Sheol in the Bible – The Grave or the Afterlife?
The Hebrew word Sheol is often translated as ‘the grave’ in some Bible translations, particularly the New International Version. This has often led to many Christians misunderstanding the intermediate afterlife as merely ‘sleeping’ in a hole in the ground, awaiting the resurrection. We’ve discussed in another article why this idea of “soul sleep” is not quite what the biblical writers had in mind when they used the metaphor of sleep for physical death. Regarding the grave and Sheol, when we look at the biblical texts, we can see there are big differences between Sheol and the hole in the ground known as the grave.
Is there a Hebrew word used in the Bible for the physical hole in the ground? Yes, qeber (pronounced kevah).
Qeber is used in a variety of ways, referring to a physical location and is translated as ‘burial’, ‘burial place’, ‘grave(s)’ and ‘tomb(s)’, e.g.
For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as a possession for a burying-place [qeber].
Genesis 23:9b (NRSV)
Who are your relatives here, that you have cut out a tomb [qeber] here for yourself, cutting a tomb [qeber] on the height, and carving a habitation for yourself in the rock?
Isaiah 22:16 (NRSV)
The New International Version (NIV) correctly translates these passages using the terms ‘burial site’ and ‘grave’. But, the NIV does itself a disservice when translating Sheol as ‘grave’ because of their very different properties, which you would expect if Sheol was not the same thing as the grave. Comparing their properties, we see the following differences:
| Sheol | Qeber (No. of uses in the Bible) |
| Sheol is never found in plural form | Qebers are found in the plural form (22) [1] |
| The physical body doesn’t go to Sheol | The body goes to a qeber (22) [2] |
| Sheol is not on the face of Earth | Located on Earth (35) [3] |
| An individual’s Sheol is never mentioned | Individuals’ qebers are mentioned (10) [4] |
| Humans don’t put people into Sheol | Humans put people into qeber (12) [5] |
| Sheol is never dug or fashioned | A qeber is dug and fashioned (5) [6] |
| Sheol cannot be physically touched | a qeber can be and is touched by humans (5) [7] |
| No mention of Sheol being owned by humans | Humans can possess a qeber (14) [8] |
From this comparison, it is evident that translating Sheol in any way that denotes it as a physical location for the interment of a body is simply incorrect. As such, the NIV and theologies of the afterlife, which rest on NIV translations of Sheol as the grave, should not be used when discussing the intermediate afterlife.
Now, some may argue that the physical body goes into Sheol, so Sheol must be the grave. This is based upon certain translations of Psalm 49:14-15
Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave [Sheol] they descend, and their form shall waste away; Sheol shall be their home.
Psalm 49:14-15 (NRSV)
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.Selah
They are like sheep and are destined to die [Sheol]; death will be their shepherd (but the upright will prevail over them in the morning). Their forms will decay in the grave [Sheol], far from their princely mansions.
Psalm 49:14-15 (NIV)
But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead [Sheol]; he will surely take me to himself.
Like sheep they are laid in the grave [Sheol]; Death shall feed on them; The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave [Sheol], far from their dwelling.
Psalm 49:14-15 (NKJV)
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave [Sheol], For He shall receive me. Selah
As you can see, the NRSV translates Sheol to ‘grave’ once, leaving the other three transliterated. The NIV, however, uses a variety of phrases for Sheol: ‘die’, ‘grave’, and ‘realm of the dead’. The NKJV consistently translates Sheol as ‘grave’.
What is happening here, and why is there so much difference between translations? This is due to the bias of various translation committees and how they choose to impose their understanding of the afterlife on the text to influence the reader’s own understanding.
To understand which translation is best from the ones above, we need to know the context. This psalm is a Korahitic psalm, as the title at the beginning of the psalm states clearly. The Korahites were a clan within the priestly tribe of Levi. They were famous for the incident in Numbers 16, where Korah rose up against Moses’ authority, and a failed challenge led to the following:
The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households—everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. All Israel around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth will swallow us, too!” And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.
Numbers 16:32-35 (NRSV)
If we remember our cosmic geography, we will understand that Sheol was the underworld, and that valleys, caves and graves were seen as entrances to Sheol. That these folk bodily descended into the underworld, bypassing any specifically dug hole in the ground called a grave (qeber) is why the writer would not have used qeber in this passage, and instead chose Sheol. The reader intended us to understand that they didn’t descend to the grave, a hole in the ground where people put physical bodies, but straight into the underworld, Sheol.
