Jesus spoke plainly of judgment after death: God “has authority to throw you into hell.” Christians differ on what it is like. In Genesis 37:35, the Hebrew word is she’ol (H7585): It is the Old Testament’s name for the realm of the dead, where everyone goes down when they die.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind the word “Sheol” in this verse is the Hebrew word she’ol (said sheh-OLE).
It is the Old Testament’s name for the realm of the dead, where everyone goes down when they die.
This form, she’olah, has an ending that means ‘toward’: down to Sheol. Jacob speaks of going down, the way the Old Testament usually speaks of it.
The Berean keeps the name: it is ‘Sheol’ 65 times. Older Bibles put ‘the grave’, ‘the pit’ or ‘hell’ for it. Jonah prays, “From the belly of Sheol I called for help” (Jonah 2:2):
Word by word
| אֶל | בְּנִי | אָבֵל | שְׁאֹלָה | וַיֵּבְךְּ | אֹתוֹ | אָבִיו |
| to | son · my | mourning | Sheol · toward | and · he wept for | him | father · his |
Original form
What this tells us
Jacob’s sons have sold their brother Joseph and brought home his robe dipped in a goat’s blood (Genesis 37:31). Their father recognizes it: “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him” (Genesis 37:33). He tears his clothes and mourns, and no one in the family can comfort him. The word for “Sheol” is she’ol: the Old Testament’s name for the place of the dead, where everyone goes down, good and bad alike. Jacob is not speaking of punishment. He is saying his grief will follow him to his grave: “I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son.” It is the first time the word appears in the Bible. Some older Bibles put ‘hell’ here, many modern ones put ‘the grave’, and the Berean keeps the name. In much of the Old Testament, Sheol is simply where the dead are, a place of silence: “in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). And Jacob’s story does not end there. Years later his sons tell him, “Joseph is still alive” (Genesis 45:26). So the first word that older Bibles sometimes call ‘hell’ is not about punishment at all. It is about death, and a father’s grief. What do you picture when you hear the word, and where did that picture come from?
What the original says
Behind the word “Sheol” in this verse is the Hebrew word she’ol (said sheh-OLE).
It is the same word: the realm of the dead.
Here it follows a word meaning ‘from the hand of’: word for word, God will redeem my life ‘from the hand of Sheol’, from its grip.
In the Berean it is ‘Sheol’ every time it is translated, 65 times. Hannah sings, “He brings down to Sheol and raises up” (1 Samuel 2:6):
Word by word
| יִפְדֶּה | נַפְשִׁי | מִיַּד | שְׁאוֹל | כִּי | יִקָּחֵנִי | סֶלָה |
| he will redeem | life · my | from · hand of | Sheol | for | he will take · me | selah |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 49 is a song about wealth and death: “wise men die, and the foolish and the senseless both perish and leave their wealth to others” (Psalm 49:10). Rich or poor, everyone ends in the same place: “Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd” (Psalm 49:14). The word is she’ol again, the realm of the dead. But this verse breaks the pattern: “But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself.” To redeem is to buy back, to pay what it takes to set someone free. The writer expects God to reach into the place of the dead and bring him out. Other psalms hold the same hope: “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol” (Psalm 16:10), and “if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there” (Psalm 139:8). Many readers, Jewish and Christian, have seen in these lines a hope that reaches beyond death; Christians hear in them the first light of the resurrection. Either way, Sheol is not out of God’s reach. If death, or the dead you love, frighten you, this verse gives you a sentence to hold on to: God will redeem my life, and he will take me to himself.
What the original says
Behind “of Sheol” in this verse is the Hebrew word she’ol (said sheh-OLE).
It is the same word, the realm of the dead, used twice in this verse.
Here it appears twice. The second time it is called out to like a person, “O Sheol”, the way a speaker challenges an enemy.
It appears 66 times in all. Paul quotes this verse in 1 Corinthians 15:55, where his Greek has “O Death” twice:
Word by word
| מִיַּד | שְׁאוֹל | אֶפְדֵּם | מִמָּוֶת | אֶגְאָלֵם | אֱהִי | דְבָרֶיךָ |
| from · hand of | Sheol | will I ransom? · them | from · death | will I redeem? · them | where | plagues · your |
Original form
What this tells us
Hosea is a book of judgment and love together. Just before this verse God tells Israel that it is being destroyed because it has turned against him, its helper (Hosea 13:9). The prophet speaks of a birth that goes wrong: “Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son” (Hosea 13:13). The word for “Sheol” is she’ol, and here it appears twice, almost like a person: “I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting?” Readers hear these lines in Hosea in different ways: some hear God promising rescue, others hear him calling death in as judgment, since the verse ends, “Compassion is hidden from My eyes.” Paul takes them up as a song of victory over death: “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55). And Hosea’s book ends with God saying, “I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them” (Hosea 14:4). If death frightens you, notice who has the last word here. Paul’s answer to the sting of death is thanks: “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind the word “Hades” in this verse is the Greek word hadēs (said HAH-dayss).
It is the Greek name for the realm of the dead. When the New Testament quotes the Old, it puts Hades where the Hebrew has Sheol (Acts 2:27 quoting Psalm 16:10).
This form, hadēs, is the naming form: Hades itself is doing something here, giving up its dead, side by side with Death.
