The Lowest Parts of the Earth

For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

(Psalms 86:13) KJV

The lowest parts of the Earth is one of the many ways in which the Bible refers to the core of the Earth. The Hebrew sheol and the Greek hades are used to refer to the underworld realm of the dead, anything below the surface of the Earth.

For the ancients, the grave was a portal into the nether world, and extensively developed afterlife in the interior of the Earth. Even though sheol and hades are broad terms, they’re modified in a wide variety of ways to make it clear that in any given context they’re referring to a specific part of the interior of the Earth. Our findings are summarized in the tables below.

Levels of Hell

	Grave (sheol) Pit (sahat/bowr)	Earth (erets)	World (tebel)
Crust	sheol	erets	tebel
Mantle	mibbeten sheol tavek sheol yerekah bowr	tachti erets erets tachti	mowcadah tebel
Great Gulf (outer core)	bad sheol	erets beriach matsuq erets mayim tachath erets
Core (inner core)	sheol tachti tachti erets bowr, shachath missahat beli	mowcadar erets

Biblical Features of the Core

Usage	Transliteration	Scripture	Post
Bottomless pit	phrear tes abyssou	Revelation 9:1-2	3/29
Foundations of the earth	mowcadar erets	Jeremiah 31:37	2/10
Hell	hades	Luke 16:26	3/29
Hell	tartarus	2 Peter 2:4	3/29
Hell below	sheol tachath	Isaiah 14:9	3/27
Hell fire	gehenna pyros	Matthew 5:22	3/29
Lowest hell	sheol tachti	Deuteronomy 32:22	3/27
Lowest parts of the earth	tachti erets	Psalms 139:15	6/7
Pit	bowr, shachath	Isaiah 38:18	3/26
Pit of corruption	missahat beli	Isaiah 38:17	3/26

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