Šĕʾôl

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The word Šĕʾôl (שְׁאוֹל) occurs in the following Psalms: Psalm 6

Lexical Semantics

See the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew for a full dictionary entry on this word.

According to Old Testament thought, dead people go to a place called Šĕʾôl ("Sheol"), a proper name for "the underworld,"[1] or the "world of the dead."[2] Sheol is a place of great depth (e.g., Deut. 32:22), guarded by gates (e.g., Isa. 38:10), associated with darkness (e.g., Job 17:13), dust (e.g., Job 17:16), and silence (e.g., Ps. 31:18).[3] R.L. Harris has argued that Sheol is a poetic synonym for קֶבֶר ("grave"), referring merely to the grave. "Its usage does not give us a picture of the state of the dead in gloom, darkness, chaos, or silence, unremembered, unable to praise God, knowing nothing... Rather, this view gives us a picture of a typical Palestinian tomb, dark, dusty, with mingled bones and where 'this poor lisping stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.'"[4]

References

  1. BDB, HALOT
  2. SDBH.
  3. see Theodore Lewis, “Dead, Abode of The” in ABD, Vol. 2, New York: Doubleday, 1992, 101-105.
  4. R.L. Harris, “שְׁאוֹל” in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Vol. 2, Chicago: The Moody Bible Institute, 1980, 2303-4.