what is sheol in the bible

In the Hebrew Bible, Sheol is described as the underworld, a place of stillness and darkness where the dead go after death. It is mentioned 66 times in the Hebrew Bible and is associated with the state of death and a sense of eternal finality. Sheol is often depicted as a subterranean place, associated with the term "pit," and is described as having gates, being compartmentalized, and having "deepest depths" and "farthest corners". The Old Testament portrays Sheol as the house of death, a realm of the dead where all the deceased go, and it is often depicted as dark, dusty, and gloomy. Sheol is also represented as the opposite of the upper sphere of life and light, and its direction is "down". In some translations, Sheol is equated with the spiritual afterlife, where souls wait for the resurrection, and it is considered different from Heaven or Hell. The term "Sheol" is often translated as "grave" in the New International Version, with the sense of the realm of the dead.