Sheol is a Hebrew word referring to the place where the dead go, also translated as "Hades" or "grave." In the past, Sheol was translated and understood as the "hell" we commonly think of, but the Old Testament records that both the wicked and the righteous descend to 'Sheol' without distinction. In the New Testament, it is translated into Greek words such as 'Hades', 'Gehenna', and 'Tartarus', but these distinctions are not clearly divided. What can be said with certainty is that the Hebrews believed that everyone descends to Sheol upon death, and some scriptures state that the wicked are judged in Sheol.
Job 7:9He will return no more to his house, neither will his place know him any more.
Psalms 30:3Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name.
Ecclesiastes 9:10I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
Genesis 37:35The Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard.
Genesis 42:38He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
Genesis 44:29Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; since his life is bound up in the boy’s life;Genesis 44:30it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.Genesis 44:31For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I don’t bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.’
Job 14:13If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.
Job 17:13if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’Job 17:14where then is my hope? as for my hope, who will see it?Job 17:15Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”Job 17:16Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?”
Psalms 18:4The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.Psalms 18:5In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
Psalms 30:3Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name.
Psalms 49:15Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
Isaiah 38:10I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
Psalms 16:10You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.
Acts 2:27You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’Acts 2:28“Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David), that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.Acts 2:29Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,Acts 2:30he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay.Acts 2:31This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.
Numbers 16:33All Israel that were around them fled at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”
Ezekiel 32:18Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised.Ezekiel 32:19They will fall among those who are slain by the sword. She is delivered to the sword. Draw her away with all her multitudes.Ezekiel 32:20The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword.Ezekiel 32:21“Asshur is there with all her company. Her graves are all around her. All of them slain, fallen by the sword;Ezekiel 32:22whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.Ezekiel 32:23“There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.
Isaiah 14:9They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?”
Psalms 9:17For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.
Revelation 20:13Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.