"The Wages of Sin #4" by Charles H. Welch from The Berean Expositor circa 1912-13 "Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Prov. xxx. 6). We desire to draw attention in this paper to the word which in the Old Testament is translated "hell," and to show its close connection with the word muth (death) which we considered in our last article. The word in its original is sheol. It is translated "grave" 31 times, "hell" 31 times, and "pit" three times. The word sheol is derived from the verb shaal, meaning "to ask" or "to enquire." Moses used the word sheol seven times. The first six occurrences the A.V. renders by the grave " and "pit," the last by the word "hell." The passages are as follows: "I will go down into sheol (A.V. the grave), unto my son mourning" (Gen. xxxvii. 35). "Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to sheol" (A.V. the grave) (Gen. xlii. 38). "My gray hairs with sorrow to sheol" (A.V. the grave) (Gen. xliv. 29). "His gray hairs to sheol" (A.V. the grave) (Gen. xliv. 31) "If the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up . . . and they go down quick (alive) unto sheol" (A.V the pit) (Num. xvi. 30). "They went down alive unto sheol" (A.V. the pit) (Num. xvi. 33). "For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest sheol (A.V. hell), and shall Consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains" (Deut. xxxii . 22). Let the reader try the word "hell" in place of "grave," as used by Jacob and his sons, and then let him ask whether Deut. xxxii. 22 has been translated fairly. The bias that lies behind this selection of words may be discerned by comparing such passages as Job xiv. 13 with Psa. ix. 17. The former reads, "Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in the GRAVE," whereas the latter reads, "The wicked shall be turned into HELL." Let the reader put the word "hell" into the prayer of Job, and its utter absurdity will be evident. The word translated "turned" (Psa. ix. 17) is really "returned" (see Lange), and the meaning is that the second death is the final doom of the "wicked" and the "nations" who forget God. Or again, compare the following: "Thou hast brought up my soul from the GRAVE" (Psa. xxx. 3). "For Thou wilt not leave my soul in HELL" (Psa. xvi. 10). The context of these passages confirms the Scriptural meaning ("the grave"), and refutes the traditional error ("hell"). Psa. xxx. 3 reads: "Oh Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from the GRAVE, Thou hast kept me ALIVE, that I should not go down into the pit," while Psa. xvi. 9, 10 says: "My FLESH also shall rest in hope, for Thou wilt not leave my soul in the GRAVE (A.V. hell): neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see CORRUPTION." The Hebrew parallel in both cases proves to all that sheol means the grave, and not the orthodox hell. Eccles. ix. 10 declares that "there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave (sheol) whither thou goest." Why did not the translators render this, "hell"? It certainly would have opened the eyes of many to see that the agony, torment and gnawing of conscience of the orthodox "hell" were false; so in this place we have "grave" as the rendering of sheol. I Sam. ii. 6 bears ample testimony that sheol is to be read as antithetical to life: "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up." Again in 2 Sam. xxii. 6 the Hebrew parallelism is strongly marked: "The CORDS of the grave (A.V. hell), compassed me about, the SNARES of death prevented me." The cords of the grave and the snares of death are a beautiful example of parallelism in Hebrew poetry, and at the same time confirm the meaning of the words sheol and muth (death). Sheol is spoken of as a place of darkness and silence; the Psalmist speaks of "making his bed" there (Psa. cxxxix. 8). The A.V. reads, "If I make my bed in hell" -- a monstrous distortion, the bed speaking of the sleep of death until resurrection. This the A.V. itself admits by rendering the parallel passage in Job xvii. 13-16 thus: "If I wait, the grave (sheol) is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to CORRUPTION, Thou art my father; to the WORM, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit (sheol), when our rest (cf. made my bed) together is in the dust ." No one can deny that sheol here means the grave; so also it means the same in Psa. cxxxix. 8. Once again notice Isa. xxviii. 15 and Prov. vii. 27: "We have made a covenant with DEATH, and with the GRAVE (A.V. hell) are we at agreement." "Her house is the way to the GRAVE (A.V. hell), going down to the chambers of DEATH" (Prov. vii. 27). Look at Ezek. xxxi. 14, 15: "They are all delivered unto DEATH, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit . . . . in the day that he went down to sheol (A.V. grave)." Now notice the utter disregard for adherence to the letter of Scripture in the verses which follow (16 and 17): "When I cast him down to sheol (A.V hell) with them that descend into the pit . . . . they also went down into sheol (A.V. hell) with him." In Hosea xiii. 14 we read, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave (sheol); I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave (sheol), I will be thy destruction ": A) Sheol . . . ransomed from. B) Death . . . redeemed from. B) Death . . . plagued. A) Sheol . . . . destroyed. Here we read of the destruction of sheol -- the grave. Orthodoxy would not permit "hell" here for obvious reasons -- the orthodox hell will never be destroyed. Sufficient, we trust, has been brought forward to warrant the statement that sheol means the grave. We must not confound it, however, with keber, a grave (Gen. xxiii. 