Did King David Visit Hell? A Quick Look At Psalm 16:10 (article re-post)

The following little article brings up some interesting points about the Hebrew word that has been translated as hell in many of our English Versions of the Bible. Whether you agree with the writers conclusions or not, it does provide some food for thought.

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If you've ever read the King James Version of the Bible, you've undoubtedly noticed the frequent use of the word hell. In fact, the KJV uses the word hell more than any of the other English translations. At the same time there are in fact some literal translations of the Bible where the word hell doesn't occur at all. Why the difference? It has to do with the original Greek and Hebrew words.

In the Old Testament Scriptures the Hebrew word Sheol is found a total of sixty-six times. The translators of the King James Version chose to render it as hell thirty-one times. In other words about half the time this Greek word was translated a something which in our modern minds means a fiery torture chamber where unbelievers will be agonizingly tortured forever and ever without end.

Another thirty-one times the KJV translators rendered Sheol as grave. Let that sink in for a moment. About half the time they chose to translate this important word simply as a grave and the other half of the time they translated it as hell. How could the same word mean such very different things? But it doesn't end there.

Another three times this same word is translated as a pit. So we have one word that has been translated as three very different things. A pit is different than a grave. A grave is very different from a fiery eternal place of misery where people are eternally consciously tormented.

A pit is deep hole in the ground. A grave is a hole in the ground where a dead body is placed and then covered up with dirt. Hell in the eyes of orthodoxy is a place where people are kept alive to experience unending agony. Again I have to ask, how can one five letter word be taken to mean three very different things?

If you were to take time to look up every usage of the word Sheol you would immediately you would run into problems if you try to make it fit in with the traditional view of hell.

Let's take a look at one example from the book of Psalms. David is writing and he says: "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;" (Psalm 16:10a)

Read the above verse carefully. Think about it as you consider the traditional view of hell. Does this fit in at all? If hell is a place of eternal conscious torment for the ungodly, why would David who Scripture describes as "a man after God's own heart" be sent to hell? On top of that, why would he be sent there temporarily if it really is a place of eternal, unending, forever and ever torment?

Think about it. Why would God inspire David to speak of hell as temporary if this word Sheol has anything at all to do with the orthodox hell? It just doesn't add up.

On the other hand, as you consider that the normal usage of this Hebrew word outside of Scripture simply meant the unseen, you realize that rendering it as the grave or even literally as the unseen would make a lot more sense. After all, when a person is placed in a grave no one can see that person anymore. They are covered up.

By the way, the root of the word hell is the same as helmet. What does a helmet do? It covers up the head. It causes the top of the head to be unseen.

David like every other human being on this planet knew that he would eventually die. He knew that his body would be placed in a grave. But he also knew that death would not be the end for him. He knew that God would not leave him in the grave. He knew that one day there would be a resurrection. That is what he was looking forward to.

As we look at this verse, it should be obvious to us that this is yet another instance where the word Sheol should have simply been translated as the grave.

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Audio Blogger and musician James Flanders is a life long student of Scripture who most of his life had never thought to examine the topic of hell. But when he did, he found himself stunned at how the word Sheol was handled by the translators of the King James Version. Hear dozens of his audios on Youtube and his website.