Use of the word sheol. This word occurs in the Old Testament sixty-five times. It is rendered hell and grave each thirty-one times, and pit three times. With our Lord’s special indorsement of what is there written concerning it, we may look with interest at the facts brought out by the testimony of Moses and the prophets.
All alike go there. Thus Jacob says, “I will go down into sheol [to use the original word in place of the English rendering], unto my son mourning.” Gen. 37:35. Korah and his company went down into sheol. Num. 16:30, 33. All mankind go there. Ps. 89:48.
What goes into sheol. Sheol receives the whole man bodily at death. Jacob expected to go down with his gray hairs to sheol. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, went into sheol bodily. The soul of the Saviour left sheol at his resurrection. Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31. David, when restored from dangerous sickness, testified that his soul was saved from going into sheol. Ps. 30:2, 3.
The duration of its dominion. Those who go down into sheol must remain there till their resurrection. At the second coming of Christ, all the righteous are delivered from sheol. All the living wicked are then turned into sheol, and for one thousand years it holds them in its dread embrace. Then it gives them up, and judgment is executed upon them. Rev. 20:11-15.
Location of sheol. It is in the earth beneath. It embraces the interior of the earth as the region of the dead, and the place of every grave. Eze. 32:18-32. It is always spoken of as beneath, in the interior of the earth, or in the nether parts of the earth. See Num. 16:30, 33; Isa. 5:14; 14:9-20; Eze. 31:15-18; 32:18-32. Referring to the fires now preying upon the interior parts of the earth, and which shall at last cause the earth to melt with fervent heat, the Lord, through Moses, says: “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest sheol, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundation of the mountains.” Deut. 32:22. Jonah went down into sheol when he descended into the depths of the waters, where none but dead men had ever been. Jonah 1:2.
Condition of the righteous in sheol. They do not praise the Lord there. David so testifies: “In death there is no remembrance of thee; in sheol who shall give thee thanks?” Ps. 6:5. Hezekiah uttered the same great truth, when he was delivered from death in answer to prayer: “I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of sheol; I am deprived of the residue of my years.... Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind my back. For sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Isa. 38:10-19; Ps. 115:17; 146:1-4.
Condition of the wicked in sheol. They are still and silent there. David, in a prayer indited by the Spirit of God, says: “Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in sheol.” Ps. 31:17. In 1 Sam. 2:9, we read that the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
General character of sheol. It is a place of silence, secresy, sleep, rest, darkness, corruption, and worms. Job says: “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh! that thou wouldst hide me in sheol, that thou wouldst keep me secret till thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” Job 14:12-15. Again he says: “If I wait, sheol is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. And where is now my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of sheol, when our rest together is in the dust.”[dust.”] Job. 17:13-16; 4:11-19; Ps. 88:10-12.
There is no knowledge in sheol. This fact is plainly stated by Solomon through the Spirit of inspiration: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in sheol whither thou goest.”[goest.”] Eccl. 9:4-6, 10. When man goes in there his very thoughts perish. Ps. 146:4.
Such are the great facts concerning sheol, or hades, revealed to us in the books of “Moses and the prophets.” Their statements are literal, plain, explicit, and unequivocal. In opposition to all these, can it be maintained that in sheol and hades there is consciousness, wisdom, device, knowledge, happiness, and misery, as is popularly claimed on the authority of this record about the rich man and Lazarus? If not, and if sheol is such a place of silence, darkness, inactivity, and unconsciousness, as they declare, can the use of such language as is employed respecting the rich man and Lazarus in this very place be accounted for?