Divine retribution is represented as pursuing the wicked after they have left this world — pursiung them even into the lowest realms of sheol (Deut. xxxii, '22 ; Amoa ix, 2) ; and the bitterest shame and humiliation are de- scribed as awaiting there the most prosperous of thia world's inhabitants, if they have abused their prosper- ity to the dishonor of God and the injury of their fel- low-men (Psa. xlix, 14, Isa. xiv). On the other liand, the righteous had hr)pe in his death ; he could rest as- sured that, in the viewless regions of sheol, as well as amid the changing vicissitudes of earth, the right liand of God would sustain him; even there he would enter into peace, walking still, as it were, in his upriglitness (Prov. xiv, 32 ; Psa. cxxxix, 8 ; Isa. Ivii, 2). Tliat sheal, like hades, was conceived of as a lower region in com- parison with the present world, is so manifest from the whole language of Scripture on the subject, that it is unnecessary to point to particular examples; in respect to the good as well as the bad, the ])assage into sheul was contemplated as a descent ; and the name was some- times used as a synonym for the very lowest depths (Deut. xxxii, 22; Job xi, 7-0). This is not, however, to be understood as afhrming anything of the actual lo- cality of disembodied spirits ; for there can be no doubt that the ranguage here, as in other cases, was derived from the mere appearances of things; and as the body at death was committed to the lower parts of the earth, so the soul was conceived of as also gouig downiwards. But that this was not designed to mark the local boundaries of the region of departed spirits may certainly be in- ferred from other expressions used regardmg them — as that God took them to himself; or that he would give them to see the path of life ; that he would make them dwell in his house forever; or, more generally still, that the spirit of a man goeth upwards (Gen. v, 24 ; Psa. xvi, 1 1 ; xxiii, 6 ; Ecclcs. iii, 21 ; xii, 7). During the old dis- pensations there was still no express revelation from iieaven respecting the precise condition or external re- lationships of departed spirits ; the time had not yet come for such specific intimations ;. and tlic language employed was consequently of a somewhat vague and A-acillating nature, such as spontaneously arose from common feelings and impressions. For the same rea- son, the ideas entertained even by God's people upon the subject were predominantly sombre and gloomy. iSheol wore no inviting aspect to their view, no more than hades to the superstitious heathen ; the very men who believed that God would accompany them thither and keep them from evil, contemplated the state as one of darkness and silence, and shrunk from it with instinctive horror, or gave hearty thanks when they found them- selves for a time delivered from it (Psa. vi, 5 ; xxx, 3, 9 ; Job iii, 13 sq. ; Isa. xxxviii, 18). The reason was that they had onh' general assurances, but no sjiecific light on the subject; and their comfort rather lay in overleaping the gulf of sheol, and fixing their thoughts on the better resurrection some time to come, than in anything they could definitely promise themselves be- tween death and the resurrection-morn.
In this lay one iftii>ortant point of difference between the Jewish and the heathen hades, originated by the diverse spirit of the two religions, that to the lieheving Hebrew alone the sojourn in sheol appeared, that only of a temporary and intermediate existence. The hca- tlien had no jirospect beyond its shadowy realms; its bars for him were eternal ; and the idea of a resurrec- tion was utterly strange alike to his rehgion and his philosophy. But it was in connection with tlie pros- pect of a resurrection from the dead that all hope form- ed itself in the breasts of the true people of God. As this alone could effect the reversion of tlie evil brought in by sin, and really destroy- the destroyer, so nothing less was announced in that first jiromise -which gave as- surance of the crushing of the tempter : and though as to its nature but dimly aiipreheiuled by the eye of faith, it still necessarily forriied, as to the reality, the great ob- I ject of desire and expectation. Hence it is said of the
HADES
10
HADES
diich is 1 an abode where angels visit. With this also agrees what
^ai rinrchs that thev looked for a better country, wl ■ ^^
a 1 oav ■ Iv one ; an.l of those who in later times resisted onr Lord said of his own temporary sojoitm among the
u. . bl.r . for the truth of God, that they did it to ob- dead, when on the eve of his departing thither-" To.
" „ «..,er resurrection (lleb. xi, IG, 35). Hence, too, day," said he. in his reply to the prayer of the pemten
tain a iHitter resurrection (lleb. xi, IG, 3o) the spirit of i.niphecv confidently proclaimed the arnval of a time when tlie dead should arise and sing, when fktol itself should be destroyed, and many of its inmates be brou"'ht fortli to the possession of everlasting life (Isa. xxvi, i;*; Hos. xiii, 14; Uan. xii, 2), Yet again, in a|M)stolic times, Paul represents this as emphatically the promise made by God to the fathers, to the realiza- tion of which his countrymen as with one heart were hopiu" to come (Acts xxvi, 7) ; and .Tosephus, in like manner, tcstitics of all but the small Sadducaan faction of them, that thev believed in a resurrection to honor and blessing for those who had lived righteously in this life (Ant. xviii, 1, 3). This hope necessarily cast a gleam of light across the darkness of /uides for the Is- raelite, which was altogether unknowi to the Greek. Closely connected with it was another difference also of consi.lerable moment, viz., that the Hebrew slieol was not, like the Gentile /(«(/m, viewed as an altogether sep- arate and independent region, withdrawn from the pri- mal fountain of life, and subject to another dominion than the world of sense and time. Pluto was ever re- garded by the heathen as the rival of the king of earth and heaven ; the two domains were essentially antago- nistic. I5ut to the more enlightened Hebrew there was but one Lord of the living and the dead ; the chambeTs ofghcol were as much open to his eye and subject to his control as the bodies and habitations of men on earth ; 80 that to go into the realms of the deceased was but to pass from one department to another of the same all- embracing sway of Jehovah. See Siieoi..