שְׁאוֹל

Sheol

also: underworld, grave, hell, pit fuller range ↓

H7585 Strong's Hebrew

shᵉʼôwl Transliteration

/sheh-ole'/ Pronunciation

Usage in the Hebrew Bible 66 appearances

Definition — BDB

sheol, underworld, grave, hell, pit - the underworld - Sheol - the OT designation for the abode of the dead - place of no return - without praise of God - wicked sent there for punishment - righteous not abandoned to it - of the place of exile (figuratively) - of extreme degradation in sin

Cite this entry

Strong's H7585 — שאול (shᵉʼôwl), "Sheol". Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB, 1906). Lemma, https://lemma.gebible.app/w/H7585.

Show BibTeX & RIS

BibTeX

@misc{lemma-H7585,
  author       = {Lemma},
  title        = {H7585 שאול (shᵉʼôwl) — Sheol},
  howpublished = {\url{https://lemma.gebible.app/w/H7585}},
  note         = {Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB, 1906). Lemma interlinear Bible study tool}
}

RIS

TY  - GEN
AU  - Lemma
TI  - H7585 — שאול (shᵉʼôwl), "Sheol"
PB  - Lemma
N1  - Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB, 1906)
UR  - https://lemma.gebible.app/w/H7585
ER  -

Compare with another word →

Grammar key — what these labels mean

Noun: A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Verb: An action or state-of-being word.

Proper: A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Common: A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.

Qal: The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).

Infinitive Construct: A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).

Absolute: The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.

Masculine: Grammatically masculine.

Singular: One.

Grammatical forms

Noun, Proper 64 times (97%)
Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (2%)
Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct 1 time (2%)

Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 66 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.

Every verse where H7585 appears — 64 distinct verses across 17 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.

Genesis 4 verses

Numbers 2 verses

1 Kings 2 verses

Job 8 verses

Psalms 15 verses

Proverbs 9 verses

Ecclesiastes 1 verse

Ecclesiastes 9:10 בִּ/שְׁא֕וֹל prep + n Proper Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.

Song of Solomon 1 verse

Song of Solomon 8:6 כִ/שְׁא֖וֹל prep + n Proper Set me as a seal on your heart, As a seal on your arm; For love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol; Its flashes are flashes of fire, A very flame of Yahweh.

Isaiah 10 verses

Ezekiel 5 verses

Hosea 1 verse

Hosea 13:14 שְׁאוֹל֙ שְׁא֔וֹל n Proper n Proper I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.

Amos 1 verse

Amos 9:2 בִ/שְׁא֔וֹל prep + n Proper Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.

Jonah 1 verse

Jonah 2:2 שְׁא֛וֹל n Proper He said, "I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.

Habakkuk 1 verse

Habakkuk 2:5 כִּ/שְׁא֜וֹל prep + n Proper Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. A haughty man who doesn't stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and can't be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations, and heaps to himself all peoples.

At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.

At its core, שאול (shᵉʼôwl) means “Sheol.” Scripture first uses it in Genesis 37:35. It appears 64 verses across 17 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890

grave

Modern gloss

Sheol

About this word

Strong's H7585 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.

These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →

64: distinct verses; The word appears in 64 distinct verses.
17 / 39: OT books; The word appears in 17 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 37:35: first appearance; The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 37:35.
Habakkuk 2:5: last appearance; The latest occurrence is in Habakkuk 2:5.
#594: by frequency; Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 594 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 64 occurrences in the concordance →

Most concentrated in

Psalms 15 verses 23%
Isaiah 10 verses 16%
Proverbs 9 verses 14%

By section of the Old Testament

Pentateuch 7 · 11%
Historical 4 · 6%
Wisdom 34 · 53%
Prophets 19 · 30%

By traditional corpus

Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 64 distinct verses.

Writings (Ketuvim) 34 verses · 53%
Prophets (Nevi'im) 23 verses · 36%
Torah (Pentateuch) 7 verses · 11%

How translations render this word

Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).

