Sheol

Old Testament netherworld

Sheol is the Hebrew Bible's realm of the dead—a shadowy underworld where all souls go after death, regardless of how they lived.

Unlike later concepts of heaven and hell, Sheol is not a place of reward or punishment but simply where the dead exist in a dim, quiet state: He went down to Sheol in sorrow.

The word appears in theological discussions and older Bible translations.

biblical

Hades

Greek afterlife realm

GehennaPlace of eternal torment
Hebrew BibleJewish canonical scriptures
Old TestamentPre-Christian biblical canon

Ecclesiastes · Psalms · Isaiah · Jacob · Job · Samuel · resurrection · judgment · eternal rest · descent

underworld

abyss

Immeasurably profound depth

depthsLowest or innermost regions
chthonicOf underworld spirits
subterraneanBeneath earth's surface

descent · below · pit · darkness · shadowy · sepulchral · cavernous · infernal · nether regions · lower world

afterlife

soul

Innermost animating essence

immortalityExemption from death
deathCessation of life
hereafterLife after death

ancestors · shades · spirits · departed · eternal · beyond · resting place · world to come · fate · destiny

shadowy

darkness

Total absence of light

gloomPervasive dimness or dejection
silenceTotal lack of sound
stillnessComplete lack of motion

forgetfulness · oblivion · dimness · murky · obscure · veiled · formless · emptiness · void · nothingness

Opposites

afterlife destination

SheolHeaven

Sacred afterlife realm

Paradise · Garden of Eden · Elysium · eternal life · Gehenna

realm of existence

Sheollife

Animate state

this world

vertical cosmology

SheolHeaven

Sacred afterlife realm

the heavens · Paradise · celestial realm · Mount Zion

Family

hell, underworld, netherworld

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