“Hades” is used in some 75 verses of the LXX, usually translating the Hebrew sheol , which is used about 65 times. But the distyribution of the usage is not even. Genesis uses sheol/hades four time, but outside of Genesis the word appears infrequently in the Pentateuch (Numbers 16; Deuteronomy 32:22). The term appears at the beginning and end of 1-2 Samuel (1 Samuel 2:6; 2 Samuel 22:6), and twice in 1 Kings 2 (vv. 6, 9). Otherwise, it is not used in the historical books at all.
When we open the wisdom literature, however, it pops up everywhere, and a few times in the prophetic books ( hades in LXX: Job 7:9; 11:8; 14:13; 17:13, 16; 21:13; 26:6; 33:22; 38:17; Psalm 6:6; 9:18; 15:10; 17:6; 48:15-16; 54:16; 85:13; 87:4; 88:49; 93:17; 113:25; 114:3; 119:137; 138:8; 140:7; Prov 1:12; 2:18; 5:5; 9:18; 14:12; 15:11, 24; 16:25; 30:16; SoS 8:6; Is 14:9, 11, 15, 19; 28:15, 28; 38:10, 19; 57:9; Hos 13:14-15; Amos 9:2; Hab 2:5). Sheol is used in fewer than 20 verses in the MT of the prophetic books, half in Isaiah. It is used in 30+ verses in the five wisdom books.
That suggests that biblical wisdom has something significant to do with death and the grave.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Rome and the Church in the United States
Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste…
Marriage Annulment and False Mercy
Pope Leo XIV recently told participants in a juridical-pastoral formation course of the Roman Rota that the…
Undercover in Canada’s Lawless Abortion Industry
On November 27, 2023, thirty-six-year-old Alissa Golob walked through the doors of the Cabbagetown Women’s Clinic in…
