Judge of all creation, the Most High and Almighty God. At that time, if they have never known it before, they will know what Psalm 83:18 (King James Version) says to this supreme Judge, who is God: “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.” Thus the dead cannot escape a judgment by the Most High God named Jehovah.

5. In writing Revelation 20:11-14, why did not John as a Jew use the word Sheol?

⁵ Death is the state of being dead. But from what place will the dead ones about whom Revelation 20:11-14 prophesies come forth? Re 20 Verse 13 says: “And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Haʹdes gave up those dead in them.” All of us know what the sea is and know that many have found a watery grave in it. But what is Haʹdes? To most people this has been explained incorrectly, that is, not Biblically. The apostle John, although being a Christian, was a Hebrew or Jew by birth. He wrote Revelation 20:11-14 in the international language of his day, the common Greek, and so he used the Greek word Haʹdes. But if he had written in Hebrew, John would have used the Hebrew word Sheol. In fact, nine modern Hebrew translations of the Revelation to John use the word Sheol; and the Syriac translation, which was read in the Middle East, uses the related word Shiul.

6. In the complete Bible, how are Sheol and Haʹdes used, and by finding out who are there, what can we also know?

⁶ In other words, in the complete Holy Bible made up of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures and the inspired Greek Scriptures, Haʹdes and Sheol mean the same thing. Haʹdes or Sheol means the common grave of mankind dead in the dust of the ground. In fact, the Authorized or King James Bible Version translates the Hebrew word Sheol thirty-one times as “the grave.” So, now, by finding out from the Holy Bible who it says are in Sheol or Haʹdes, we can know who will be resurrected from there, aside from the sea.

THOSE WHO ARE IN SHEOL (HAʹDES)

7, 8. (a) In what connection was the word Sheol reported as being used in the Middle East in the eighteenth century B.C.E.? (b) In what connection was the word Sheol used soon afterward in Egypt?

⁷ More than seventeen hundred years before our Common Era people in the Middle East used the word Sheol to mean the common grave of those dying on land, not of those dying at sea. In the year 1750 B.C.E., when Joseph was kidnaped and sold into Egypt, his responsible brothers reported that he had been killed. So his father Jacob (or Israel) refused to take comfort from his other children and said: “I shall go down mourning to my son into Sheol!” (Gen. 37:35) Twenty-two years later nine of Jacob’s older sons wanted to take his youngest son Benjamin down to Egypt to help them to get food from there for the famine. At first Jacob refused and said: “My son will not go down with you men, because his brother is dead and he has been left by himself. If a fatal accident should befall him on the way on which you would go, then you would certainly bring down my gray hairs with grief to Sheol.” (Gen. 42:38) Later, Jacob’s fourth son Judah repeated those very words of his father when Benjamin seemed in danger of being kept as a slave down in Egypt. (Gen. 44:29) Judah also said:

⁸ “Then it is certain to occur that as soon as he sees that the boy is not there he will simply die, and your slaves will indeed bring down the gray hairs of your slave our father with grief to Sheol.”—Gen. 44:31. (The Greek LXX translates Sheol as Haʹdes.)

9. On his deathbed, with whom did Jacob say that he must lie?

⁹ At that critical time Jacob’s beloved son Joseph was found to be alive in Egypt as its Food Administrator. So there was a happy reunion there of all the sons of Jacob. The aged man Jacob was sent for and brought down to Egypt to live there the rest of his one hundred and forty-seven years. As his death drew near, Jacob said to his son Joseph, the prime minister of Egypt: “I must lie with my fathers, and you must carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their grave.” (Gen. 47:30) Joseph swore to do this.

10. (a) To whom did the dying Jacob tell his sons he was being gathered? (b) On dying and being buried, where did Jacob go, and to whom?

¹⁰ On his deathbed Jacob blessed all twelve of his sons and said to them: “I am being gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah that is in front of Mamre in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite for the possession of a burial place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.” (Gen. 49:29-31, 33) This last request of Jacob was carried out, and thus the earthly remains of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came to rest together in the same burial place, the cave of Machpelah, in what became the territory of Judah. (Gen. 50:12-14) Thus Jacob finally went down, not to his son Joseph, but to his forefathers, in Sheol.

11. (a) Where was Abraham in the days of Jesus Christ on earth? (b) From what information do we know that Jesus was speaking a parable in Luke 16:22-26, involving Abraham?

¹¹ From the Holy Bible it is thus established that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in Sheol. Many centuries later Abraham was still there when his descendant, Jesus Christ, was on earth and told about a “certain rich man” and a “certain beggar named Lazarus.” Knowing as we do what the Holy Bible teaches about Sheol or Haʹdes, we know that what Jesus said about this “rich man” and this “beggar” must have been a parable or illustration. Thus Jesus talked in picture language, even using Abraham as a picture. To prove this to yourself, note how Jesus worded this story, in Luke 16:22-26, American Standard Version Bible:

12. How did Jesus involve Abraham and Haʹdes in this parable?

¹² “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Haʹdes [Sheol, Hebrew; Shiul, Syriac] he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us.”

