The Grave
Question?
Does the Old Testament word "Sheol" translate only as grave? According to Jehovah witnesses and other deceived cults and even some who claim to be saved, the answer is yes.
Sheol is translated 31 times in the old testament as "hell". Were the KJV translators ignorant men who inserted their own bias into the text, or is there a hell in the old testament. Did Jesus go there for us? let's see: (Some of the scriptures will not be commented on for obvious reasons.)
Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Are there 3 levels in a grave - low, lower and lowest?
2 Samuel 22:6 The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; Are there sorrows in the grave? Is it not the ones left behind that sorrow?
Job 11:8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
The verse is speaking contrasts. Heaven vs. hell, not heaven and the "grave".
Job 26:6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.
The grave produces corruption, not destruction. Jesus warned: And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28
Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Don't saved people die and get put into graves? If "sheol" is the grave, then only wicked people get buried!
Psalms 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Here is the verse! And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." Luke 23:46.
His body went into the tomb, his spirit returned to God, and his soul went to hell. If hell is the grave, the all the old testament sacrifices that were BURNED meant nothing.
Psalms 18:5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
Ditto 2 Samuel 22:6. It must have been important.
Psalms 55:15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
Both the wicked and the pure go to the grave.
Psalms 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Psalms 116:3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
There is no pain in the grave. Don't go to Hell. It will hurt forever
Psalms 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Proverbs 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Proverbs 7:27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 9:18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
The above 3 verse form a trio. All deal with sexual immorality, and picture the whore of Revelation 17 (the Roman Catholic "church") seducing her victims until they wake up in hell.
Proverbs 15:11 Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?
A hole in the ground cannot adequately picture the wickedness of the human heart. Hell, the domain of the damned is a place of destruction. Job speaks of the grave as a place of rest, and Jesus spoke of Lazarus as sleeping.
Proverbs 15:24 The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
Proverbs 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
You can deliver no one from the grave by discipline. You will end up there someday no matter what! (Unless you are saved and live until He comes!)
Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
Isaiah 5:14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
Isaiah 14:9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Speaking of the place prepared for the Devil and his angels, the above could hardly be a grave.
Isaiah 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
The Earth opened it's mouth and "swallowed" Dathan and Abiram when the challenged Moses. Here is the passage. You decide it it is the grave they went into.
Numbers 16:29-33 If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.
Isaiah 28:15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
No one ever made a covenant with a grave.
Isaiah 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
Isaiah 57:9 And thou wettest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.
Ezekiel 31:16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.
Ezekiel 31:17 They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
Ezekiel 32:21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
Ezekiel 32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
In the preceding verses, even if one take the position that the verses are figurative, one cannot get the picture of a graveyard from these verses.
Amos 9:2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
Jonah 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
Jonah, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ in hell, cries out to the LORD.
Habakkuk 2:5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:
So, did Jesus go to Hell, and if so what did he do there? Answer, yes. Since we are tri-part beings, Jesus suffered for us body soul and spirit. He fulfilled every burnt offering in the old testament, then took the keys of death and hell, and went and preached victory to the captives. He then led captivity captive.
1 Peter 3:18-19 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;