"For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol,
Neither wilt thou suffer thy man of lovingkindness [hesed], to see corruption"
(Ps. 16:10, Acts 2:27).
The first occurrence of Sheol is in Genesis 37:35, when Jacob, learning of Joseph's death, states, "And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to console him, but he refused to be consoled, and said—Surely I will go down unto my son [Joseph], mourning, to Sheol! And his father [Jacob] wept for him." Sheol (Strong's #07585) occurs sixty-five times in the Hebrew Old Covenant and eleven times in the Greek New Covenant, translated as Hades (Strong's #86).
(Note: People have translated, 'Sheol,' as, 'Grave,' but grave is the Hebrew word, qeber (Strong's #06913). Ge 35:20 And Jacob set up a pillar, over her grave [qeburâ 06900],—the same, is—The Pillar of the Grave [qebura 06900] of Rachel, until this day.")
E. W. Bullinger stated in his Critical Lexicon, under Hell (Hades), "If we enquire of it in the list of the occurrences, it will teach: 1.) That as to direction it is down. 2.) That as to place it is in the earth. 3.) that as to nature it is put for the state of death. Not the act of dying, for which we have no English word, but the state or duration of death. Sheol therefore means the state of death; or the state of the dead, of which the grave is tangible evidence. It has to do only with the dead. It may sometimes be personified and represented as speaking, as other inanimate things are. It may be represented by a coined word, Grave-dom, as meaning the dominion of power of the grave. 3.) As to relation it stands in contrast with the state of the living (Deu. 30:15,19; 1 Sam. 2:6-8). 4.) As to association, it is used in connection with mourning (Gen. 37:34-35), sorrow (Gen. 42:38, 2 Sam. 22:6, Ps. 18:5, 116:3), fright and terror (Num. 16:27, 34), weeping (Is. 38:3, 10, 15, 20), silence (Ps. 31:17, 6:5, Ecc. 9:10), no knowledge (Ecc. 9:5, 6, 10), punishment (Num. 16:27, 34, 1 Kg. 2:6, 9, Job 24:19, Ps. 9:17) and finally as to duration, the dominion of Sheol will continue until and end only with resurrection, which is the only exist from it (Hos. 13:14 and compare Ps. 16:10 with Acts 2:27, 31; 13:35)."