13. In testing out whether Jesus’ words there are to be taken literally, what questions should the reader ask himself?

¹³ Now let the reader ask himself, Did Jesus really mean that the angels carried the dead body of Lazarus, full of sores, to the cave of Machpelah in front of the city of Hebron and there laid the dead Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, crowding out Abraham’s dead wife Sarah? Furthermore, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are all in Haʹdes or Sheol. So did Jesus really mean that there is flaming fire in Haʹdes or Sheol, the place in which, Jesus said, the dead and buried “rich man” found himself? And does that flaming fire torment certain ones in Haʹdes or Sheol and not torment others? Can those in Haʹdes or Sheol see one another and talk back and forth across a “great gulf”? And is there water down in Haʹdes or Sheol into which a person can dip the finger?

14. (a) Are the “rich man” and “Lazarus” reported today to be buried at the traditional burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? (b) With reference to Jesus’ parable, what does the Bible teach is not so in the literal Haʹdes or Sheol?

¹⁴ Many religious Bible readers say that Jesus was not telling a parable or pictorial illustration but was telling things as they actually are. This makes Jesus ridiculous. It makes him talk contrary to the rest of the Bible as to what it has to say about Haʹdes or Sheol. Go, please, to the Middle East today, to the traditional location of the burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the city of Hebron, under a Mohammedan mosque. Will they tell you that either the beggar Lazarus or the “certain rich man” (the so-called Diʹves) lies buried there? No! Furthermore, the Holy Bible says that Haʹdes or Sheol is not the location of Paradise for some dead ones and of fiery torment for others, but that it is the place of silence and of inactivity in every respect; that the dead ones there do not speak even to laud and praise God, and that there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in Haʹdes or Sheol.—Isa. 38:18; Eccl. 9:5, 10; Ps. 6:5.

15. How did Jesus use Abraham in the parable, and why appropriately so?

¹⁵ The honest-hearted Bible readers have eyes of understanding to see that in Luke 16:19-31 Jesus Christ was telling a parable or pictorial illustration. Such readers see that Jesus was using Abraham as a picture of the heavenly Father, Jehovah God, who made the promise to his earthly friend Abraham to bless all the families of the earth by means of Abraham’s seed or offspring. Just as Abraham at God’s command presented his son Isaac for human sacrifice, so Jehovah God actually sacrificed his Son Jesus Christ, the real promised Seed of Abraham for the blessing of all the nations of the earth.—Gen. 22:1-18; John 3:16.

16. Whom do the rich man and Lazarus therefore picture, and on what is this explanation based?

¹⁶ Accordingly, the “certain rich man” and the “certain beggar named Lazarus” were not literal men; they simply pictured two classes of people. The one class died to its favored position with the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, and thereafter had a tormenting religious experience on earth. The other class died to its unfavorable religious condition and was conducted by angelic power into the favor of the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, through his sacrificed Son, Jesus Christ. This understanding and explanation of Jesus’ prophetic parable is based upon the actual historical experience of the two general religious classes among the natural descendants of the patriarch Abraham in Jesus’ day.a

17. What are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob now awaiting, and how did Abraham show his faith in this?

¹⁷ Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Sheol are awaiting the fulfillment of Revelation 20:12-14 by their resurrection from the dead, when Sheol will give them up. Long ago when Abraham obediently attempted to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, he displayed his own faith in the resurrection of the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us so in these words: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, as good as offered up Isaac, and the man that had gladly received the promises attempted to offer up his only-begotten son, although it had been said to him: ‘What will be called “your seed” will be through Isaac.’ But he reckoned that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; and from there he did receive him also in an illustrative way.”

18. When Abraham thus received back Isaac, what did this illustrate, in fulfillment of what verse of Psalms?

¹⁸ Thus, when Abraham received his son Isaac back alive from the altar and was provided with a ram to offer as a substitute sacrifice, it illustrated how the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, would receive his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ from the dead by a resurrection, thereby fulfilling Psalm 16:10: “Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption [or, the pit].”—AS, margin.

19, 20. (a) How is the certainty of the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob proved by Jesus’ discussion of resurrection? (b) What purpose of God did Jesus thus show?

¹⁹ The coming resurrection of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a certainty. The words of Jesus Christ strengthen this certainty. The religious sect of the Sadducees of Jesus’ day did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. To try to prove that the resurrection would be an unreasonable thing, they put a tricky question to Jesus, one having to do with a woman seven times married.

²⁰ To show that their problem would furnish no difficulty for God in the resurrection, Jesus said to these Sadducees: “You are mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God; for in the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven. As regards the resurrection of the dead, did you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living.” (Matt. 22:29-32) In other words, if those three patriarchs were to stay dead forever, God would not have said regarding Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: “I am the God.” He would properly have said, ‘I was the God.’ But, knowing His own purpose to have those three faithful men “living” again by means of the resurrection, Jehovah said: “I am the God” of them.—Mark 12:24-27.

21. In what sense were the three patriarchs “living” to God?

²¹ That Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would live again by a resurrection from the dead was so definitely fixed that God spoke to Moses as if they were already alive, “living.” According to Luke 20:37, 38, Jesus said: “But that the dead are raised up even Moses disclosed, in the account about the thornbush, when he calls Jehovah ‘the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.’ He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to him.” At the time that Jehovah God spoke to Moses at the burning thornbush in the wilderness of Arabia, Jehovah did not mean that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were then alive. If they had been then alive in the days of Moses, there would have been no need for resurrecting them from Sheol or Haʹdes and Jehovah’s words would have been no proof that there will be a resurrection of the dead. But only because it was God’s purpose that there be a resurrection, He spoke of the three patriarchs as though they were already living. From the standpoint of the coming resurrection they all are “living” to God.

