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Psalm 16 · a question people ask

"You will not leave my soul in Sheol" (16:10). What are Sheol and corruption here?

In the text

The WEB keeps the Hebrew word Sheol (tap Sheol). Strong's gives it as "hades or the world of the dead", and Peter's quotation of the verse has Hades: "because you will not leave my soul in Hades" (Acts 2:27). Other psalms speak of being brought up from it: "LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol" (Psalm 30:3). Corruption is shachat (tap corruption), which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "pit"; the WEB has it as pit in "if I go down to the pit" (Psalm 30:9). Psalm 49 has the same Hebrew verb and noun as 16:10, see and corruption: "that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption" (Psalm 49:9). Where Peter and Paul quote the verse, the WEB has decay (Acts 2:27, 13:35). The psalm says no more about Sheol than this verse, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.”
Psalm 16:10 · World English Bible
“because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.”
Acts 2:27 · World English Bible
“Therefore he says also in another psalm, ‘You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.’”
Acts 13:35 · World English Bible
“LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.”
Psalm 30:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 16

Psalm 16: The path of life

Psalm 16 speaks of the LORD in the words of dividing the land: portion, lot, lines, inheritance (16:5-6). Its "I shall not be moved" (16:8) is, in Hebrew, the wicked man's words in Psalm 10:6, said here because the LORD is at his right hand. And Peter, pointing to David's tomb, says David "spoke about the resurrection of the Christ" (Acts 2:31).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions