kings 10:14
“The water of his cistern (bohr)” 2 Kings 18:31
“The water of the well (bohr) of Bethlehem” 1 Chronicles 11:17
“Drew water out of the well (bohr) of Bethlehem” 1 Chronicles 11:18
“Slew a lion in a pit (bohr)” 1 Chronicles 11:22
“Dug many wells (bohr)” 2 Chronicles 26:10
“Wells (bohr) dug” Nehemiah 9:25
“He made a pit (bohr), and dug it” Psalm 7:15-16
“Them that go down into the pit (bohr)” Psalm 28:l
“That I should not go down into the pit (bohr)” Psalm 30:3
“Out of an horrible pit (bohr)” Psalm 40:2
“Them that go down into the pit (bohr)…like the slain who lie in the grave” Psalm 88:4-5
“You have laid me in the lowest pit (bohr)” Psalm 88:6
“Them that do down into the pit (bohr)” Psalm 143:7
“As those that go down into the pit (bohr)” Proverbs 1:12
“Drink waters out of your own cistern (bohr)” Proverbs 5:15
“Person shall flee to the pit (bohr)” Proverbs 28:17
“To the sides of the pit (bohr)” Isaiah 14:15
“That go down to the stones of the pit (bohr)” Isaiah 14:19
“Prisoners are gathered in the pit (bohr)” Isaiah 24:22
“The waters of his own cistern (bohr)” Isaiah 36:16
“They that go down into the pit (bohr)” Isaiah 38:18
“To the hole of the pit (bohr)” Isaiah 51:1
“As a fountain (bohr) cast out” Jeremiah 6:7
“Into the dungeon (bohr)” Jeremiah 37:16
“Cast him into the dungeon (bohr)” Jeremiah 38:6
“And in the dungeon (bohr) there was no” Jeremiah 38:6
“Had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (bohr)” Jeremiah 38:7
“They have cast into the dungeon (bohr)” Jeremiah 38:9
“The prophet out of the dungeon (bohr)” Jeremiah 38:10
“Down by cords into the dungeon (bohr)” Jeremiah 38:11
“Took him up out of the dungeon (bohr)” Jeremiah 38:13
“Into the midst of the pit (bohr)” Jeremiah 41:7
“Now the pit (bohr) wherein Ishmael” Jeremiah 41:9
“Cut off my life in the dungeon (bohr)” Lamentations 3:53
“Out of the low dungeon (bohr)” Lamentations 3:55
“With them that descend into the pit (bohr)” Ezekiel 26:20; 31:16
“With them that go down to the pit (bohr)” Ezekiel 26:20; 30:16; 31:14; 32:24; 32:25; 32:29; 32:30
“With them that go down into the pit (bohr)” Ezekiel 32:18
“Set in the sides of the pit (bohr)” Ezekiel 32:23
“Sent forth your prisoners out of the pit (bohr)” Zechariah 9:11
In Psalm 30:9 David spoke of going down to the pit, but used ghath, which is translated much the same way as bohr, pit 13 times, ditch 2 times, grave 1 time, corruption 4 times and destruction 2 times in the King James Version.
“That I should not go down to the pit (bohr)” verse 2
“You have brought up my soul (Nshahmah–life) from the grave (sheol)” verse 3
“When I go down to the pit (ghath)” verse 9
Sheol, bohr and ghath are also used by in Isaiah 38:17-18. “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but you have in love to my soul (nshahmah–life) delivered it from the pit (ghath) of nothingness (foot note—destruction—New American Standard Bible) for you have cast all my sins behind your back. For the grave (sheol) cannot praise you, death cannot celebrate you: they that go down into the pit (bohr) cannot hope for your truth”
His life was delivered from the pit of corruption, the grave for the