Isaiah 14:9

14:9 Sheol ¹  below is stirred up about you,

ready to meet you when you arrive.

It rouses ²  the spirits of the dead for you,

all the former leaders of the earth; ³ 

it makes all the former kings of the nations

rise from their thrones. ⁴ 

Isaiah 30:33

30:33 For ⁵  the burial place is already prepared; ⁶ 

it has been made deep and wide for the king. ⁷ 

The firewood is piled high on it. ⁸ 

The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone,

will ignite it.

Psalms 49:14

49:14 They will travel to Sheol like sheep, ⁹ 

with death as their shepherd. ¹⁰ 

The godly will rule ¹¹  over them when the day of vindication dawns; ¹² 

Sheol will consume their bodies and they will no longer live in impressive houses. ¹³ 

Proverbs 27:20

27:20 As ¹⁴  Death and Destruction are never satisfied, ¹⁵ 

so the eyes of a person ¹⁶  are never satisfied. ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 32:18-30

32:18 “Son of man, wail ¹⁸  over the horde of Egypt. Bring it down; ¹⁹  bring ²⁰  her ²¹  and the daughters of powerful nations down to the lower parts of the earth, along with those who descend to the pit. 32:19 Say to them, ²²  ‘Whom do you surpass in beauty? ²³  Go down and be laid to rest with the uncircumcised!’ 32:20 They will fall among those killed by the sword. The sword is drawn; they carry her and all her hordes away. 32:21 The bravest of the warriors will speak to him from the midst of Sheol along with his allies, saying: ‘The uncircumcised have come down; they lie still, killed by the sword.’

32:22 “Assyria is there with all her assembly around her grave, ²⁴  all of them struck down by the sword. ²⁵  32:23 Their ²⁶  graves are located in the remote slopes of the pit. ²⁷  Her assembly is around her grave, all of them struck down by the sword, those who spread terror in the land of the living.

32:24 “Elam is there with all her hordes around her grave; all of them struck down by the sword. They went down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, those who spread terror in the land of the living. Now they will bear their shame with those who descend to the pit. 32:25 Among the dead they have made a bed for her, along with all her hordes around her grave. ²⁸  All of them are uncircumcised, killed by the sword, for their terror had spread in the land of the living. They bear their shame along with those who descend to the pit; they are placed among the dead.

32:26 “Meshech-Tubal is there, along with all her hordes around her grave. ²⁹  All of them are uncircumcised, killed by the sword, for they spread their terror in the land of the living. 32:27 They do not lie with the fallen warriors of ancient times, ³⁰  who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, having their swords placed under their heads and their shields on their bones, ³¹  when the terror of these warriors was in the land of the living.

32:28 “But as for you, in the midst of the uncircumcised you will be broken, and you will lie with those killed by the sword.

32:29 “Edom is there with her kings and all her princes. Despite their might they are laid with those killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and those who descend to the pit.

32:30 “All the leaders of the north are there, along with all the Sidonians; despite their might they have gone down in shameful terror with the dead. They lie uncircumcised with those killed by the sword, and bear their shame with those who descend to the pit.

Habakkuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ³² 

His appetite ³³  is as big as Sheol’s; ³⁴ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ³⁵  all the nations;

he seizes ³⁶  all peoples.

Matthew 7:13

The Narrow Gate

7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

Revelation 20:13-15

20:13 The ³⁷  sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death ³⁸  and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 20:14 Then ³⁹  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. 20:15 If ⁴⁰  anyone’s name ⁴¹  was not found written in the book of life, that person ⁴²  was thrown into the lake of fire.

[14:9]  ¹ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.

[14:9]  ² tn Heb “arousing.” The form is probably a Polel infinitive absolute, rather than a third masculine singular perfect, for Sheol is grammatically feminine (note “stirred up”). See GKC 466 §145.t.

[14:9]  ³ tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.

[14:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “lifting from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” הֵקִים (heqim, a Hiphil perfect third masculine singular) should be emended to an infinitive absolute (הָקֵים, haqem). See the note on “rouses” earlier in the verse.

[30:33]  ⁵ tn Or “indeed.”

[30:33]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for arranged from before [or “yesterday”] is [?].” The meaning of תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh), which occurs only here, is unknown. The translation above (as with most English versions) assumes an emendation to תֹּפֶת (tofet, “Topheth”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) and places the final hey (ה) on the beginning of the next word as an interrogative particle. Topheth was a place near Jerusalem used as a burial ground (see Jer 7:32; 19:11).

[30:33]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Also it is made ready for the king, one makes it deep and wide.” If one takes the final hey (ה) on תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh) and prefixes it to גָּם (gam) as an interrogative particle (see the preceding note), one can translate, “Is it also made ready for the king?” In this case the question is rhetorical and expects an emphatic affirmative answer, “Of course it is!”

[30:33]  ⁸ tn Heb “its pile of wood, fire and wood one makes abundant.”