King James Version: Grave 28×, Hell 28×, Pit 3×
American Standard Version: Sheol 55×
Berean Standard Bible: Sheol 61×, Like sheol 2×
unfoldingWord Literal Text: Sheol 62×, Like sheol 3×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H7585 across 65 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

“Grave” 28×
“Hell” 28×
“Pit” 3×

Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H7585 across 65 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

“Sheol” 55×

Plus 10 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H7585 across 66 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

“Sheol” 61×
“Like sheol” 2×

Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H7585 across 67 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

“Sheol” 62×
“Like sheol” 3×

Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

8 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB

What do BDB’s symbols mean?

BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:

Symbol	Meaning
𝔊	the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX)
𝔙	the Vulgate (the Latin translation)
𝔖	the Syriac version (the Peshitta)
𝔗	the Targum (the Aramaic translation)
ψ	the Psalms
√	root (the underlying root or stem)
‖	parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel)
†	the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited

The 8 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.

1. the underworld, שׁ׳ תַּחְתִּית Dt 32:22, מִתַּחַת Is 14:9; מִשּׁ׳ מָ֑טָּה Pr 15:24; ‖ מָוֶת 5:5; 7:27; Ct 8:6 ψ 89:49; whither men descend at death, Gn 37:35 (E), 42:38; 44:29, 31 (J), 1 S 2:6; 1 K 2:6, 9; Jb 7:9; 21:13; Is 14:11, 15 ψ 88:4, and Ḳoraḥ and associates go down alive by י׳’s judgment, Nu 16:30, 33 (J), cf. ψ 55:16; under mts. and sea Jb 26:6 (cf. v 5), בֶּטֶן שׁ׳ Jon 2:3 (cf. v 7); with bars Jb 17:16 (si vera l.: v. 𝔊 Du); פִּי שׁ׳ ψ 141:7; שַׁעֲרֵי שׁ׳ Is 38:10; personif. Is 28:15, 18 (‖ מות) as insatiable monster 5:14; Hb 2:5; Pr 1:12; 27:20; 30:16; as said (fig.) to have snares, חֶבְלֵי שׁ׳, ψ 18:6 = 2 S 22:6, cf. מְצָרֵי שׁ׳ ψ 116:3; opp. (height of) שָׁמַיִם Am 9:2; Jb 11:8 ψ 139:8 + (opp. לְמָ֑עְלָה) Is 7:11 (v. supra); dark, gloomy, without return Jb 17:13 (cf. v 16; 7:9; 10:21; 16:22; all being alike 3:17–19; 21:23–26); without work or knowledge or wisdom according to Ec 9:5, 6, 10 (cf. Jb 14:21, and v. רְפָאִים sub רפה; yet cf. Is 14:9 f.). e.g. Deuteronomy 32:22
2. condition of righteous and wicked disting. in שׁ׳ (later than 1 S 28, especially in WisdLt):
- a. wicked יָשׁוּבוּ לִשְׁא֑וֹלָה ψ 9:18, יִדְּמוּ לִשׁ׳ 31:18; death is their shepherd, without power and honour they waste away 49:15(×2); שׁ׳ consumes them as drought water Jb 24:19; righteous dread it because no praise or presence of God there (as in temple) ψ 6:6 (cf. 88:6), Is 38:18; deliverance from it a blessing ψ 30:4; 86:13; Pr 23:14. In Ezek. שׁ׳ is land below, place of reproach, abode of uncircumcised Ez 31:15, 16, 17; 32:21, 27. e.g. Psalms 9:18
- b. righteous shall not be abandoned, לשׁ׳ ψ 16:10 (‖ שַׁחַת q.v.; opp. אֹרַח הַיִּים, etc., v 11, cf. 17:15), is ransomed from שׁ׳ 49:16 (cf. 73:23, 25; Is 57:1, 2); cf. Job’s expectation and desire Jb 14:13; 17:13 (cf. 10:21; 19:25 f.). e.g. Psalms 16:10
3. later distinction of places in שׁ׳:
- a. depths of שׁ׳ for sensualist Pr 9:18. e.g. Proverbs 9:18
- b. שׁ׳ וַאֲבַדּוֹן Pr 15:11, v. אֲבַדּוֹן. [שַׁחַת and בּוֹר, q.v., when ‖ שׁ׳, are usually in bad sense (ψ 88:4); prob. = pit in שׁ׳, > שׁ׳ itself as pit; words at least prepare for local distinctions of postB. Judaism and NT.] e.g. Proverbs 15:11
4. שׁ׳ fig. of extreme degradation in sin Is 57:9; as place of exile for Israel Ho 13:14(×2) (cf. Is 26:19). e.g. Isaiah 57:9

Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.

Word origin

n.f. ψ 86:13 (appar. m. Jb 26:6 cf. Is 14:9, v. AlbrZAW xvi (1896), 51) Sheʾôl, underworld (√ dub.; שׁאל, i.e. place of inquiry (ref. to necromancy) JastrAm. J. Sem. Lang. xiv. 170, cf. JBL xix (1900), 88 ff. (JeremLeben n. d. Tode 109 ‘Ort der Entscheidung’); Thes BöDe Inf. § 158 Di al. cp. √ שׁעל, whence שֹׁעַל hollow hand, etc.; שׁ׳ then = hollow place, ‘Hölle’, hell; other conj. v. Hup Ps. 6:6; De Is. 5:14 BeerBibl. Hades in HoltzmannFestgabe, 1902, 15; most now refrain from positive etymology (e.g. Buhl); Old Aramaic שאול, Syriac ܫܝܽܘܠ; Assyrian šu-alu is dub.: so read and interpr. DlPa 121; Prol. 47, 145 JastrAm. J. Sem. Lang. xiv. 165 ff. Ency. Bib.s.v.; opp. by BertinTSBA viii. 269 JenKosmol. 223 ff. ZimKAT 3. 636 al.; v. also Muss-ArnoltJBL xi (1892), 169 and reff.);—always abs., שְׁאוֹל Dt 32:22 + 52 times, ה—ָ Gn 42:38 ψ 9:18; שְׁאֹל 1 K 2:6; Jb 17:16, ה—ָ Gn 37:35 + 7 times; + Is 7:11 (so read for שְׁאָ֫לָה Aq Σ Θ Du Che and now most);—

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from שאל (shâʼal) (H7592) — to ask.

Part of speech: Noun Feminine TWOT: 2303c

Jastrow Dictionary

A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.

שָׁאוּל

(b. h.) pr. n. m. Shaul, Saul,
1. king of Israel. Meg. 14ᵃ ש׳ ויהוא וכ׳ Saul and Jehu, who were anointed out of a flask. Yoma 22ᵇ; Yalk. Sam. 117, v. עָנָה II. Sot. 10ᵃ ש׳ בצוארו Saul (bore a divine appearance) by reason of his neck (high stature); a. fr.
2. אַבָּא שָׁ׳ Abba Shaul, a Tannai (v. Fr. Darkhé, p. 176 sq.). Tosef. Ter. VII, 2. Tosef. Kil. IV, 10. Yeb. 3ᵃ. Sabb. 133ᵇ; a. fr.
3. Gen. R. s. 94 ר׳ יוחנן בר ש׳ ed. Wil. (oth. ed. שְׁאוּלָה).

שְׁאוֹל

c. (b. h.) nether world, grave, depth. Erub. 54ᵃ (fr. Ben Sira) שאין בש׳ תענוג וכ׳ for there is no pleasure in the grave, and death knows no tarrying. Ib. ואם תאמר … בש׳ מי יודה לך Ms. M. (ed. יגיד) and if you will say, I will leave my children a settlement: who will thank thee for it in the grave? Y. Yeb. I, 3ᵃ bot., v. דְּיֵיטָא. Yalk. Is. 261 ואם … שנפל עד ש׳ וכ׳ and when he (the Lord) sees a man fallen even to the grave, he raises him up (ref. to Ps. CXIII, 7 מקימי מעפר). Sot. 10ᵇ נבקע ש׳ מתחתיו the deep burst open under him (Absalom). Ab. IV, 22 ואל … שהש׳ בית מנוס לך let not thy passion reassure thee that the grave is a house of refuge (from responsibility) to thee; a. fr. e.g. Psalms 113:7

שְׁאוֹל ²

Targ. Is. XIV, 9; 11; 15. Targ. O. Deut. XXXII, 22; a. e.—V. שְׁיוֹל

A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.