WHAT OF THE FOREFATHERS?

22. (a) What questions come up regarding Abraham’s forefathers, and how are they answered? (b) To whom was Abraham to go at death, and when was this fulfilled?

²² At this point, however, the question of Abraham’s ancestors or forefathers comes up for attention. These being dead now for thousands of years, where are they? Will they also have a resurrection? How shall we settle these questions? By the written Word of God! According to Genesis 15:15, Jehovah God said to Abraham in the Promised Land: “As for you, you will go to your forefathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.” The fulfillment of this came ninety years later, concerning which we read: “Then Abraham expired and died in a good old age, old and satisfied, and was gathered to his people. So Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite that is in front of Mamre, the field that Abraham had purchased from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried, and also Sarah his wife.”—Gen. 25:8-10.

23. To what people was Abraham gathered at death, and what, therefore, would thus also be true of those people?

²³ Thus, as God had said, Abraham went to his forefathers in peace; he was gathered to his people. Who were Abraham’s forefathers, and who were his people? Abraham’s immediate father was Terah of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans; and chapter eleven of Genesis lists the forefathers of Abraham all the way back, through nine generations, to Shem, the son of Noah. Noah died two years before Abraham was born, whereas Shem died only twenty-five years before Abraham died. To these men as his people Abraham was gathered, and to these as his forefathers Abraham went in peace at death. What, then, does this mean? This, that, if at death Abraham went to Sheol or Haʹdes, to which place Isaac and Jacob followed him, then Abraham’s people or forefathers back to Noah must also be in Sheol or Haʹdes, and there they too are awaiting the resurrection of the dead under God’s kingdom by his Christ.

24. To whom was Abraham’s son Ishmael gathered at death, and where?

²⁴ Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael was the son of Abraham by his Egyptian concubine Hagar. Ishmael lived one hundred and thirty-seven years, and then, as Genesis 25:17 tells us, “he expired and died and was gathered to his people.” His people included his father Abraham, whom both Ishmael and Isaac buried ninety years previously. Ishmael, too, was thus gathered to Sheol or Haʹdes, the common grave of the human dead who lie in earth’s dust.

25. To whom was Moses’ brother Aaron gathered at death, and at what time?

²⁵ God’s written Word mentions the gathering of others to their forefathers at death. Just a hundred and fifteen years after the patriarch Jacob died down in Egypt, his great-great-grandson Aaron was born and three years later Aaron’s brother, who became the prophet Moses. When Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old God said: “Aaron will be gathered to his people, for he will not enter into the land that I shall certainly give to the sons of Israel.” So God’s high priest Aaron died on Mount Hor east of the Promised Land. (Num. 20:23-29) Later that same year Jehovah said to the prophet Moses: “You must be gathered to your people, yes, you, just as Aaron your brother was gathered.”—Num. 27:13.

26. Where was Moses gathered to his people, and where is he now?

²⁶ Before this occurred, Jehovah had Moses execute vengeance upon the enemy Midianites. (Num. 31:1, 2) On the day of Moses’ death in 1473 B.C.E., Jehovah told him to climb Mount Nebo and view the Promised Land from there and then be gathered to his people. (Deut. 32:48-52) Moses obeyed this command; and the postmortem report about him says: “After that Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab at the order of Jehovah. And he proceeded to bury him in the valley in the land of Moab in front of Beth-peor, and nobody has come to know his grave down to this day.” (Deut. 34:5, 6) But wherever Moses’ grave was, he went to Sheol or Haʹdes. From there God can deliver him and also Aaron through a resurrection by means of Jesus Christ the King.

27. To whom were Joshua and his contemporary Israelites gathered at death, and to what did they then descend?

²⁷ Who succeeded Moses as the visible judge of God’s chosen nation? It was Joshua the son of Nun. He led the chosen people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. He was faithful to God until he died. Concerning Joshua and others of his day Judges 2:8-10 tells us: “Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of a hundred and ten years. So they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres in the mountainous region of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash. And all that generation too were gathered to their fathers, and another generation began to rise after them.” The gathering of all these to their fathers signifies that they all descended to Sheol, Haʹdes.

28. (a) With whom did King David lie down at his death? (b) Where did the apostle Peter report David to be on Pentecost of 33 C.E.?

²⁸ Centuries later David of Bethlehem became king of all twelve tribes of Israel. He was the first Jewish king to rule at Jerusalem. In a number of the psalms that David wrote he speaks about deliverance from Sheol or Haʹdes. (Pss. 16:10; 18:5; 30:3; 86:13) He lived to see his wise son Solomon installed as his successor on the throne of Jerusalem. “Then David lay down with his forefathers and was buried in the city of David.” (1 Ki. 2:10; Acts 13:36) He joined his forefathers in Sheol or Haʹdes. Long afterward, on the festival day of Shabuoth (Pentecost) of 33 C.E., David was reported to be still in Sheol or Haʹdes. On that day the Christian apostle Peter reported that Psalm Sixteen Ps 16 (composed by David) had then been fulfilled in David’s promised descendant, Jesus Christ. As Peter said concerning David: “He saw beforehand and spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he forsaken in Haʹdes nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God resurrected, of which fact we are all witnesses. . . . Actually David did not ascend to the heavens.” (Acts 2:1-34) According to Peter’s words David’s resurrection is yet future.

