Sheol & Hades in Translation

How the same Hebrew word Sheol and Greek word Hades are rendered across the major English versions — laid side by side, with each choice colour-coded so the inconsistency is plain to see.

*1 Rotherham notes hades is the almost uniform Septuagint (LXX) rendering of Hebrew sheol (65×).   *2 Note reads “Hebrew Sheol.”   *3 Note: “sheol or hades.”   *4 Note: “Hebrew to Sheol.”   *5 The word sheol occurs twice in the verse.

*6 “Saul,” not Sheol.   *7 Margin: “that is, from destruction.”   *8 NASB: Sheol, NRSV: grave.   *9 Margin: “or, The grave.”   *10 Spelled with one l in the original.   *11 Verse 18 in the Vulgate & Douay-Rheims.   *12 Verse 3 in the Vulgate & Douay-Rheims.

N/A = the word does not appear in this verse in the Vulgate.   N/V = the verse does not appear in the Vulgate.   “grave” was spelled graue in the 1611 KJV and Geneva Bible. Darby uses Sheol throughout; the German 1905 Elberfelder uses Scheol.

*1 Properly “unseen” (Strong’s #86).   *2 Depending on the Greek text, the word may be hades (unseen) or thanatos (death).   *3 Margin: “Or, hell.”   *4 Margin “Or, hell” in some 1611 printings.   *5 Spelling as in the original.

*6 Capitalised in the original.   *7 Note reads “Greek Hades.”   *8 WEY (Weymouth): the unseen world, the abode of departed spirits; in the A.V. both this word and Gehenna are rendered “hell.”   *9 “The Unseen World” — Greek Hades, Hebrew Sheol: “the sepulchre of souls” (Bengel).