What is Sheol in the Bible?

Sheol is the Old Testament’s word for the realm of the dead: the place where, in the Hebrew Bible, everyone goes at death. It is pictured as down, deep and silent. Our Bible’s footnote at Genesis 37:35 puts it plainly: “Sheol is the realm of the dead — a shadowy place where everyone goes at death, not the later New Testament idea of hell as a place of judgment.”

That matters for how you read it. Sheol is mostly the grave and what lies beyond it, seen from the human side of death, not a fiery pit. Father’s Heart Bible renders the word as “the grave,” so when you search a chapter for “Sheol” you are looking for “grave.”

The Hebrew is shə’ol (Strong’s H7585), used about 65 times in the Old Testament. Blue Letter Bible’s outline lists it as the underworld, the OT designation for the abode of the dead, a place of no return, and also the place from which the righteous are “not abandoned.” The King James Version translates it “grave” 31 times, “hell” 31 times and “pit” 3 times, which is the whole reason the word is confusing in English. Where the word comes from is uncertain; the Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon marks its root as dubious.

In the New Testament the Greek word is hadēs (G86), from a (not) and idein (to see), literally “unseen,” according to Thayer. Acts 2 uses it when Peter quotes the Old Testament. Our Bible’s footnote on Luke 16:23 says: “Hades is the realm of the dead, the waiting place between death and the final judgment — not the same as the final place of judgment.”

The first time it appears is grief. When Jacob is told that Joseph is dead, “he refused to be comforted, saying, ‘No, mourning I will go down to my son in the grave.’” (Genesis 37:35). In Psalm 86:13 David says, “you have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave,” and the footnote adds that Sheol is pictured as the deepest place imaginable. Ecclesiastes 9:10 describes its silence: “there’s no work or plan or knowledge or wisdom in the grave, where you’re going.”

It is also the place of judgment on the proud. Isaiah 14:15 says to the fallen king: “But you are brought down to the grave, to the far reaches of the pit.” In every case the same fact stands behind the picture: Sheol is where life seems to end, and the question the Bible keeps asking is who is still there.

David answers that question in Psalm 139: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the grave, you are there.” (Psalm 139:7-8). The Hebrew word behind “grave” in verse 8 is Sheol. Job says the same from the other side: “The grave lies naked before our Father, and Destruction has no covering.” (Job 26:6).

The promises go further than presence. Psalm 49:15 says: “But our Father will redeem my life from the power of the grave; he will surely take me to himself.” And Hosea 13:14 records our Father’s own words: “From the power of the grave I will ransom them; from death I will redeem them.” Our Bible’s footnote there says Paul echoes the verse when he writes, “Death, where is your sting?” and that the grave could not hold the children our Father came to ransom.

The most important Sheol verse in the New Testament is David’s line in Psalm 16: “For you will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay.” (Psalm 16:10). On the day of Pentecost, Peter quotes it in Acts 2:27 and then explains whom it is about. David “died, was buried, and his tomb remains with us to this day” (Acts 2:29), so he “foresaw and spoke of the Christ’s resurrection, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor his body saw decay.” (Acts 2:31).

Our Bible’s footnote on Psalm 16:10 notes that Peter and Paul applied these words to Jesus: “David’s confidence in our Father became the Son’s rising from death.” The risen Jesus then says of Himself: “I was dead—look, I’m alive forever and ever! I hold the keys of Death and the grave.” (Revelation 1:18). The realm of the dead has a Keeper, and He is the one who came back.