29, 30. (a) To whom did the prophetess Huldah say that King Josiah would be gathered, and how was this fulfilled? (b) Were all the kings prior to Josiah buried In the same place?

²⁹ One of David’s faithful successors to the throne of Jerusalem was Josiah of the seventh century before our Common Era. By turning back his people to the law of Jehovah God, Josiah tried to do what he could to prevent national calamity from coming upon them. When he inquired through the prophetess Huldah what the future held for his nation, Josiah was given this promise from God: “Here I am gathering you to your forefathers, and you will certainly be gathered to your own graveyard in peace, and your eyes will not look upon all the calamity that I am bringing upon this place.”—2 Ki. 22:20.

³⁰ Josiah died from a wound received in battle at Megiddo. So it was not during the terrible calamity that was to come upon Jerusalem. After Josiah was fatally wounded, “his servants took him down from the chariot and had him ride in the second war chariot that was his and brought him to Jerusalem. Thus he died and was buried in the graveyard of his forefathers; and all Judah and Jerusalem were mourning over Josiah.” (2 Chron. 35:22-24) Not all the kings of Jerusalem who preceded Josiah were buried in the same place at Jerusalem, in the “burial places of the kings of Israel.”—2 Chron. 28:27; 21:20; 24:25; 32:33; 16:14.

31, 32. (a) For such ancient personages to be gathered to their people, what about their individual graves? (b) From where will they all come forth in common, and how?

³¹ For all these kings and patriarchs to be gathered to their people or to go to their forefathers and to lie with their forefathers, it did not mean that they all had to be buried in the same grave or tomb. Certainly when the patriarch Abraham died and was “gathered to his people,” he was not buried in the same grave with his father Terah, who died up north in Haran in the Mesopotamian valley, nor in the same graveyard or cemetery with Noah and Shem.

³² Certainly when high priest Aaron died at Mount Hor and his brother Moses died at Mount Nebo and they were gathered to their people, they were not buried with their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the cave at Machpelah near Hebron in the Promised Land. Yet they were all gathered to Sheol or Haʹdes. They all lie dead in the one Sheol or Haʹdes; and from there, Revelation 20:13 tells us, the dead will come forth in a resurrection.

Part Two

1. (a) Who did Paul say to Governor Felix would come forth in a resurrection? (b) How can we make sure whether such kinds of persons are in line for resurrection?

ONCE the Christian apostle Paul spoke in court before the Roman Governor Felix, who did not believe in the Bible and its teaching of a resurrection. Paul said: “I am rendering sacred service to the God of my forefathers, as I believe all the things set forth in the Law and written in the Prophets; and I have hope toward God, which hope these men themselves also entertain, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Acts 24:14, 15) Well, then, does the Bible teach that there are unrighteous persons in Sheol or Haʹdes, which place will be emptied of all its dead by God’s kingdom? We can make sure of the answer to this question. How? By learning who else are in Sheol (Haʹdes) and what the Bible has to say about their morality and their position during their past earthly life.

UNRIGHTEOUS PERSONS ALSO IN SHEOL (HAʹDES)

2. How, in the book of Numbers, does Moses use the word Sheol in calling down judgment upon three rebels and their households?

² The Hebrew word Sheol (Greek LXX, Haʹdes) occurs four times in the first book of the Bible, called Genesis and written by the prophet Moses. The next occurrences of Sheol are in the fourth book of the Bible, called Numbers, also written by Moses. Twice the word is there used, in connection with the households of the Israelites Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Those three men became rebellious against Jehovah, and so he used his prophet Moses to call down his judgment upon them. First the other Israelites were told to get away from the tabernacles of those three rebels and their households. Then Moses showed that the judgment would be from God by saying: “If it is something created that Jehovah will create, and the ground has to open its mouth and swallow up them and everything that belongs to them and they have to go down alive into Sheol [Haʹdes], you will then know for certain that these men have treated Jehovah disrespectfully.”—Num. 16:20-30.

3. So what punishment did Moses ask to come upon those condemned ones, and where did they go at their execution?

³ Notice that the prophet Moses did not pray or ask for those three family groups to go down into everlasting destruction. He did not call for the worst punishment possible to be executed upon them. He asked for the ground beneath them to open up and swallow them down alive and bury them out of sight, that in this way they might go down “into Sheol.” Did they go to Sheol (Haʹdes), or to a worse place? The very next verses (Num. 16:31-33) tell us, saying: “And it came about that as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them began to be split apart. And the earth proceeded to open its mouth and to swallow up them and their households and all humankind that belonged to Korah and all the goods. So down they went, and all who belonged to them, alive into Sheol [Haʹdes, LXX], and the earth went covering them over, so that they perished from the midst of the congregation.”

4, 5. (a) How was Korah himself executed at that time? (b) Who of those households were spared, and why?