So, when looking back to Psalm 49:14-15, it is clear that the Korahite writer had firmly in mind that tragic episode from their clan history, where their ancestors descended straight into the underworld. The NRSV has the closest meaning to the original intention of the psalm writer.
Even the NRSV’s wording ‘ Their forms will decay in the grave [Sheol]’ can be understood through the Hebraic understanding of the soul, a holistic dualistic unity, where you didn’t have a soul, you were a soul, and your soul continued on, albeit in a lesser able form, in the underworld.
Sheol has always been the underworld/afterlife realm of the physically deceased in the Hebraic mindset, where everyone went when they died. In the earliest days of the Hebrews, they were gathered to their forefathers. Later they were understood to be gathered to their tribes and nations. Still later on, their understanding of the afterlife evolved to a more segregated realm for the righteous and unrighteous. At this point, upon entry to the afterlife, a judgement took place based upon their life works in their books of deeds and any entry in the Book of the Living, which determined their dwelling in the afterlife. When we come to the Septuagint translation into Greek, Sheol was translated as Hades, the afterlife realm of the dead. This continues on into the New Testament, where, at the end of the age, Hades is emptied and thrown into the Lake of Fire, as it is no longer required as a realm of existence in the restructuring of the new heavens.
Jesus wasn’t merely sleeping in the grave, he descended to the afterlife realm of Hades, as every single person who has ever lived and died did, because he was fully human and God. Jonah wasn’t praying from the grave in Jonah 2, he was in the afterlife and praying to God there. Many other theological problems arise when we use Bible translations that substitute a physical grave for the afterlife realm of Sheol.
When attempting to understand Sheol in the Bible, according to its original writers, Sheol was not the grave, and they never intended for their readers to understand it as such. Once we change our perspective by using Bible translations that leave their own translation committee’s theological commitments and transliterate the words, leaving the reader to study what the word means, we can begin to see the Bible’s descriptions of an evolving afterlife understanding come together.
To find out more about Sheol in the Bible and how the Hebrew ideas of the afterlife evolve throughout the Bible, their theological ideas of the dead, I recommend The Invisible Dimension: Spirit-Beings, Ghosts and the Afterlife, which provides greater detail about these and many other topics.
Footnotes
[1] – Ge 23:6; Ex 14:11; 2 Ki 23:6,16; 2 Chr 21:20; 24:25; 28:27; 32:33; 34:4; 35:24; Ne 2:3,5; 3:16; Is 65:4; Je 8:1; Ez 32:22,23,25,26; 37:12,13,13 [^]
[2] Ps 88:5; Jg 8:32; 16:31; 2 Sa 2:32; 4:12; 17:23; 21:14; 1 Ki 13:30; 2 Ki 13:21; 23:16; 2 Ch 16:14; 24:25; 28:27; 32:33; 35:24; Jb 10:19; 21:32; Is 14:9; Je 8:1; 26:23; Ez 37:12,13 [^]
[3] Ge 23:4,9,20; 49:30; 50:5,13; Ex 14:11; Jg 8:32; 16:31; 2 Sa 2:32; 3:32; 4:12; 17:23; 19:37; 21:14; 1 Ki 13:30,31; 2 Ki 13:21; 23:6,16,16,17; 2 Ch 16:14,20,25,27; 32:33; 34:4; 35:24; Ne 2:3,5; 3:16; Is 22:16; 65;4; Je 5:16 [^]
[4] Jg 8:32; 16:31; 2 Sa 2:32; 3:32; 4;12; 17:23; 19:37; 21:14; 2 Ki 13:21; 23:17 [^]
[5] 2 Sa 2:32; 4:12; 17:23; 21:14; 1 Ki 13:30,31; 2 Ch 16:14; 21:20; 24:25; 28:27; 32:33; 35:24 [^]
[6] Ge 50:5; 2 Ch 32:33; Ne 2:5; Is 22:16; Na 1:14 [^]
[7] Ge 50:5; Nu 19:16, 18; Ps 88:5; Is 22:16; 65:4 [^]
[8] Ge 23:4,6,9,20; 40:30; 50:5,13; 2 Ch 16:14; Is 14:19; 22:16; 53:9; Ez 37:12,13; Na 1:14 [^]
