WHAT DOES THE BIBLE
ACTUALLY SAY ABOUT HELL IN THE BOOK OF ISAIAH?

The word "sheol" occurs ten times in the book of Isaiah: Isaiah 5:14; Isaiah 14:19; Isaiah 14:11; Isaiah 14:15: Isaiah 28:18; Isaiah 38:10; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 57:9.

Isaiah 5:14 - Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend [into it]. The context here shows that the language being used here figurative. Sheol is personified as though having a desire and a mouth, which are enlarged without measure to receive the sinful kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Although many individuals of the two kingdoms did actually go into sheol as their kingdoms fell, the thought appears to be not that they were actually going down into gravedom, but rather that their captivity as a whole is likened to such. Vaguely, some commentators read into this verse that the Israelites were going into eternal torture, but such an idea has to be read into what is stated.

Isaiah 14:9 - Sheol from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. This scripture is often referred to as proof that those in sheol are conscious. The context shows that this verse is figurative. The prophet is not speaking of literal fir trees and literal cedars rejoicing at the destruction of a literal golden city. (Isaiah 14:4,8) Although the prophecy of this chapter does have a partial fulfillment in the destruction of ancient Babylon, we believe that this whole chapter is pictorial of the destruction of the Great Babylon of Revelation, and the abyssing of Satan during the 1,000 years of the reign of Jesus and the saints. Elsewhere, we intend to produce, if Yahweh permits, a detailed study of this chapter. But for our purposes here let us look carefully at what the prophecy says so that we may see that it is not speaking of anyone having consciousness in sheol. The prophecy says that sheol from beneathed is moved in order to meet the king of Babylon as the king descends into there. Of course, sheol itself does not move, but it is speaking pictorially. The coming of the king of Babylon to sheol is said the stir up the dead for him. Pictorially, this is a taunt of Satan and his works. Their being 'stirred', however, as though being aroused from sleep, does indicate that the dead there are in the condition of oblivious sleep as described elsewhere in the scriptures. Yet the abyssing of the king of Babylon, that is, Satan the Devil (Revelation 20:1-3), does also result in the dead being brought forth, 'stirred up', from sheol/hades during the last day judgment, not only the small, but even all the great, the chief ones of the earth. (Revelation 20:12) The coming of the king of Babylon causes the kings of the heathen to 'raise up from their thrones.' John Wesley states concerning this phrase along with verse 11: "From their graves, which he seems to call their thrones by way of irony: the only thrones now left to them. Thrones both paved and covered with worms, instead of their former thrones, adorned with gold and precious stones."*
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*Wesley, John. "Commentary on Isaiah 14". .John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible. 1754.

Isaiah 14:11 - Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, [and] the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and worms cover you. This is a continuation of the same prophecy as Isaiah 14:9. The Greatness of Babylon will soon be pass. Her pomp, her pride, and her showy displays of mystical religious rites, symbols, doctrines, etc., will be brought down and silenced in sheol. They will no longer make any peep or utterance, so as deceive the heathen, which, in effect, weakens the heathen, bringing them low, with lies. (Isaiah 14:12; Revelation 16:12; 20:3) The destructive force of the worms of the ground totally destroy all influence of Babylon and its king.

Isaiah 14:15 - Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts ["recesses", New American Standard; "lowest depths", New King James Version; "deepest regions", Holman Christian Standard] of the pit. As king of Babylon, Satan [along with his cohorts] is totally silenced in sheol, depicted as being brought down to the uttermost parts of the pit. (This pictorial usage of sheol here should not be misunderstood to mean that Satan is under the same condemnation as mankind. -- Romans 5:15-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21,22) He is far removed from his former kingdom. This is similar to his being abyssed in Revelation 20:1-3, so that he cannot deceive the nations, and finally his being symbolically thrown in the lake of fire, where is he is symbolically tested forever. -- Revelation 20:10

Isaiah 28:15 - Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: There is nothing in this verse that indicates that sheol contained a place of torture or a place of bliss. Sheol again is aligned with death.

This message is directed to the rulers in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 28:14) It's time of fulfillment is related to when Christ comes, for we read in Isaiah 28:16: "Therefore thus says the Lord [Yahweh], 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone {for} the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes {in it} will not be disturbed.'" The stone is Jesus. So the message is directed toward the rulers in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus.

How did the rulers in the time of Jesus think that they had made a covenant with death, an agreement with sheol? We remember that the Jewish leaders had greatly diffused the word of God with Hellenistic philosophy. Both the Sadducees and the Pharisees to a great extent had accepted and blended Hellenistic thought into the Bible. Both the Pharisees and Sadducees had accepted the Hellenistic teaching of the immortality of the human soul, although the Hebrew Scriptures plainly show otherwise. Based on Grecian philosophy, the idea that several compartments existed in sheol in which the dead continued to have conscious existence. This was an agreement with sheol, but the wordage indicates that they thought even more than this: that their agreement with sheol would keep the coming destruction of Jerusalem from happening, that God's judgment of destruction would not come upon them. The very Son of God himself had visited them; they proudly boasted that they did not need him, that they were self-sufficient in their Torah, and their doctrines and traditions of men, and these would certainly keep God's scourge away from them.