⁴ Apparently the leading man Korah was not with those who went down alive in this manner into Sheol. He was a Levite and evidently was in the courtyard of the tabernacle of worship among the two hundred and fifty Levites who sided with Korah against Moses and Aaron. “And a fire came out from Jehovah and proceeded to consume the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense.”—Num. 16:35.

⁵ Thus by the miraculous splitting of the ground and by miraculous fire those three rebels and their households were cleared out from the congregation of Israel at about the same time. Sheol or Haʹdes holds them. The sons of Korah did not side in with their father and hence were not burned up. As Numbers 26:9-11 tells us: “However, the sons of Korah did not die.” In support of this, see also the superscriptions of Psalms 42-49, 84, 85, 87, 88.

6. According to Deuteronomy 32:22, how far-reaching is the expression of God’s anger, and how does Amos 9:2 agree with this?

⁶ In the Bible’s fifth book, called Deuteronomy, Moses used the word Sheol. In his farewell song to the congregation of Israel, Moses warned them about how thoroughly God would express his fiery anger against those who incite him to jealousy by their false worship. In giving this warning Jehovah God says through Moses: “A fire has been ignited in my anger and it will burn down to Sheol, the lowest place, and it will consume the earth and its produce and will set ablaze the foundations of mountains.” (Deut. 32:22) In pictorial language this warns us that Jehovah’s fiery anger goes down to the very roots of things. It is so thorough in its execution that if people try to dig as far down into the earth as Sheol in an attempt to escape, they will be overtaken by Jehovah’s searching anger. The reach of his ability to execute destructive judgment goes as far as earthly man can go. (Amos 9:2) Jerusalem was a city built upon a mountaintop, but God’s expression of anger reached her and caused her destruction.

7. Against whom were Korah, Dathan and Abiram directly speaking, and so why would it have otherwise gone far worse for their rebellion?

⁷ In the above-mentioned cases of the Israelites Korah, Dathan and Abiram, we must remember that they were rebelling and speaking against typical or prophetic figures. Both Moses as prophet and his brother Aaron as high priest were types of Jesus Christ in similar offices. (Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:20-23; Heb. 3:1, 2; 5:4-6; 9:23-26) When Jesus was on earth and was being spoken against he said: “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in the present system of things nor in that to come.” (Matt. 12:32) Korah, Dathan and Abiram were speaking against the two men, Moses and Aaron, who were types or prophetic figures of the Son of man, Jesus Christ. Had that not been so, it might have gone far worse with them than merely to descend with their households into Sheol or Haʹdes.

8. How did King David use language like that of Moses when speaking to Solomon concerning the Benjaminite Shimei?

⁸ Another man who used language like that of the prophet Moses was David, the first Jewish king of Jerusalem. He also was a type or prophetic figure of Jesus Christ, who was born into David’s own royal family. When David gave final instructions to his son Solomon to whom he had abdicated the throne of Jerusalem, David said: “Here there is with you Shimei the son of Gera the Benjaminite from Bahurim, and he it was that called down evil upon me with a painful malediction on the day that I was going to Mahanaim; and he it was that came down to meet me at the Jordan, so that I swore to him by Jehovah, saying, ‘I shall not put you to death by the sword.’ And now do not leave him unpunished, for you are a wise man and you well know what you ought to do to him, and you must bring his gray hairs down to Sheol with blood.” In due time Solomon carried out his father’s orders.—1 Ki 2:8, 9, 42-46.

9. How was this true also with regard to David’s former army general Joab?

⁹ Concerning his former army general named Joab, the aged David said to Solomon as his successor: “You yourself also well know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me in what he did to two chiefs of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether, when he killed them and placed the blood of war in peacetime and put the blood of war on his belt that was about his hips and in his sandals that were on his feet. And you must act according to your wisdom, and not let his gray hairs go down in peace to Sheol.” In due time, in the interest of the peace and unity of the kingdom, Solomon found it necessary to send his army officer Benaiah to execute Joab, who tried to take sanctuary at Jehovah’s altar. “Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went on up and fell upon him and put him to death; and he got to be buried at his own house in the wilderness.” (1 Ki. 2:5, 6, 28-34) Thus Joab’s gray hair did not go down in peace to Sheol.—Contrast Genesis 42:38.

10. Did David understand his use of terms in the case of Sheol, and to what, therefore, did he ask Solomon to bring Joab and Shimei down?

¹⁰ When giving such instructions to his son Solomon concerning Joab and Shimei, King David knew what he was talking about. He understood the meaning of the language that he was using. He knew what Sheol meant. In eleven of his psalms David, under inspiration, used the word Sheol and used it in a correct way.a He foretold, in Psalm 16:10, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from Sheol. This resurrection of Jesus laid the basis for all others in Sheol to be resurrected during the rule of God’s kingdom by his Messiah Jesus the descendant of David. So, in ordering Solomon to bring down Joab and Shimei violently to Sheol, David knew that he was not asking Solomon to bring down these disobedient men to everlasting destruction without hope of any future existence.

