Sheol is not hell at least not in the sense of our present cultural interpretation of the place, (a place of eternal suffering and damnation, with fire and brimstone and torment). Some suggest that sheol simply means the grave, which seems to make sense, apart from the fact that there is another Hebrew word for “grave”: qehver (6913). Sheol is generically the abode of the dead. Even annihilationists affirm this. 'Scripture’s overall usage of Sheol and Hades reveals that, upon death, it is a place where all men, righteous and unrighteous, go to.'

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Psalm 86 is classified by most scholars as a psalm of individual lament, in which an individual expresses the pain of his present condition and seeks relief from God.

However, most of the elements of complaint are in the early part of the psalm, with only verse 14 and verse 17 from our selection expressing concern over the psalmist’s circumstances, and even in those places there is no explicit mention of pain that has been experienced. Verses 11-17 thus on their own read more as an expression of commitment based on the experience of God’s past help (verses 12-13, 17) and on the knowledge of God’s character (verses 13, 15-16). The element of petition is still present, however, in the final two verses.

The opening petition, “Teach me your way, O LORD,” expresses a common important sentiment in the psalms (see examples, 25:4 and 27:11). The tacit basis of the petition is that God’s way is not necessarily obvious and hence requires teaching in order to know it. The line that follows, “that I may walk in your truth,” is a statement of commitment. The psalmist and we desire to know God’s way not out of curiosity but so that we may actually live it out. “Truth” is used in the second line not to mean anything different than God’s way but to affirm that God’s way is truth. We might well be reminded at this point of Christ’s claim to be “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). The word “life” does not appear in the NRSV’s translation in this passage, but life is certainly an issue in verse 13, and the Hebrew word translated as “soul” in verse 13 is translated “life” in verse 2 (nefesh).

The last line of verse 11 combines the elements of petition and commitment: “Give me an undivided heart to revere your name.” The tacit basis of the petition is again important: Just as the psalmist recognizes that we are in need of teaching, so he recognizes that very often our hearts are divided and thus unable to walk in God’s way. There is not the burden of sin here felt in Psalm 51:10’s plea for God to “create in me a clean heart,” but the sentiment is the same.

The psalmist does not dwell on the need for an undivided heart, for in the very next line he expresses thanks to God “with my whole heart” (verse 12). There is a simple confidence that his prayer for an undivided heart is answered. In fact, there is a bold magnification of the petition from verse 11, because whereas in verse 11 he had asked merely to “revere” God’s name, here in verse 12 his claim is much stronger: “I will glorify your name forever.” Not only has he moved from revering to glorifying, but the addition of “forever” makes the return of thanks all the more fervent. It is as strong a statement of commitment as one can imagine. Can we make the claim our own?

Verse 13 provides the foundation for the thanksgiving, petitions, and commitment expressed in verse 11-12: “For great is your steadfast love toward me.” “Steadfast love” translates the single Hebrew word khesed. The Hebrew meaning is difficult to convey with any single English expression, and thus we see different English Bibles using a variety of translations in different contexts: steadfast love, lovingkindness, love, kindness, mercy, loyalty, favor, devotion, goodness, and still others. The range of translations gives a sense of the broad meaning of the word. For the psalmist here, it is a confession of and proclamation of his fundamental relationship with God, and especially of the blessing he has received from that relationship.

The second half of verse 13 expresses a very concrete benefit of God’s khesed: “You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.” In the context of the overall psalm, this probably refers to a deliverance from physical death. Sheol is simply the “the grave” (as it is often translated). Many Christians will think here, however, and appropriately so, of the salvation from spiritual death that is the quintessential example of God’s khesed in their lives. It is the life that walking in God’s way and truth provides.

