Genesis 37:35
| 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. |