11. In Psalm 31:17, 18 David asked for the wicked to be silenced where, and why was that the correct location?

¹¹ David’s psalms and those of other Israelites are in harmony with David’s orders to Solomon as to the place to which to bring down men like Shimei and Joab. In Psalm 31:17, 18 David appeals to God and says: “O Jehovah, may I not be ashamed, for I have called on you. May the wicked ones be ashamed; may they [the wicked] keep silent [where?] in Sheol. May false lips become speechless, that are speaking against the righteous one, unrestrainedly in haughtiness and contempt.” In reading the prayer of David let us remember that it was written under inspiration by God’s spirit and that the right terms and locations are used.

12. In Psalm 9:17-20, what appeal to God does David make against nations leaving Him out of account?

¹² In Psalm 9:17-20 the inspired David makes this appeal to God against the nations that leave God out of account and that therefore march to the attack upon David and his people: “Wicked people will turn back to Sheol, even all the nations forgetting God. For not always will the poor one be forgotten, nor will the hope of the meek ones ever perish. Do arise, O Jehovah! Let not mortal man prove superior in strength. Let the nations be judged before your face. Do put fear into them, O Jehovah, that the nations may know that they are but mortal men.”

13. In Job 21:7-14, who did Job say descended down to Sheol?

¹³ It was not the delirious raving of a deathly sick man when Job said concerning the location of wicked people after death: “Why is it that the wicked themselves keep living, have grown old, also have become superior in wealth? . . . They spend their days in good times, and in a moment down to Sheol they descend. And they say to the true God, ‘Turn away from us! And in the knowledge of your ways we have found no delight.”’—Job 21:7-14.

14. What did Job 24:19, 20 say snatches away sinners?

¹⁴ To those words Job added these about sinners: “The drought, also the heat, snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned! The womb will forget him, the maggot will sweetly suck him, he will be remembered no more. And unrighteousness will be broken just like a tree.”—Job 24:19, 20.

15, 16. (a) Do the lower animals go to Sheol or Haʹdes at death? (b) How is it that stupid men, though in honor, have been appointed to Sheol like sheep, but how is it different with the upright ones?

¹⁵ Do the lower animals, such as sheep, go to Sheol or Haʹdes? No; even though their carcasses may have been buried along with human corpses or though images of animals may have been put in the sepulchers of believers in the immortality of animal souls as well as of human souls. However, just as helpless sheep are slaughtered in great numbers, so persons of all stations, high and low, rich and poor, have been slaughtered or killed in great numbers and thus been brought down to the common grave of humans who are dead in the dust of the ground. (Ps. 44:22; Rom. 8:36) The Levite sons of Korah sang of this fact, in Psalm 49:12-15:

¹⁶ “And yet earthling man, though in honor, cannot keep lodging; he is indeed comparable with the beasts that have been destroyed. This is the way of those who have stupidity, and of those coming after them who take pleasure in their very mouthings. Like sheep they have been appointed to Sheol itself; death itself will shepherd them [as if they were slaughtered sheep, the flock of Death]; and the upright ones will have them in subjection in the morning [of the day of deliverance of the upright ones], and their forms are due to wear away; Sheol rather than a lofty abode is for each one. However, God himself will redeem my soul from the hand of Sheol, for he will receive me.”

17. How was the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, but against whom did he turn traitor?

¹⁷ There was a man who was high in honor in the court of King David. That man was Ahithophel, the intimate adviser of David. “The counsel of Ahithophel, with which he counseled in those days, was just as when a man would inquire of the word of the true God. That was the way all the counsel of Ahithophel was both to David and to Absalom.” (2 Sam. 16:23) However, Ahithophel turned traitor to King David and joined in the revolt of his son Absalom.

18. (a) How did Ahithophel die, and with whom was he buried? (b) In Psalm 55:13-16, what punishment did David pray to befall the treacherous one?

¹⁸ In Absalom’s chamber of counselors God caused the wily counsel of Ahithophel to be frustrated. Hence, Ahithophel went off and committed suicide, hanging himself. “So he was buried in the burial place of his forefathers.” (2 Sam. 17:23) The treacherous person referred to by King David in Psalm Fifty-five is understood to be Ahithophel. Concerning the treacherous friend, David says under inspiration: “But it was you, a mortal man who was as my equal, one familiar to me and my acquaintance, because we used to enjoy sweet intimacy together; into the house of God we use to walk with the throng. Desolations be upon them! Let them go down into Sheol alive; for during their alien residence bad things have been within them. As for me, to God I shall call out; and Jehovah himself will save me.”—Ps. 55:13-16.

19. (a) In this connection, of whom was David a type? (b) Of whom was Ahithophel a prototype, and why is this latter one barred from a resurrection?

¹⁹ King David was a type or prophetic figure of his most eminent descendant, Jesus Christ, the Permanent Heir of the kingdom. So Ahithophel was a traitor, not to the Messiah or Christ himself, but to one who was merely a type of the Messiah. In harmony with this fact David’s prayer was that those like Ahithophel committing treachery against him should go down alive into Sheol, just as the household of Korah, Dathan and Abiram had done in Moses’ day. However, Ahithophel was a prototype of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the real Christ to his enemies for thirty silver pieces of money. Hence, the crime of Judas Iscariot was far more serious than that of Ahithophel, and Jesus called Judas, not the son of Sheol, but “the son of destruction.”b Jesus also called him a “slanderer” or a “devil.” (John 17:12; 6:70, 71) The destruction of Judas bars any resurrection for him.