Today we find the same thing in the apostate leaders of Christendom. They have made a pact with sheol. According to a great majority of them, the soul is immortal and the dead in sheol are really not dead, but alive, and is living in one of several compartments of sheol: paradise (some claim that paradise was taken from sheol to heaven); limbo, purgatory, inferno, etc. They continue seek and teach others to seek refuge in the lies of the human traditions and doctrines.

Isaiah 28:18 - Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it. This is a continuation of the same prophecy as discussed in the last scripture. The Pharisee's agreement with sheol did not stand, and Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE.

Isaiah 38:10 - I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years. King Hezekiah here speaks of his expectancy of dying and entering the gates of sheol, due to his health. By his early death, he would have been deprived the remainder of his years. This confirms the thought that sheol represents the condition of death.

Isaiah 38:18 - For Sheol can't praise you, death can't celebrate you: Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth. Righteous King Hezekiah, like King David (Psalm 6:5), expressed the thought that in sheol, the oblivious condition he was expecting to enter (Ecclesiastes 9:10), he would not be able to praise Yahweh. This further shows that he did not expect to go to a supposed compartment of sheol called paradise, for if he expected to go to paradise when died, he certainly would have also expected to be able praise Yahweh there.

Some claim that Hezekiah was only stating that as supposed disembodied spirit that he could not praise God amongst men. This is simply reading into the verse something that is not there in order to make it appear to harmonize with inherent immortality theory. There is nothing anywhere in the Bible to warrant adding this thought to what Hezekiah said.

Hezekiah further said that those in sheol cannot hope for God's truth. This would certainly not be true if they were conscious in paradise, but as being unconscious, they do not know anything, thus as long as they are dead, they have no hopes. Those in the grave have no hope. In that very day that man’s breath goeth forth “his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:4). There is no “work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). The dead are asleep, unconscious. Though the living have hope on their behalf, and may understand and delight in the truth as God is pleased to unfold it, the dead “know not anything” (Ecclesiastes 9:5), cannot reason or think, so they cannot hope for God's truth. Thus again, the scriptural truth of the condition of the dead is upheld.

Isaiah 57:9 - You went to the king with oil, and did increase your perfumes, and did send your ambassadors far off, and did debase yourself even to Sheol. Here we find a figurative usage of the word sheol. This verse refers to the debasement of Israel, who is depicted as a unfaithful woman, of whom Yahweh says: "Behind the doors and the posts have you set up your memorial: for you have uncovered [yourself] to another than me, and are gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them: you loved their bed where you saw it." (Isaiah 57:8) The usuage of sheol here is figurative of a severe debasement.

The King James translators chose to translate sheol in this verse as "hell", evidently because of the word debasement. If the traditional idea of "hell" should be applied to this verse, this would make the nation of Israel as a whole in eternal torment. This, of course, is not what Yahweh was saying here.

Isaiah 66:24 -- They shall go forth, and look on the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.

Although sheol is not mentioned in this verse, many refer to this verse as proof of conscious suffering after death. One has read such an idea into what is said, for such a thought is not expressed in the verse. The verse is speaking of fleshly corpses, human bodies, not of some alleged immortal sentiency being alive and suffering for all eternity.

The context shows that this is speaking of the age to come (Mark 10:30; Hebrews 2:5; 6:5) -- the new heaven and new earth, in which righteouness to dwell and when the knowledge of Yahweh will fill the earth. (Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:9; 2 Peter 3:13) At that time, the dead will be judged by the opened books -- the revealing of truths at that time, and their works in response to what is written in those opened books. (Daniel 7:10; Revelation 20:12) The destruction spoken of in Isaiah 66:24 parallels Revelation 20:9, which speaks of the fire (of God's jealousy -- Deuteronomy 4:24; 6:15; 29:20; Psalm 79:5; Ezekiel 23:25; 36:5; 38:19; Zephaniah 1:18; 3:8) coming down out of heaven to destroy those who follow Satan after the 1,000 years of Christ's reign and judgment over the earth. The rest of the people of the earth at that time -- the meek who inherit the earth, and live forever upon the earth (Psalm 37:9-11,29; Matthew 5:5) -- will all worship Yahweh and will look upon the carcasses of those killed.* The worms are used as a picture of destruction; for they eat the carcasses of the dead. The worms will not be killed so as to prevent the destruction. The fire of God's jealousy will not be stopped. The destruction produced by this fire is eternal, for those destroyed at that time will never come out of that destruction. There will be no more sacrifice for sin. (Hebrews 10:26) Their works will stand as a touchstone of abomination to all for all eternity. -- See Revelation 20:10.
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*See our study on "Mankind's Course to the Day of Judgment"
http://reslight.net/course.html

The prophet is evidently alluding to the fires in the valley of Hinnom. (See our studies on Gehenna in Matthew) What was thrown into the valley would be either destroyed by the worms or the fire. Although Isaiah does not specifically name this valley, he describes it; and we should notice that he speaks, not as many might expect, of billions alive in flames and torture, but of the carcasses of those who transgressed against Yahweh, who are thus represented as forever destroyed in the Second Death.

Updated: March 8, 2006