The reference to God’s khesed is picked up in verse 15 and expanded. Beginning with the word “merciful,” verse 15 is a quote of the fundamental self-revelation of God given to Moses at Mt. Sinai: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). This initial self-revelation expressed Israel’s understanding of the basic nature of its relationship to God, and it is quoted and paraphrased frequently throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Numbers 14:18; Joel 2:13; Psalms 103:8, 145:8; Nehemiah 9:17). Here it forms the basis for the psalmist’s appeal for grace, strength, and salvation in verse 16 and for why he need not fear his enemies referred to in verse 14.

When he appeals to God to “turn to me and be gracious to me” (verse 16), it is his knowledge of the gracious character of God mentioned in the Exodus quote of verse 15 that prompts his plea. Of course, the words “turn to me” also express his feeling of the present absence of God’s grace, a feeling caused by the intentions of his enemies mentioned in verse 14. The feelings of divine absence and abandonment expressed in many of the psalms (in the present psalm, mostly in verses 1-7) often cause believers today a certain amount of discomfort, but they should remind us that it is pointless to hide our true feelings in addressing God–and that there is no need to do so.

Verse 17 closes the psalm with a final petition, a request for a sign of God’s favor. As in verse 16, the petition is based on knowledge of God’s character, but here the psalmist expresses it in terms of his own experience: “because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.” In this sense the psalmist’s petition may be a model for our own prayers to God: Our appeals arise out of our common understanding of God’s character and out of our experience of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to us in the past.

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Psalms 9:17 (KJV)

The wicked will return to Sheol –all the nations that forget God. ~ Psalms 9:17 (CSB)

Jefferson Vann compares two versions of Psalm 9:17, explaining which better reflects the Hebrew.

Going back to Sheol

The most common Old Testament word describing the fate of the lost is Sheol. The popular misconception about Sheol is that it is a synonym for hell. The idea is that it is a place where bad people go to suffer eternally after they die.

The King James translators are partly to blame for this ongoing misconception because they translated the word as “hell” a few times.¹

These mistranslations suggested that the wicked immediately go to a place of fiery punishment as soon as they die. Lexicographers added to this misrepresentation of Sheol by listing words like “the underworld”, “hell”, and “wicked sent there for punishment” as options for the semantic range of the term. Preachers preached hell as the place where God will punish sinners forever, and heaven as the only alternative.

The vast majority of the times when Sheol appeared in the Old Testament, even the KJV translated it as “the grave” or “the pit”. The word never refers to a place where souls are consciously tormented. It always refers to the state of being dead — being silent in a cold, dark grave. It never refers to final punishment at all. It refers to an intermediate state where people wait to be resurrected, judged and then punished— or rewarded. It is not used exclusively of the wicked. Even the righteous will go to Sheol.

Notice— for example— how a modern translation renders Psalm 9:17. Instead of saying that the wicked will be turned to hell (KJV), it asserts that they will return to Sheol.

The wicked will return to Sheol — all the nations that forget God. ~ Psalms 9:17 (CSB)

Why is that a better translation?

First, it fits the context of Psalm 9. In that psalm, the wicked are described as perishing before God (3), being destroyed by him, and having their names erased for ages and ages (5). They have come to permanent ruin, their cities have perished, and their name has been erased for ages and ages (6). God will not forget the righteous (18). Secret game 3 2016 movie. He will remember the prayers of his children (12), but will forget those who have chosen to forget him (17).

Where are these wicked people whom God has chosen to forget? They are in Sheol. They are lying in their graves, reduced to an unconscious state. Justice has occurred— not because the wicked have entered a time of punishment in hell, but because they chose to forget God while they were alive, so God chooses to set them aside and forget them for ages in Sheol.

This is not the final punishment. Judgment Day has not occurred yet. Sheol is not hell. It is a waiting place in between this life and judgment.

A second reason that the modern translations of this text render it better than the KJV is that they choose to transliterate the word Sheol. This avoids technical problems. Sheol has no exact English translation equivalent. Hell is misleading because that word generally refers to final punishment, not the intermediate state. The grave and the pit are better translations, but Sheol properly refers to the state of being dead, not the place where the dead are buried. The closest proximation in English would be something like gravedom.

