“I’ve been doing a treatment on the world Sheol in the Bible, meaning grave, hell, pit, hole, underworld, experience of the wicked, etc. Often shown in the act of swallowing metaphorically. For example, Numbers 16:13 “They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned, the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community” or in Jonah swallowed by the whale or Proverbs 1:12 “let’s swallow them alive, like the grave and whole, like those who go down to the pit”. This hole is shown as correction and guidance rather than severe abusive harm. For example: Proverbs 23:14 when referring to children says “punish them with the rod and save them from death”. The rod represents parental authority. In the ancient east a shepherd’s “sherbet” (rod) was never used to beat or injure the sheep, rather ward off predators or nudge a wandering sheep back to a safe place. I refer to Psalms 23:3 “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me”. Psalms 88 asks the question I’ve been thinking about: “Is your love declared in the grave?” The answer is yes. Sheol isn’t a hidden place from God. Job 26:6 says “death is naked before God. Proverbs 15:11 says “death and destruction lie open before the Lord”. We also see that God makes things alive through death. 1 Samuel 2:6 “The Lord brings death and ‘makes alive’, he brings down to the grave and raises up.” Also, we see the dead will live. Isaiah 25:8 “He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears.” Isaiah 26:19 “But your dead will live, Lord, their bodies will rise. Let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy.” Repeatedly we see God is sovereign over death. Emphasized in Hosea 13:14, it quotes “I will ransom them from the powers of Sheol, I will redeem them from Death. O Death where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction”. This passage is later quoted by Paul in 1st Corinthians 15. Constantly, humans try to handle Sheol on their own terms through arrogance (seen with Babylon in Isaiah 14 where God will take Babylon to Sheol and have mercy on Israel. Also, with Pharaoh in Ezekiel 31-32 where he is marching into Sheol alongside other failed empires like Assyria, Elam, and Edom), denial (seen with Jerusalem signing a sneaky treaty they think will allow them to escape Sheol in Isaiah 28), and imperial greed (Habakkuk 2:5 where greed is never satisfied. Sheol is a black hole that swallows life and always demands more).
But God holds the keys and rules over the grave! People go to Sheol and don’t return to their early form (Job 7:9 “As cloud vanishes and is gone, so does one who goes down to the grave and doesn’t return) but even then God is there. Job 19:25-26 “I know that my redeemer lives and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God”. Psalm 139:8 “If I go up to the heaves, you are there, if I make my bed in the depths, you are there”. Jonah 2:2 “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried and you heard my voice”. Even in the absolute lowest point of human despair and spiritual death, a prayer/plea can pierce through the insatiable jaws of the grave. There is hope beyond death! Psalm 49:14-15 (“sheep destined to die” yet “God will redeem and surely take me to himself”. Psalm 86:13 “For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead”.*But I cannot figure out where Daniel 12:2 fits into this….”Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt”. How can God wipe away every tear and others are sent to “Olam (from alam [https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5956.htm]); properly, concealed, i.e. The vanishing point; generally, time out of mind (past or future), i.e. (practically) eternity; frequentatively, adverbial (especially with prepositional prefix) always — alway(-s), ancient (time), any more, continuance, eternal, (for, (n-)) ever (-lasting, -more, of old), lasting, long (time), (of) old (time), perpetual, at any time, (beginning of the) world (+ without end). “Deraon (or deraown {day-raw-one;})” which is from an unused root meaning to repulse—an object of aversion — abhorring, contempt, etc. Looking at the interlinear Olam, deraon seems to be correctly translated to everlasting contempt. Help me out.”
F.O.M.C.M.’s response:
“Daniel 12:2 is the apocalyptic hinge in the Five Noble Truths—prophecy describing the resurrection at the end of the age, not a permanent dual outcome. The Hebrew runs: wə-rab-bîm mî-yə-šê-nê ’aḏ-maṯ-ʿā-p̄ār yā-qî-ṣū; ’êl-leh lə-ḥay-yê ʿō-w-lām, wə-’êl-leh la-ḥă-rā-p̄ō-wṯ lə-ḏir-’ō-wn ʿō-w-lām. “And many of those sleeping in the dust of the ground will awake: these to life of olam, and these to reproaches, to deraon of olam.” Olam (Strong’s 5769, from alam 5956, “to conceal, veil”) is the vanishing point—time out of mind, age-long, practically eternity. Deraon (1860, from an unused root “to repulse”) is an object of aversion; it appears only here and in Isaiah 66:24, wə-hā-yū ḏê-rā-’ō-wn lə-ḵāl-bā-śār, “and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh,” where the corpses of the pō-šə-ʿîm, the transgressors, become the spectacle. Your interlinear is right: olam deraon is accurately “everlasting contempt.” The verse balances it against chayye olam—everlasting life—so the contempt is meant to match the life in duration. The Septuagint renders it eis zōēn aiōnion… eis oneidismon kai eis aischynēn aiōnion, “to life eternal… to reproach and to shame eternal,” confirming the parallel.
Under universal salvation, the “some” are not a second class God abandons forever. They are the same humanity, raised to face the full weight of their rebellion—the shame, the abhorrence, the vanishing point of their old self—so teleology can complete its work and bring them into reconciliation through Christ. Predeterminism means this painful stage was never outside God’s plan; it is the necessary passage, not the ceiling.
The New Testament supplies the telos. Acts 3:21: achri chronōn apokatastaseōs pantōn, “until the times of restoration of all things.” Ephesians 1:10: anakephalaiōsasthai ta panta en tō Christō, “to sum up all things in Christ.” Colossians 1:20: apokatallaxai ta panta eis auton, “to reconcile all things to himself.” First Corinthians 15:22: hōsper gar en tō Adam pantes apothnēskousin, houtōs kai en tō Christō pantes zōopoiēthēsontai, “for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” Philippians 2:10–11: hina en tō onomati Iēsou pan gony kampsē… kai pasa glōssa exomologēsētai, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess.” Romans 5:18: eis pantas anthrōpous eis dikaiōsin zōēs, “to all men, to justification of life.”
Revelation 21:4 closes the loop: kai exaleipsei pan dakryon ek tōn ophthalmōn autōn, kai ho thanatos ouk estai eti, “and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be nomore.” The exaleipsei echoes Isaiah 25:8, katapien ton thanaton eis nikos, “he will swallow up death in victory.” Every tear—including the tears of those who passed through the contempt—is wiped away. The apocalyptic view lets Daniel 12:2 keep its stark, terrifying force as a real stage of judgment; the other four truths keep it from being the final word.”
