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No one can deny that sheol here means the grave; so also it means the same in
Psa. 139: 8. Once again notice Isa. 28: 15 and Prov. 7: 27:--
"We have made a covenant with death, and with the grave (A.V. hell) are we at
agreement."
"Her house is the way to the grave (A.V. hell), going down to the chambers of death"
(Prov. 7: 27).
Look at Ezek. 31: 14, 15:--
"They are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the
children of men, with them that go down to the pit. . . . in the day that he went down to
sheol (A.V. grave)."
Now notice the utter disregard for adherence to the letter of Scripture in the verses
which follow (16 and 17):--
"When I cast him down to sheol (A.V. hell) with them that descend into the pit. . . .
they also went down into sheol (A.V. hell) with him."
In Hosea 13: 14 we read, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave (sheol);
I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave (sheol), I will be
thy destruction":--
A |
Sheol. . . . . . . ransomed from.
B
| Death. . . . . . . redeemed from.
B
| Death. . . . . . . plagued.
A |
Sheol. . . . . . . destroyed.
Here we read of the destruction of sheol--the grave. Orthodoxy would not permit
"hell" here for obvious reasons--the orthodox hell will never be destroyed.
Sufficient, we trust, has been brought forward to warrant the statement that sheol
means the grave. We must not confound it, however, with keber, a grave (Gen. 23: 4),
or bor, a pit, rock hewn (Gen. 37: 20-29), for sheol means THE GRAVE, or
Gravedom, rather than a specific burying place.
The word "hell" is an old English word derived from the Saxon hillan or helan, "to
hide," or "to cover." The word occurs in Old English literature with this meaning;
helling a house meant thatching or covering a house. This is the idea in the word
"helmet," which is a covering for the head. The word "heal" also is derived from the
same word, the broken flesh of a wound being healed or covered over. In Cornwall and
Somerset a thatcher or slater is called a "healer" or "hellier," while in Berkshire and
Wiltshire the words "yelming" or "helming" are used for thatching. If this be the
meaning of "hell" in modern English, we may let it stand as a translation in our Bibles of
the word sheol, but we all know that this is by no means the case; "hell" stands for
endless and unutterable torment, and we hesitate not to brand the rendering as a lie.