4), or bor, a pit, rock hewn (Gen. xxxvii. 20-29), for sheol means THE GRAVE, or Gravedom, rather than a specific burying place. The word "hell" is an old English word derived from the Saxon hillan or helan, "to hide," or "to cover." The word occurs in Old English literature with this meaning; helling a house meant thatching or covering a house. This is the idea in the word "helmet," which is a covering for the head. The word "heal" also is derived from the same word, the broken flesh of a wound being healed or covered over. In Cornwall and Somerset a thatcher or slater is called a "healer" or "hellier," while in Berkshire and Wiltshire the words "yelming" or "helming" are used for thatching. If this be the meaning of "hell" in modern English, we may let it stand as a translation in our Bibles of the word sheol, but we all know that this is by no means the case; "hell" stands for endless and unutterable torment, and we hesitate not to brand the rendering as a lie. Some readers complain of our "dogmatism" and of "rudeness." Much as we would desire to consider the susceptibilities of all believers, much as we would ever remember how insignificant we are in comparison with the teachers whose doctrines we deny, yet we would rather be liable to the charge of rudeness than of unfaithfulness. Paul treated those who were his fellow-labourers with courtesy and respect, yet in his defense of the "truth of the gospel" he did not hesitate to speak of the "Somewhats" at the the Conference at Jerusalem, when he championed, by grace, the cause of Christian liberty (Gal. ii.). "We use great plainness of speech," he wrote upon another occasion; so would we also. Greek philosophy rather than the written Word of God permeates and dominates the theology concerning the soul, death, the intermediate state and hell. Sheol is never described except under the imagery of terror, and is always regarded as an evil. Never do we find it likened to the portal of heaven, or the passport to immediate bliss. It is described as an awful abyss and a land of darkness and forgetfulness. The parallels used in relation to sheol (such as destruction, corruption, &c.) confirm the teaching that has already been advanced in the previous papers, that the wages of sin is death (destruction - - perishing) and that the dogma of eternal conscious suffering is a libel and a lie. While dealing with sheol we would draw attention to another word, Tophet. The derivation of this word is somewhat doubtful. It is a name given to a part of the valley of the children of Hinnom which was outside the city of Jerusalem. The idolatrous worship of Molech had been practiced in this place and had rendered it odious. When Josiah was raised up to stamp out, for the time, the idolatry of Israel, we read: "He defiled Topheth, which the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2 Kings xxiii. 10). This fearful practice is mentioned and prohibited in Lev. xviii. 21: "Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech." The disgusting idolatry seems to have had a powerful hold over the people, for in Jer. vii. 31 we read: "And they have built the high places of TOPHET, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, NEITHER CAME IT INTO MY HEART." The diabolical institution that inflicted the agonies of the fire for a few moments is repudiated in a manner worthy of our attention. Not only does the Lord say that He did not command such practices, but that they never came into His heart. If this be the case, and analogy be allowed any place, what shall the Lord say of that doctrine so tenaciously held by thousands, of not merely temporary suffering as in the worship of Molech, but an eternal Tophet where the victims writhe and groan in never-ending agonies? The Lord overturns the worship of Molech and says that He will use Tophet as a burying place (Jer. vii. 32), speaking of it as a place of defilement (Jer. xix. 13). Antichrist, under the figure of the Assyrian, is consigned to Tophet (Isa. xxx. 33), where the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone," is parallel to the passage in 2 Thess. ii. 8. It is this valley of the son of Hinnom (used as the place for the worship of Molech, afterwards defiled and used as the place for the destruction of offal, refuse, and the dead bodies of criminals), which supplies the word Gehenna, twelve times translated "hell," in the New Testament. The witness of every passage in the Old Testament is unanimous; it says with one voice that, "The wages of sin is DEATH " (Rom. vi. 23). "The candle of the wicked shall be PUT OUT" (Prov. xxiv. 20). "The wicked is reserved unto the day of DESTRUCTION" (Job xxi. 30) "As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked PERISH at the presence of God" (Psalm lxviii. 2). "For yet a little while and the wicked SHALL NOT BE" (Psalm xxxvii. 10). "He is like the beasts that PERISH" (Psalm xlix. 12). "Let the sinners be consumed out of the land, and let the wicked BE NO MORE" (Psalm civ. 35). "They shall be AS THOUGH THEY HAD NOT BEEN" (Obadiah 16). "They shall be AS NOTHING" (Isa. xli. 11). "To the law and the testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them."