The Berean keeps the name: ‘Hades’ 10 times. Jesus says “the gates of Hades will not prevail” against his church (Matthew 16:18):
Word by word
| θάνατος | καὶ | ὁ | ᾅδης | ἔδωκαν | τοὺς | νεκροὺς |
| Death | and | the | Hades | gave up | the | dead |
Original form
What this tells us
Near the end of Revelation, John sees a final scene of judgment: “Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it” (Revelation 20:11). He sees “the dead, great and small, standing before the throne” (Revelation 20:12), and books are opened. The word for “Hades” is hadēs: the Greek name for the realm of the dead, the New Testament’s word for what the Old Testament calls Sheol. Here Hades does not keep its dead: “Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds.” No one is left out of sight. Then Hades itself comes to an end: “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14). Earlier in the book the risen Jesus says, “I hold the keys of Death and of Hades” (Revelation 1:18). Revelation speaks in pictures, and Christians read its scenes of judgment more or less literally, but they agree that it shows a real judgment and a God who has the last word over death. Revelation’s picture of the end is not only judgment. A chapter later comes a promise: “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4). What do you most hope for when you think about the end?
What the original says
Behind the word “hell” in this verse is the Greek word geenna (said GEH-en-nah).
It is the name of the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, used by Jesus for the place of judgment after death.
This form, geennan, is the ‘into’ form after the word for ‘into’: to throw ‘into Gehenna’. Our Greek text marks it as a name, the name of a place.
In the Berean it is ‘hell’ every time, 12 times, and all but one are in Jesus’ own words; the other is James 3:6:
Word by word
| ἐμβαλεῖν | εἰς | τὴν | γέενναν | ναὶ | λέγω | ὑμῖν |
| to cast | into | the | hell | yes | I say | to you |
Original form
What this tells us
Jesus is speaking to his disciples, whom he calls his friends: “I tell you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more” (Luke 12:4). He is preparing them for opposition, even death, for following him. The word for “hell” is geenna, from the name of a valley outside Jerusalem, the Valley of Hinnom, where children had once been burned in sacrifice to idols (Jeremiah 7:31). Jesus uses it for judgment after death: God “has authority to throw you into hell.” He says it plainly, and twice tells them whom to fear. Then, in the very next breath, he turns: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God” (Luke 12:6), and “So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Luke 12:7). The God who judges is the one who numbers the hairs on your head. Christians differ on what Gehenna is like, but they agree that Jesus warned of it out of love, not cruelty. The fear Jesus asks for is not panic. It is taking God seriously, and the same passage ends with not being afraid. Which of those two do you need to hear more today?
What the original says
Behind the word “hell” in this verse is the Greek word geenna (said GEH-en-nah).
It is the same word: the Valley of Hinnom, Jesus’ word for judgment after death.
Here it follows ‘to be thrown into’, in the same ‘into’ form. In this passage Jesus uses the word three times (Mark 9:43, 9:45 and 9:47).
In the Berean it is ‘hell’ 12 times, as in “the fire of hell” (Matthew 18:9):
Word by word
| ἔχοντα | βληθῆναι | εἰς | τὴν | γέενναν | τοῦ | πυρός |
| having | to be cast | into | the | hell | of the | fire |
Original form
What this tells us
Jesus has just warned anyone who “causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble” (Mark 9:42). Then he turns to his listeners’ own lives in a run of strong pictures: a hand, a foot, an eye. “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” (Mark 9:43). The word for “hell” is geenna again. Jesus says it is “better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell”. He describes it with words from Isaiah: “their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched” (Mark 9:48). Almost no Christians take the eye and the hand literally; Jesus is using sharp pictures to show how seriously sin is to be taken. The words he borrows come from the last verse of Isaiah, a picture of the dead outside the city (Isaiah 66:24). Some Christians read the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched as suffering without end; others read them as a judgment whose result is final and cannot be undone. Jesus does not say this to make people despair. He says it so that they will turn. What in your own life is he asking you to take more seriously?
What the original says
Behind the word “punishment” in this verse is the Greek word kolasis (said KOL-ah-sis).
It means punishment, a penalty given.
This form, kolasin, is the ‘into’ form: they go ‘into punishment’. The word after it, aiōnion, ‘eternal’, is the same word used of life at the end of the verse.
It is rare: the Berean has it 2 times, both ‘punishment’. The other is in 1 John: “fear involves punishment” (1 John 4:18):
Word by word
| ἀπελεύσονται | οὗτοι | εἰς | κόλασιν | αἰώνιον | οἱ | δὲ |
| will go away | these | into | punishment | eternal | the | but |
Original form
What this tells us
Jesus tells of the Son of Man on his throne, separating people “as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32). To those on one side he says, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me” (Matthew 25:40). To the others he speaks of “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). The word for “punishment” is kolasis: punishment, a penalty given. Jesus sets the two endings side by side, with the same word for how long they last: “eternal punishment” and “eternal life”. This is the verse at the center of the debate, and Christians land in different places. Most churches through history have held that it means conscious punishment without end. Others, holding what is called conditional immortality, read it as a final punishment whose result, destruction, lasts forever. Still others hope that God’s judgment will in the end restore. All of them take these words of Jesus seriously. Notice what the story is about: care for the hungry, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner. If this verse frightens you, remember who the judge is: the Son sent “to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).
Behind "hell" are 2 different words
Your English Bible says "hell" 13 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
In the same breath as his warning, Jesus told his friends not to be afraid. Read his words slowly:
Name it
What do you feel when you think about judgment: fear, doubt, questions, peace? Write it honestly, and then write what you would want to ask God about it.
Carry with you
What would change in how you live this week if you took both of Jesus’ words seriously: fear God, and do not be afraid?
A note
If this question frightens you, for yourself or for someone you love, you are not alone. Start with ‘Will God forgive me?’ and ‘How do I get saved?’ here in Ask; they are short. If the fear stays heavy, talking with a pastor or a counselor can help.