Even Stranger
But those who seek my [f]life to destroy it, will go into the [g]depths of the earth. Psalm 63:9 NASB
Life/depths – Did you notice the two footnotes in this verse from the NASB? The tiny (f) and (g) indicate that the translators want the reader to notice something about the Hebrew words. But if you looked at the footnotes, you would find something even stranger than the translation in the text. Footnote (f) says that even though the official translation uses “life,” the reader should realize that the Hebrew word means “soul.” What? The Hebrew is nepeš. As you know, this word does not mean “soul.” “Soul” is a Greek concept that has become part of the Christian idea of Man, but finds no counterpart in Hebrew thought. The little footnote here is actually a theological and doctrinal correction. The translation “life” is more accurate. They have it exactly backwards.
The next footnote indicates that the Hebrew means “lowest places.” The Hebrew word is the plural of taḥtî. “The derivative taḥtî is used twenty times. About a third of these occurrences describe literal situations—the lower story of the ark, the lower springs of Caleb (Jud 1:15), the lower millstone (Job 41:24 [H 16]) etc. The other cases are used metaphorically to qualify the terms ‘the pit,’ ‘the earth,’ or ‘sheol’ (q.v.).”[1] But what did Hebrews think about the place of the dead? Youngblood’s comment in the TWOT is worth reading:
But in most of the cases of the usage with ʾereṣ (six times in Ezk, twice elsewhere) the reference is to the place of those who have died. Much discussion revolves around this usage and what it involves. One view equates the “earth below” with “the realm of the dead” or the “netherworld.” The netherworld is pictured in Akkadian sources as a cheerless place, a kind of cavern deep in the earth to which all people go at death and where there is deprivation and hardship (not penal suffering) but conscious existence. None of these details are in the ot picture, but the view is that the ot pictures some such realm deprived of its pagan associations.
Theologically, this view seems to have some problems. It differs from Christ’s presentation in Lk 16 which describes two places widely separated and greatly different. An old view in the church is that in ot times there was one limbus patrum with two divisions from which Christ freed the believers when he descended into hell. This phrase in the Apostles’ Creed is found only in forms of the creed used after the fourth century. It is not used in the Nicene Creed, an elaboration of the Apostles’ Creed. The phrase may have originated in connection with this belief in a limbus patrum or in connection with a growing belief in purgatory; it is not clear.[2]
Youngblood goes on to say that perhaps it only means “the grave,” but that also raises issues about life after death. How all this is connected to She’ol remains unresolved. Hebrew is messy, isn’t it? Of course, none of this is indicated in the little footnote. You, the reader, can go merrily on your way without ever worrying about what the text really says.
Topical Index: nepeš, soul, taḥtî, She’ol, Psalm 63:9
[1] Youngblood, R. F. (1999). 2504 תַּחַת. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 968). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Ibid.