Psalms Of Sheol Disembodied (band)

Sheol reflects the imagery of going down to the grave.

Genesis 37:35 (CSB)

All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” And his father wept for him.

Numbers 16:30 (CSB)

“But if the LORD brings about something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them along with all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have despised the LORD.”

1 Kings 2:9 (CSB)

“So don’t let him (Shimei) go unpunished, for you are a wise man. You know how to deal with him to bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.”

Disembodied Psalms Of Sheol

A third reason that the modern translations are better has to do with their rendering of the verb Shuv as return, rather than turn (which the KJV uses). Shuv refers to going back to somewhere you have already been. In Genesis 8, the word was used to describe the dove Noah sent out from the ark, who kept coming back when he found no dry land to rest upon. Finally, it did not come back (Shuv) because the land had dried up. In Genesis 18, the LORD promised to come back to where Abraham was in a year’s time. The verb he used was Shuv.

The word is found in Genesis 37:29 which says that Reuben returned (Shuv) to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there. It was used of Joseph, who in Genesis 42:24 turned away from his brothers and wept. Then he turned back (Shuv) and spoke to them. I could cite many more examples, but it is clear from these that Shuv carries the idea of returning to someplace you have already been. So “return” better translates the word in Psalm 9.

But in popular pagan eschatology, the wicked go to hell when they die, but they don’t come from there. So, how can they return to it?

Here is where we have to unlearn pagan eschatology before we can see what the Bible teaches about death.

The first step in doing this is to revisit what God said about human creation.

Genesis 2:7 (CSB)

Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

God made the man (Adam) from inanimate matter and breathed life into him. Human beings came from dust: unconscious soil.

Genesis 3:19 (CSB)

“You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

Disembodied Psalms Of Sheol Rar

After the fall, humans had lost their opportunity for immortal life in the garden. The only other place to “go “ is back to the dust — back to unconscious inanimate matter. That state of returning to pre-creation nothingness is Sheol.

Psalms 90:3 (CSB) You return mankind to the dust, saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.”

Psalms 104:29 (CSB) When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.

Psalms 146:4 (CSB) When his breath leaves him, he returns to the ground; on that day his plans die.

Ecclesiastes 3:20 (CSB) All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

Wait… doesn’t the Bible say our sprits go to heaven?

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (CSB) and the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

The word rendered spirit refers to that breath that God have to animate his creations. It (God’s breath) returns to him, but we return to the dust.

Everybody returns to Sheol.

Psalms Of Solitude

In fact, we all do. Bad people do not go to hell when they die, and good people don’t go to heaven when they die. Everybody returns to Sheol. Psalm 9 did not assert that the wicked return to Sheol but the righteous go somewhere else. No, the psalmist’s point was that no matter what trouble or persecution or trials the righteous face at the hands of God’s enemies, it is all temporary. Sheol will equalize everything.

The gospel points us to realities who go beyond the message of Psalm 9: Christ’s return, the resurrection, judgement day, eternal life for the saved, the second death for the lost. But the gospel message never contradicts what is taught in this psalm. If the gospel taught that bad people go to hell as soon as they die, it would contradict this passage. But the gospel adds a new promise to the old. It affirms that God will cause all his enemies to sleep in Sheol. Then, it promises that God will ultimately destroy them after their fair judgement by Christ.

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References

1. 1 Deuteronomy 32:22; 2 Samuel 22:6; Job 11:8; 26:6; Psalm 9:17; 16:10; 18:5; 55:15, 86:13, 116:3, 139:8; Proverbs 5:5; 7:27; 9:18; 15:11, 24; 23:14; 27:20; Isaiah 5:14; 14:9, 15; 28:15, 18; 57:9; Ezekiel 31:16,17; 32:21,27; Amos 9:2; Jonah 2:2; Habakkuk 2:5. [↩]