Ayub 11:8

11:8 It is higher ¹  than the heavens – what can you do?

It is deeper than Sheol ²  – what can you know?

Mazmur 63:10

63:10 Each one will be handed over to the sword; ³ 

their corpses will be eaten by jackals. ⁴ 

Mazmur 107:26

107:26 They ⁵  reached up to the sky,

then dropped into the depths.

The sailors’ strength ⁶  left them ⁷  because the danger was so great. ⁸ 

Amsal 9:18

9:18 But they do not realize ⁹  that the dead ¹⁰  are there,

that her guests are in the depths of the grave. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 14:15

14:15 But you were brought down ¹²  to Sheol,

to the remote slopes of the pit. ¹³ 

[11:8]  ¹ tn The Hebrew says “heights of heaven, what can you do?” A. B. Davidson suggested this was an exclamation and should be left that way. But most commentators will repoint גָּבְהֵי שָׁמַיִם (govhe shamayim, “heights of heaven”) to גְּבֹהָה מִשָּׁמַיִם (gÿvohah mishamayim, “higher than the heavens”) to match the parallel expression. The LXX may have rearranged the text: “heaven is high.”

[11:8]  ² tn Or “deeper than hell.” The word “Sheol” always poses problems for translation. Here because it is the opposite of heaven in this merism, “hell” would be a legitimate translation. It refers to the realm of the dead – the grave and beyond. The language is excessive; but the point is that God’s wisdom is immeasurable – and Job is powerless before it.

[63:10]  ³ tn Heb “they will deliver him over to the sword.” The third masculine plural subject must be indefinite (see GKC 460 §144.f) and the singular pronominal suffix either representative or distributive (emphasizing that each one will be so treated). Active verbs with indefinite subjects may be translated as passives with the object (in the Hebrew text) as subject (in the translation).

[63:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “they will be [the] portion of jackals”; traditionally, “of foxes.”

[107:26]  ⁵ tn That is, the waves (see v. 25).

[107:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “their being”; traditionally “their soul” (referring to that of the sailors). This is sometimes translated “courage” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[107:26]  ⁷ tn Or “melted.”

[107:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “from danger.”

[9:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “he does not know.”

[9:18]  ¹⁰ sn The “dead” are the Rephaim, the “shades” or dead persons who lead a shadowy existence in Sheol (e.g., Prov 2:18-19; Job 3:13-19; Ps 88:5; Isa 14:9-11). This approximates an “as-if” motif of wisdom literature: The ones ensnared in folly are as good as in Hell. See also Ptah-hotep’s sayings (ANET 412-414).

[9:18]  ¹¹ tc The LXX adds to the end of v. 18: “But turn away, linger not in the place, neither set your eye on her: for thus will you go through alien water; but abstain from alien water, drink not from an alien fountain, that you may live long, that years of life may be added to you.”

[9:18]  sn The text has “in the depths of Sheol” (בְּעִמְקֵי שְׁאוֹל, bÿ’imqe shÿ’ol). The parallelism stresses that those who turn to this way of life are ignorant and doomed. It may signal a literal death lying ahead in the not too distant future, but it is more likely an analogy. The point is that the life of folly, a life of undisciplined, immoral, riotous living, runs counter to God’s appeal for wisdom and leads to ruin. That is the broad way that leads to destruction.

[14:15]  ¹² tn The prefixed verb form is taken as a preterite. Note the use of perfects in v. 12 to describe the king’s downfall.

[14:15]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term בּוּר (bor, “cistern”) is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to the place of the dead or the entrance to the underworld.