[49:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “like sheep to Sheol they are appointed.” The verb form שַׁתּוּ (shatu) is apparently derived from שָׁתַת (shatat), which appears to be a variant of the more common שִׁית (shiyt, “to place; to set”; BDB 1060 s.v. שָׁתַת and GKC 183 §67.ee). Some scholars emend the text to שָׁחוּ (shakhu; from the verbal root שׁוּח [shukh, “sink down”]) and read “they descend.” The present translation assumes an emendation to שָׁטוּ (shatu; from the verbal root שׁוּט [shut, “go; wander”]), “they travel, wander.” (The letter tet [ט] and tav [ת] sound similar; a scribe transcribing from dictation could easily confuse them.) The perfect verbal form is used in a rhetorical manner to speak of their destiny as if it were already realized (the so-called perfect of certitude or prophetic perfect).

[49:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “death will shepherd them,” that is, death itself (personified here as a shepherd) will lead them like a flock of helpless, unsuspecting sheep to Sheol, the underworld, the land of the dead.

[49:14]  ¹¹ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same force as the perfect verbal form in v. 14a. The psalmist speaks of this coming event as if it were already accomplished.

[49:14]  ¹² tn Heb “will rule over them in the morning.” “Morning” here is a metaphor for a time of deliverance and vindication after the dark “night” of trouble (see Pss 30:5; 46:5; 59:16; 90:14; 143:8; Isa 17:14). In this context the psalmist confidently anticipates a day of vindication when the Lord will deliver the oppressed from the rich (see v. 15) and send the oppressors to Sheol.

[49:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “their form [will become an object] for the consuming of Sheol, from a lofty residence, to him.” The meaning of this syntactically difficult text is uncertain. The translation assumes that צוּר (tsur, “form”; this is the Qere [marginal] reading; the Kethib has צִירָם [tsiram, “their image”]) refers to their physical form or bodies. “Sheol” is taken as the subject of “consume” (on the implied “become” before the infinitive “to consume” see GKC 349 §114.k). The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “lofty residence” is understood as privative, “away from; so as not.” The preposition -ל (lamed) is possessive, while the third person pronominal suffix is understood as a representative singular.

[27:20]  ¹⁴ tn The term “as” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation in light of the analogy.

[27:20]  ¹⁵ sn Countless generations of people have gone into the world below; yet “death” is never satisfied – it always takes more. The line personifies Death and Destruction. It forms the emblem in the parallelism.

[27:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “eyes of a man.” This expression refers to the desires – what the individual looks longingly on. Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:34 (one of the rabbinic Midrashim) says, “No man dies and has one-half of what he wanted.”

[27:20]  ¹⁷ tc The LXX contains a scribal addition: “He who fixes his eye is an abomination to the Lord, and the uninstructed do not restrain their tongues.” This is unlikely to be original.

[32:18]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew verb is used as a response to death (Jer 9:17-19; Amos 5:16).

[32:18]  ¹⁹ sn Through this prophetic lament given by God himself, the prophet activates the judgment described therein. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:217, and L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:136-37.

[32:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Bring him down, her and the daughters of the powerful nations, to the earth below.” The verb “bring down” appears in the Hebrew text only once. Because the verb takes several objects here, the repetition of the verb in the translation improves the English style.

[32:18]  ²¹ tn This apparently refers to personified Egypt.

[32:19]  ²² tc The LXX places this verse after v. 21.

[32:19]  ²³ tn Heb “pleasantness.”

[32:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “around him his graves.” The masculine pronominal suffixes are problematic; the expression is best emended to correspond to the phrase “around her grave” in v. 23. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:219.

[32:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “all of them slain, the ones felled by the sword.” See as well vv. 23-24.

[32:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “whose.”

[32:23]  ²⁷ tn The only other occurrence of the phrase “remote slopes of the pit” is in Isa 14:15.

[32:25]  ²⁸ tn Heb “around him her graves,” but the expression is best emended to read “around her grave” (see vv. 23-24).

[32:26]  ²⁹ tn Heb “around him her graves,” but the expression is best emended to read “around her grave” (see vv. 23-24).

[32:27]  ³⁰ tc Heb “of the uncircumcised.” The LXX reads, probably correctly, “from of old” rather than “of the uncircumcised.” The phrases are very similar in spelling. The warriors of Meshech-Tubal are described as uncircumcised, so it would be odd for them to not be buried with the uncircumcised. Verse 28 specifically says that they would lie with the uncircumcised.

[32:27]  ³¹ tn Heb “and their iniquities were over their bones.” The meaning of this statement is unclear; in light of the parallelism (see “swords”) it is preferable to emend “their iniquities” to “their swords.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:135.

[2:5]  ³² tn Heb “Indeed wine betrays a proud man and he does not dwell.” The meaning of the last verb, “dwell,” is uncertain. Many take it as a denominative of the noun נָוָה (navah, “dwelling place”). In this case it would carry the idea, “he does not settle down,” and would picture the drunkard as restless (cf. NIV “never at rest”; NASB “does not stay at home”). Some relate the verb to an Arabic cognate and translate the phrase as “he will not succeed, reach his goal.”

[2:5]  ³³ tn Heb “who opens wide like Sheol his throat.” Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in a physical sense, meaning “throat,” which in turn is figurative for the appetite. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 11-12.

[2:5]  ³⁴ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16; Isa 5:14; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 168.

[2:5]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

[20:13]  ³⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:13]  ³⁸ sn Here Death is personified (cf. 1 Cor 15:55).

[20:14]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[20:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:15]  ⁴¹ tn The word “name” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[20:15]  ⁴² tn Grk “he”; the pronoun has been intensified by translating as “that person.”