Skip to content
Chapter 37

Genesis 37:35

Verse

RBT Translation:
And the whole of his builders and the whole of his built-ones are standing up to console him, and he is refusing to console-himself, and is saying, `For I am descending toward my builder, mournful Sheol-ward.`1181 And his father is weeping אֶת-him.
LITV Translation:
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him. And he refused to be comforted, and said, I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son. And his father wept for him.
ESV Translation:
All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
Brenton Septuagint Translation:
And all his sons and his daughters gathered themselves together, and came to comfort him; but he would not be comforted, saying, I will go down to my son mourning to Hades; and his father wept for him.

Footnotes

1181

Hebrew שְׁאֹ֑לָה, sheol-ah. Feminine noun.

Sheol/hell-ward

The noun sheol is not ever found with a definite article. It is often found as sheolah with the “feminine” suffix -ah. The suffix -ah is called the “directional hay” or “terminative case” and is not pronounced. This means that sheol is not so much a place as it is a direction. Or perhaps it is a feminine place.

It is an abode, movement, or condition, a limitation. There is no concrete definition just as with the four winds—north, south, east, west. “The west” as translated from dusk (#4628) is not any one place, but a direction just as “east” is translated from sunrise or front (#4217 and #6921) and is also not a definitive place. Also note that sheol is not something found in the Deep (Abyss) but in the Earth, as a “pit”, or “grave”. Notice how prepositions in or towards are avoided,

“And they are descending themselves and the whole of which to themselves are living ones, Sheol-ward, and the Earth closes over themselves and they are lost from the middle of the assembly.” Num. 16:33 literal

“The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. In the Narrow to me I am calling-out Yahweh, and toward my elohe…” David’s Song, 2 Sam. 22:6 literal

The middle of the assembly is “herself” Sheol, a grave. In Jeremiah 29:15 Babylon is also written with a terminative, directional feminine suffix, babel-ah. “You have caused to stand up for us prophets Babylon­-ward.”

See note on Genesis 1:5.