20. In harmony with Proverbs 5:5, 6 and Pr 7:27, why have many men gone down prematurely into Sheol or Haʹdes?

²⁰ Even among the Israelites there were those who paid no attention to God’s law. So he let others bring them down to Sheol sooner than necessary. Among persons used as tools for bringing about a man’s premature descent into the common grave of dead mankind has been the harlot or prostitute. Concerning her Proverbs 5:5, 6 warns us in these words: “Her feet are descending to death. Her very steps take hold on Sheol itself. The path of life she does not contemplate.” Thus, if we follow her, we know where we shall end up—in death, in Sheol. So do not go to her house or district: “The ways to Sheol her house is; they are descending to the interior rooms of death.” (Prov. 7:27) For this reason many men have gone to Sheol or Haʹdes early because of their immorality.

21. According to Proverbs 9:13-18, men who stupidly yield to a prostitute are bringing themselves into company with whom?

²¹ We should not be as stupid as a prostitute by listening to her words enticing us to sexual uncleanness. “Whoever is in want of heart—she has also said to him: ‘Stolen waters themselves are sweet, and bread eaten in secrecy—it is pleasant.’ But he has not come to know that those impotent in death are there, that those called in by her are in the low places of Sheol.” (Prov. 9:13-18) The prostitute may be connected with a pagan temple of religion, but that does not alter matters. The false god worshiped in such a temple cannot save the worshiper from the disastrous results of a course of immorality, even when religiously performed.

22. The “path of life” turns away from what, especially as regards a prostitute?

²² The path of life leads in the direction opposite from where the harlot lives and carries on her business. “The path of life is upward to one acting with insight, in order to turn away from Sheol down below.” (Prov. 15:24) The way to the unlawful satisfaction of sexual passion and to the prostitute is the way to the realm of prematurely dead ones.

WHAT ABOUT THE HEATHEN?

23. After examining the cases mainly of persons like Job, Abraham and Abraham’s descendants, what questions arise about others?

²³ In our Biblical examination of the matter up till now we have been looking mostly into the cases of persons who have been in relationship with Jehovah by a covenant with him or by the clean worship of him, such as Job, Abraham and Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, Jews or Hebrews. But, now, what about the people whom Jews call Gentiles, pagans or heathens? After they die, where are they? Where does God’s written Word place them? Are they within God’s provision for a resurrection from Sheol?

24, 25. (a) As regards the idolatrous Egyptians, what attitude did Jehovah command his people to take toward them? (b) In Ezekiel 31:1-18, what did the prophet say to Egypt’s Pharaoh and his crowd?

²⁴ The idolatrous Egyptians were heathens. For many years in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before our Common Era they cruelly oppressed the Israelites. Yet God’s law through his prophet Moses said to the Israelites: “You must not detest an Egyptian, for you became an alien resident in his country. The sons that may be born to them as the third generation may come for themselves into the congregation of Jehovah.” (Deut. 23:7, 8) When likening Egypt’s king to an outstanding tree among other trees, Jehovah God said these words through his prophet Ezekiel in an address “to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to his crowd”:

²⁵ “This is what the Lord Jehovah has said, ‘On the day of its going down to Sheol I shall certainly cause a mourning. On its account I will cover the watery deep, . . . At the sound of its downfall I shall certainly cause nations to rock when I bring it down to Sheol with those going down into the pit, and in the land down below all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all those drinking water, will be comforted. With him they themselves also have gone down to Sheol, to those slain by the sword, and those who as his seed have dwelt in his shadow in the midst of nations. . . . This is Pharaoh and all his crowd,’ is the utterance of the Lord Jehovah.”—Ezek. 31:1, 2, 15-18.

26-29. According to Ezekiel 32:18-31, who else are in Sheol besides Egypt’s Pharaoh and his crowd?,

²⁶ However, Pharaoh the king of Egypt and his crowd are not the only Gentiles, heathens or pagans down below in Sheol or Haʹdes. Jehovah God, to whom Sheol or Haʹdes is naked and open, tells us of the many other Gentiles besides the dead Egyptians who are down there. In continuing his prophecy concerning ancient Egypt, Jehovah God says to his prophet Ezekiel:

²⁷ “Son of man, lament over the crowd of Egypt and bring it down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the land down below, with those going down into the pit.” The ancient Egyptians practiced circumcision, but, to their chagrin, they were going to lie down in death with Gentiles that did not practice circumcision:

²⁸ “‘The foremost men of the mighty ones will speak out of the midst of Sheol even to him, with his helpers. They will certainly go down; they must lie down as the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. There is where Assyria and all her congregation are. . . . There are Elam and all her crowd round about her grave, all of them slain ones, those falling by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised to the land down below, those who have caused their terror in the land of those alive; and they will bear their humiliation with those going down into the pit. . . .

²⁹ “‘There is where Meshech and Tubal and all her crowd are. Her burial places are round about him. . . . And will they not lie down with mighty ones, falling from among the uncircumcised, who have gone down [where?] to Sheol with their weapons of war? . . . There is where the dukes of the north are, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who have gone down with the slain ones, . . . These are the ones that Pharaoh will see, and he will certainly be comforted over all his crowd. Pharaoh and all his military force will be people slain by the sword,’ is the utterance of the Lord Jehovah.”—Ezek. 32:18-31.

