The other line of thought was somewhat diflerent ; it was not so much a protest against dying, as a protest that dying was not death ; it was a denial that death was to the saint of God that which the popular mind regarded it to be — a separation from God and descent into SheM. The fellowsliip with God had in life, and which was life, would remain unbroken in death. This amounted to the faith that the godly soul would overleap SheM and pass to God. This appears to be the faith exi)reHsed in Ps 49 and 73, and in a certain sense in Job 19.
Before these poetical passages, which are obscure, are briefly looked at, sometliing must be said of Shc6I and the state of the dead; though, as has been said, OT statements about She(M chiefly re- flect the popular sentiments, and have little positive value. It might be surmised from the strong expressions used many times of death in the OT that in dcatli existence absolutely came to an end. Thus Ps 14G* ' his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish ' ; Ps 39" ' O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go lience, and be no more.' And perhaps most strongly of all Job 14'"- 'for a tree hatii liojje, if it be cut down, it will sprout again ; but man lieth down, and riseth not ; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep ' (cf. 7^"). Hut these are only the strong expres,sioii8 of despondency and regret over a life mournfully soon ended, and that never returns to be lived on this earth again. The conception of
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ESCHATOLOGY
ESCHATOLOGY
Bhebl is sufficient answer to the apparent doctrine ■which they teach. The word Slie61 (S'lx;^, twice written defectively, and usually fern., as nouns of place mostly are), is of uncertain derivation. Its root has been supposed to be a softened form of another root (Syc*, represented by "^yy the hollow hand, Is 40") signifying perhaps 'to be hollow,' in which case it woulcl have the same meaning as our word ' hell ' (Germ. Holh) ; and the name ' pit ' with which it is interchanged in OT [ijiuaaos in NT) might seem to favour this derivation. A cor- responding Assyrian Sudlu (Fried. Del., Jeremias) is denied by Jensen. Shebl is the opposite of the upper sphere of light and life ; it is ' deep Shebl ' (Ps 86" 03°), the region of darkness, ' a land of darkness as darkness itself, without any order, and where the light is as darkness ' (Job 10"). There is no strict topography to be sought for Shebl ; it is in great measure the creation of the imagination, deep down under the earth or under the waters (Job 26'). It is not to be identified with the grave, though the grave be often regarded as the mouth of it ; and it is sometimes represented as a vast burying-place (Is 14", Ezk 32==). Shebl is the place of departed personalities ; the generations of one's forefathers are there, and he who dies is gathered unto his fathers ; the tribal divisions of one's race are there, and the dead is gathered unto his peoples, and if his descendants have died before him, they are there and he goes down to them, as Jacob to his son, and David to his child (Gn 37*° 42^, 2 S 122»).
(1) The state of those in Shedl. — As death con- sists in the withdrawal by God of the spirit of life, the source of energy ana vital power, the person- alities in Shebl are feeble and flaccid. They are shades (o'i<5T Job 26°, Is 14'). Their abode is called ' silence ' (Ps 94") ; it is ' the land of forgetf ulness ' (Ps 88") ; ' the living know that they must die, the dead know not anything ' (Ec 9°) ; ' his sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not ; and they are brought low, and he perceiveth it not of them' (Job M'^'). But other pa.ssages represent the existence of the dead in Shebl as a dreamy re- flection of life on earth, in which self-consciousness and ability to recognize others stUl remain — ' Art thou become weak as we ; art thou become like unto us ? ' is the language addressed by the Shades to the prince of Babylon when he descends among them. (2) There is no distinction of good and evil in Shedl. — All must go into Shebl, and all alike are there (Job 3"). Sheol itself is no place of punish- ment nor of reward (Ec 9*), neither IS it divided into compartments having this meaning : ' To-morrow,' said Samuel to the king whom God had rejected, • to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me ' (I S 28"). The idea of a deeper or darker Shebl in anj' penal sense cannot be verified. ' The farthest recesses of the pit ' into which the prince of Baby- lon is thrust in death forms a mere antithesis to the 'farthest recesses of the North,' the abode of the gods, where he aspired to seat himself when alive (Is 14">). If the ' prison ' referred to Is 24" be Shebl, incarceration m Shebl, i.e. death, is re- garded as the penal issue of the judgment. And tlie state of the dead being a reflection of life on earth, any dishonour done to one on earth, such as being deprived of sepulture, ma^ still cleave to him when he descends into the Underworld (Is 14, Ezk 32). The language of Is 66*" 'their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched,' refers to the Imdies of the ungodly, which are cast out upon earth, an abhorring to all flesh, and not to the ungodly themselves in Shebl. (3) All connexion with the world of the living is broken off. — The dead can neither return to earth, nor does Tie know anything of the events passing there (Job 7' 14'^ Ec 9°). Yet with the strong belief in the existence