Isaiah 14:9

"Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they that answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become as weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and worms cover thee."

What a welcoming committee! The kings who have brought death to so many are doomed to death; and this inspired picture reveals the kind of welcome they would receive in the other world!

Sheol is not a very definite place, as the word is used in the Old Testament.; but here it refers to the dwelling place for the spirits of the wicked dead; and what we have here represents these wicked dead as welcoming the king of Babylon, "with malicious satisfaction, because all of his brief earthly glory has been extinguished, even as was theirs."[12]

SHEOL

Properly speaking, this word means "the grave" or the realm of the dead. It comes from a word which means "asking, demanding, requiring, seeking,"[13] and carries with it the thought of insatiable desire to consume all living beings. It is variously translated as the grave, hell, Hades, or the pit. It is different from a grave in that a grave is dug for some individual, whereas, Hades includes all graves, and beyond that all who ever died without regard to where their bodies were placed. All the dead are in Sheol, but not all the dead are in graves. Some are in the sea, and others were trodden or plowed into the mire of some battlefield, or eaten by wild beasts.

It is called: Abaddon (destruction), Job 26:6; a place of silence, Psalms 94:17; a place of darkness and the shadow of death, Job 10:21; in Sheol are the foundations of the mountains, Deuteronomy 32:22; men penetrate Sheol by digging into the earth, Amos 9:2; the roots of trees strike down into it, Ezekiel 21:16; Korah and others went down alive into it, Numbers 16:30,33; "In Sheol, there is no knowledge, nor can any praise God or give thanks there, Psalms 6:5; Ecclesiastes 9:10; and Isaiah 38:10,11."[14]

However, "It is erroneous to think of Sheol as a place independent of God; `If I make my bed in Sheol,' says the Psalmist, `Behold, thou art there' (Psalms 139:8)."[15]

There is little Biblical information regarding the question of whether the dead are conscious or not. Based upon an inaccurate understanding of Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus, some think that perhaps the wicked dead are conscious; but Lazarus was not portrayed as conscious. Others cite the fact that Samuel was summoned from the dead (1 Samuel 28:11-15) and that in this section of Isaiah the dead kings of ancient times are represented as giving a sarcastic welcome to the arrival in death (Hades) of the king of Babylon. However, we believe this so-called "example" of conscience activity in death is no more than a literary device. The case of Samuel cannot be so explained; but certainly, we can deny that the witch of Endor had anything to do with it. Samuel came back, all right, but it almost scared the witch to death!

And then, there is the case of Moses and Elijah appearing on the mount of Transfiguration with Christ and carrying on intelligent conversation with the Lord. In this event, however, there was an extraordinary factor. Elijah was most certainly translated; and since God buried Moses, it is likely that he also was translated. At least, no one knows for sure.

The scripture most favorable to the idea of consciousness in Sheol is Christ's astounding declaration in Matthew 22:31-33 that God is God of the living and not of the dead, affirming at the same time that He is indeed the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. Add to this, the sacred promise of Jesus Christ that he will be with his church "always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20), which most certainly includes God's being with his saints in Sheol.

To us, there does not appear any sufficient grounds for dogmatic conclusions on this question; and therefore we leave it as one of "the hidden things," belonging unto the Lord.

This sarcastic "welcome" song addressed to the fallen king of Babylon has two themes, identified by Kidner as: (1) the unqualified relief that the whole world (even the trees of the forest) received when they heard he was dead (Isaiah 14:3-11); and (2) the second theme pertained to the "fallen Day Star (Lucifer in KJV),"[16] and the king of Babylon's vain ambition (Isaiah 14:12-21).