30. (a) Are there other Gentiles in Sheol besides those named by Ezekiel, and where is this indicated? (b) How sensational did Isaiah say the destruction of Babylon’s line of kings was to be?

³⁰ Notice that array of Gentile nations, whose dead people are in Sheol or Haʹdes, namely, Egypt, Assyria, Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom and Sidon. But that the dead of still other Gentile nations are there is indicated for us in the words addressed to the king of Babylon by Jehovah’s prophet Isaiah. He foretold the destruction of the family line of kings of Babylon who held the Jews as exiles for over seventy years. This destruction is spoken of as being so sensational as to cause even the dead in the common grave of mankind to get excited. It is so sensational as to wake them out of their death sleep and make them talk in amazement.

31. To what did Isaiah, chapter fourteen, liken the “king of Babylon”?

³¹ Jehovah’s prophet Isaiah likens the “king of Babylon” to a majestic tree against which no woodchopper had even been able to get but which is at last cut down. To this line of Babylonian kings the prophet Isaiah says:

32, 33. (a) What was to be agitated at the king’s coming, and who therein were to speak to him? (b) In what dishonorable state was the “king of Babylon” to be brought down to Sheol?

³² “Even Sheol underneath has become agitated at you in order to meet you on coming in. At you it has awakened those impotent in death, all the goatlike leaders of the earth. It has made all the kings of the nations get up from their thrones [with which they had been buried]. All of them speak up and say to you, ‘Have you yourself also been made weak like us? Is it to us that you have been made comparable? Down to Sheol your pride has been brought, the din of your stringed instruments. Beneath you, maggots are spread out as a couch; and worms are your covering.’

³³ “O how you have fallen from heaven, you shining one, son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the earth, you who were disabling the nations! . . . down to Sheol you will be brought, to the remotest parts of the pit. . . . All other kings of the nations, yes, all of them, have lain down in glory, each one in his own house. But as for you, you have been thrown away without a burial place for you, like a detested sprout, clothed with killed men stabbed with the sword that are going down to the stones of a pit, like a carcass trodden down. You will not become united with them in a grave, because you brought your own land to ruin, you killed your own people.”—Isa. 14:4, 9-20.

34, 35. (a) What does Isaiah’s prophecy thus reveal about the inmates of Sheol? (b) Where will more on this general subject appear?

³⁴ Thus the “king” or royal dynasty of Babylon is brought down to Sheol, but not with the glorious burial such as was given to kings and world rulers of the earth. However, besides that fact Isaiah’s prophecy shows that “goatlike leaders of the earth” and “kings of the nations” are in Sheol or Haʹdes. Such personages as these would be “the great” that will stand before the great white throne of judgment, when, as Revelation 20:11-13 says, “death and Haʹdes [Sheol] gave up those dead in them.”

³⁵ However, more concerning this general subject will appear in further articles of this series to be published in the forthcoming issues of The Watchtower.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 80]

Israelite rebels go down into Sheol

A Bible Theme We Must Learn

NO Bible reader can ignore the fact that one of the dominating themes of the Bible is the fall of Babylon. It is also forced on his attention that there are two Babylons, one greater than the other; and he reads of the fall of both of these cities. One is a prototype of the other, and the existence and fall of both of these cities has great effect upon the true worshipers of God, yes, upon the entire world.

It is a matter of historical record that the first Babylon has fallen and gone into complete ruin, without an inhabitant. Even to Jehovah God, the sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth, the fall of Babylon was very important, for he caused his prophet Isaiah to describe its fall and destruction more than 190 years before the event actually occurred. But long after the fall of the ancient city of Babylon, God again foretold through his greatest Prophet, Jesus Christ, the fall of a greater Babylon. Its prototype, Babylon on the Euphrates, was an enemy of God and a thresher of his people Israel, and her destruction was a cause for Israel to rejoice, but the fall and destruction of Greater Babylon are of universal consequence and occasions for rejoicing on the part of the heavens and those dwelling on earth who serve God in true worship.—Revelation, chapters 17, 18.

LIFE OR DESTRUCTION INVOLVED

This Bible theme, the fall of Babylon, is a theme that we must learn. Like ancient Babylon, Babylon the Great is an empire. Ancient Babylon was the center of false religion that opposed God. Babylon the Great has outdone its prototype in enmity against God, for it constitutes the world empire of false religion. It has misrepresented God, put men in bondage to fear and superstition, has influenced governments and set them against one another and has caused most of the bloodshed that has taken place on the earth. (Rev. 18:24) Babylon the Great, as in the case of ancient Babylon, is foretold to suffer, first, a fall that breaks her power to hold onto her captives, and, later, complete destruction and ruination. The outstanding feature of this theme is that if we are in Babylon we must get out quickly and after getting free be extremely careful not to touch her or have anything to do with her wickedness and spiritual fornication.—Rev. 18:4; Isa. 52:11.

In ancient times Babylon put men in fear of danger for their lives, but modern Babylon the Great puts men in graver danger. How? Jesus said that many will be resurrected: “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28, 29) He tells us that even the people of such wicked cities as Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh, and the Jewish cities that did not like Jesus’ preaching, namely, Chorazin,