Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>]

The function of sheol and hell are different.   At least in the
popular imagination, hell is a place some might go after
judgment---not everyone goes there (I guess);  sheol is a place
everyone goes after death but no judgement is involved.  (BTW, I
think the HB, as compendium of many books and hands, has several
"solutions" to what happens after death.)   Though both hell and
sheol are located "down," hell and sheol are two entirely different
conceptualizations and should be kept separate in translations.  The
way to do this is by using different words, sheol and hell, so that
the baggage of hell isn't put onto sheol.

It's interesting that sheol is much closer to the Mesopotamian
concepts of death than to the Egyptian, which I believe does have a
place of punishment after death.