Determine why the word has these different categories of meaning.
Although Sheol is rendered grave 31x in the OT, it never refers to a physical grave.
Sheol is never used as a plural, where queber (keh-ver) the Hebrew common word for grave is used many times in the plural form for many graves (Ex 14:11) Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?
A dead body is never sent to Sheol, where queber (keh-ver) is used when talking about burying someone in a grave and is also never used to refer to an individuals grave. (2 Sam 21:14 - And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre(kehver) of Kish his father:
Sheol is never located on or near the surface of the earth, but kehver is (Gen 50:5 - Gen 50:5 - My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me.
Man never digs or makes a Sheol, but he digs and makes a kehver (Joseph digging his own grave in Canaan to be buried there when they return to the land.)
The Old Testament never speaks of a man going down to queber (the grave). Twenty times, the bible speaks of going down or descending into the grave (Sheol)
In Gen 37:33 - Joseph is believed to be devoured by an animal, which means there was no body to bury. J
Jacob in Gen 37:35. Says “For I will go down into the grave (Sheol, not the physical grave) unto my son mourning.”
He is saying that he will mourn continue to mourn his son until he is reunited with him once again. (Rebuttal against Annihilation)
There are three places where the Bible speaks of conversations taking place in Sheol.
Eze 32:21 - The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
Isaiah 14:9-20 - When the “chief ones of the earth” will mock Lucifer and say “Art thou also become weak as we?”
Luke 16:19-31 - Lazarus and the Rich Man
This demonstrates that souls, after their physical death, are conscious and shown to be fully aware and conversing.
