Hades / Sheol

The Hebrew, Latin and Greek that is often translated in English as “Hades” or “Sheol” is translated in the German Luther Bible 2017 (and pre-1912) as Totenreich or “realm (or: kingdom) of the dead” in these verses. (Source: Jost Zetzsche)

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Sheol .

Translation commentary on Proverbs 5:5

“Her feet go down to death”: For a similar expression see 2.18. “Her feet” refers to her way of living and to her leading or taking her victim where she goes. We may say, for example, “If you follow her. . .” (Contemporary English Version) or “If you go with her.” See Good News Translation.

“Her steps follow the path to Sheol”: This line follows the sense of the first line very closely. “Her steps” refers to her movements, going in the direction of death, which is again the way she conducts herself, her style of life, as in the first line. The Revised Standard Version note shows that the Hebrew text has “lay hold of,” which is also used in Psa 17.5. This is apparently an idiom meaning to “follow” or keep to the path, which is parallel to “go down” in line 1. For “Sheol” see 1.12. Bible en français courant translates “Her conduct drags [you] down to death, her steps lead straight to the grave.” Contemporary English Version has “If you follow her, she will lead you down to the world of the dead.” Another expression of the whole verse is “This kind of woman will take you straight to the place of dead people.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 5:5

5:5

Notice the parallel parts that are similar in meaning:

5a
Her feet go down to death ;

5b
her steps lead straight to Sheol.

In 5:4, the focus was the result of sleeping with an adulteress. In 5:5, attention changes to the woman herself. In some languages, this change of focus may need to be made explicit. See the first meaning line in the Display for 5:5a–b (combined/reordered) for one way to do this.

5:5a–b

Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol: The phrase Her feet is a figure of speech (synecdoche) that refers to the woman herself. She is described as going down to death. The Jews commonly thought of the place of the dead as being “down,” under the earth. The parallel clause her steps lead straight to Sheol indicates that the woman is walking deliberately and directly toward the place of the dead.

In Hebrew, verses 5:5–6 mention only the woman. However, in the context of 5:3–4, verse 5:5 contains an implied warning to the young man that the woman will lead him to the same place. Some English versions make this explicit. For example:

She will take you down to the world of the dead; the road she walks is the road to death. (Good News Translation)

Other versions leave this warning implied. In deciding whether to make this information explicit, be sure to consider the whole context.

to death…to Sheol: In Hebrew, death is parallel to Sheol. Both terms refer here to the place where dead people stay.

5:5b

Sheol: In Hebrew, Sheol refers to the place of the dead. For more information on ways to translate “Sheol,” see the note on 1:12a.

General Comment on 5:5a–b

In some languages, it may be more natural to reorder and/or combine the parallel parts. For example:

That woman is going directly toward Sheol, the place of the dead.

© 2012, 2016, 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.