to sheol was not only to go to the grave but also to experience a conscious afterlife. There is a Hebrew word that can only be translated “grave”—kever—but the writers often preferred the word sheol because it encompassed the region of departed spirits who were conscious, either in bliss or torment. The word sheol never means just a physical grave. For the purpose of greater clarity, more recent translations of the Bible sometimes do not attempt to use an English equivalent to translate sheol. They