Forms in the corpus

The 34 distinct written forms H7585 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.

Form	Parsing	Example	Uses
שְׁא֣וֹל	Noun, Proper	Deuteronomy 32:22	15
שְׁא֖וֹל	Noun, Proper	Ezekiel 32:21	5
שְׁא֛וֹל	Noun, Proper	Isaiah 14:11	4
שְׁאֹ֑לָ/ה	Noun, Proper	Numbers 16:30	3
מִ/שְּׁא֥וֹל	Noun, Proper	Proverbs 15:24	3
שְׁאֽוֹל	Noun, Proper	1 Kings 2:9	3
שְׁ֝א֗וֹל	Noun, Proper	Job 7:9	2
שְׁא֑וֹל	Noun, Proper	Isaiah 38:10	2
שְׁא֖וֹלָ/ה	Noun, Proper	Ezekiel 31:16	2
שְׁא֗וֹל	Noun, Proper	Isaiah 14:9	2
שְׁאֹֽלָ/ה	Noun, Proper	Genesis 44:29	2
בִ/שְׁא֔וֹל	Noun, Proper	Amos 9:2	1
בִּ/שְׁא֕וֹל	Noun, Proper	Ecclesiastes 9:10	1
בִּ/שְׁא֬וֹל	Noun, Proper	Job 14:13	1
בִּ֝/שְׁא֗וֹל	Noun, Proper	Psalms 6:5	1
כִ/שְׁא֖וֹל	Noun, Proper	Song of Solomon 8:6	1
כִּ/שְׁא֜וֹל	Noun, Proper	Habakkuk 2:5	1
כִּ/שְׁא֣וֹל	Noun, Proper	Proverbs 1:12	1
לִ/שְׁא֑וֹל	Noun, Proper	Psalms 16:10	1
לִ/שְׁא֑וֹלָ/ה	Noun, Proper	Psalms 9:17	1
לִ/שְׁא֥וֹל	Noun, Proper	Psalms 88:3	1
לִ/שְׁאֽוֹל	Noun, Proper	Psalms 31:17	1
לִֽ/שְׁא֣וֹל	Noun, Proper	Psalms 49:14	1
מִ֝/שְּׁא֗וֹל	Noun, Proper	Job 11:8	1
שְׁא֔וֹל	Noun, Proper	Hosea 13:14	1
שְׁא֨וֹלָ/ה֙	Noun, Proper	Ezekiel 31:15	1
שְׁאָ֔לָה	Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct	Isaiah 7:11	1
שְׁאֹ֣ל	Noun, Proper	Job 17:16	1
שְׁאֹֽל	Noun, Proper	1 Kings 2:6	1
שְׁאֽוֹלָ/ה	Noun, Proper	Genesis 42:38	1
שְׁאוֹל֙	Noun, Proper	Hosea 13:14	1
שְׁאוֹל֮	Noun, Proper	Proverbs 30:16	1
שְּׁא֣וֹל	Noun, Proper	Psalms 139:8	1
שְּׁאוֹל֙	Noun, Proper	Isaiah 5:14	1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7585, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derives from

שאל shâʼal H7592 to ask

Shares the same root

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — not the complete family. 5 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.

Bible dictionary

Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Sheol). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.

Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897

(Heb., "the all-demanding world" = Gr. Hades, "the unknown region"), the invisible world of departed souls. (See HELL.)

Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.

Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 59 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 64 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.

Read these verses in the Septuagint

This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.