HISTORICAL NOTE: According to Vine's OT. Dictionary, "Sheol was not understood to be a place of punishment, but simply the ultimate resting place of all mankind". The idea that Sheol was a place of conscious punishment became predominant during the intertestamental period with the influence of Babylonian and subsequently Greek culture and philosophy upon Judaism. The apparent enigma of the righteous also being in Sheol was resolved in some but not all rabbinical circles, by subdividing or compartmentalizing Sheol into two distinct regions. The wicked were hopelessly consigned to an area of Sheol where punishments were applied commensurate with one's performance in life, while the righteous were segregated and awaiting redemption in a part of Sheol having paradisiacal dimensions, i.e.,Abraham's Bosom. As The New International Dictionary Of New Testament Theology states, "With the infiltration of the Greek doctrine of immortality of the soul, paradise becomes the dwelling place of the righteous during the intermediate state."
Sheol, the hell of the OT is "the common fate of all mortals". Aside from the hope and promise of redemption for the righteous from Sheol's grip, there is no scriptural basis for distinguishing the lot of the righteous from that of the unrighteous. Death then, becomes the universal enemy; it is not presented as a release to heavenly life and immortality. Rather, death is itself "the problem - for which resurrection is the answer". 7 Further, conscious punishment, regardless of duration, is not explicitly taught in any of the OT Sheol passages. If some kind of sustained torment is being implicitly taught therein, this theme certainly remains undeveloped.