1 Samuel 28:11-15, Saul visits the Medium of En-dor. “Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.”

Job 26:6, “Hell [Sheol] is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.”

Psalm 86:13 “For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell [Sheol].” (lowest: there are “sections” H4480 [means “part of”] in Sheol).

Isaiah 7:11 “ Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.” No Sheol.

Ezekiel 31:14-18, “To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when he went down to the grave [Sheol] I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell [Sheol] with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. They also went down into hell [Sheol] with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.”

No light

Job 10:21,22, “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.”

Job 17:13, “If I wait, the grave [Sheol] is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.”

Psalm 88:6 “Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. “ pit: hole like a cistern. Sheol is in verse 3.

Psalm 88:12 “Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” Sheol is in verse 3.ⁱⁱ

Psalm 143:3 “For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.” No sheol mentioned. However, darkness of the "long dead" is expressed as his despair.

No remembrance

Psalm 6:5, “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” Similar to Ecclesiastes also Psalm 30:9--”“What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?”

Psalm 88:11, “Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?” Contrast with declaring and preaching God's glory to the Living.

Psalm 88:12, “Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” see verse 3. land of oblivion. From whose standpoint? Obviously, the living forget the dead.

Ecclesiastes 9:5, “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”ⁱⁱⁱ

No praise of God in Sheol.

Psalm 6:5, “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave (sheol) who shall give thee thanks?” -Contrast of opportunities in life with the grave when a dead body can do no good to men nor bring any glory.^iv

Psalm 30:9, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit (shachath ^H7845)? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?” --not sheol.

Psalm 88:10-12, “Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”

Psalm 115:17,18, “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.” A dichotomy: those that go down into silence and those who bless the Lord in eternity (forevermore: ‛ôlâm ‛ôlâm^H5769 -- properly concealed, that is, the vanishing point; generally time out of mind (past or future), that is, (practically) eternity” (Strong's H5769).

Isaiah 38:18, “ For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.”   Life is distinguished as time of opportunity. Death is the opposite.

Inhabitants are weak, trembling shades

Job 26:5, “Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.”  Plant seed are "dead" before water gives life (John 12:24).

Isaiah 14:9-10, “Hell [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 hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?”

Sheol swallows the living without satisfaction.

Proverbs 1:12, “Let us swallow them up alive as the grave [Sheol]; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:”

Proverbs 27:20, “Hell [Sheol] and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”

Isaiah 5:14, “Therefore hell [Sheol] hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.”

No one can escape its gates

Job 10:21, “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death [tsalmâvethH6757, 'shadow of death']”

Job 17:13-16, “If I wait, the grave [Sheol] is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.”

Isaiah 38:10, “I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave [Sheol]: I am deprived of the residue of my years.”

Cut off from the Living

Psalm 88:3,5, “ For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. ... Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.”

Isaiah 38:10, “I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.”

God's presence reaches to Sheol

Psalm 139:8, “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell [sheol], behold, thou art there.”

There will be a resurrection from the Dust.

Isaiah 26:19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.”

God will swallow up death

Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it”

Rewarded Or Punished

Daniel 12:2, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

Summary of how Sheol is Used: Contrasts with Living Opportunities

Isaiah 38:11-19, “I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. … What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. rd, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. he living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known the Truth.”

שׁאל / שׁאול she'ôl

Total KJV Occurrences: 65 translations of sheol into hell (31 times), into grave (30 times), pit (3) and grave's (1).

hell, 31

Deuteronomy 32:22, 2 Samuel 22:6, Job 11:8, Job 26:6, Psalm 9:17, Psalm 16:10, Psalm 18:5, Psalm 55:15, Psalm 86:13, Psalm 116:3, Psalm 139:8, Proverbs 5:5, Proverbs 7:27, Proverbs 9:18, Proverbs 15:11, Proverbs 15:24, Proverbs 23:14, Proverbs 27:20, Isaiah 5:14, Isaiah 14:9, Isaiah 28:15 (2), Isaiah 28:18, Isaiah 57:9, Ezekiel 31:16-17 (2), Ezekiel 32:21, Ezekiel 32:27, Jonah2:2 (2), Habbakuk 2:5

grave, 30

Genesis 37:35, Genesis 42:38, Genesis 44:29, Genesis 44:31, 1 Kings 2:6 (2), 1 Kings 2:9, Job 7:9, Job 21:13 (3), Job 24:19, Psalm 6:5, Psalm 30:3, Psalm 31:17, Psalm 49:14-15 (3), Psalm 88:3, Psalm 89:48, Proverbs 1:12, Proverbs 30:16, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Song of Solomon 8:6, Isaiah 14:11, Isaiah 38:10, Isaiah 38:18, Ezekiel 31:15, Hosea 13:14 (2)

pit, 3

Numbers 16:30, Numbers 16:33, Job 17:16

grave's, 1

Psalm 141:7