Sheol in OT #2 Flashcards
Does Isaiah 14:4-11 say that Sheol is the conscious place of the dead? (Note also Ezekiel’s dirge over Egypt’s Pharaoh in Ezekiel 31, 32).
Isaiah 14:4–11 (ESV)
4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! 5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, 6 that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution. 7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing. 8 The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’ 9 Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades **[Heb. rephaim] **to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. 10 All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ 11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.
Answer: No. “Shades” (Heb. rephaim) is a poetic euphemism about death and “Sheol” is figuratively given personal characteristics, as though it were a person. See Isaiah 26:14.
How does Isaiah 26:14 use “Rephaim” (shades)?
Isaiah 26:14, 19 (ESV)
14 They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.
Answer: Dead and shades are parallels.
19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead** [Heb. rephaim]**.
**Answer: Rephaim, here translated as simply “the dead” is mentioned as a vague reference to some future resurrection, or a reconstitution of the deceased, much in the same way as the NT puts it. See **
How does 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 speak of the dead coming back to life or, as Isaiah 26:19 puts it, as the earth giving “birth to the dead”?
1 Corinthians 15:51–55 (ESV)
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
**Answer: The dead comes back to life at a future resurrection, synonymous with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The vague hope of OT believers is clearly described as the resurrection in the NT. **
What do Psalm 88:10 and 115:17 say about the “shades” (rephaim)–whether or not they praise God at all where they are?
Psalm 88:10 (ESV)
10 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed **[Heb. rephaim] **rise up to praise you? Selah
17 The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.
Answer: The dead, synonymous with the “departed” (rephaim) do not praise God at all because they go down into “silence.”
