One question that we keep getting coming through our website is on hell, and especially where it may be located. Many people have asked us if the Bible gives us any type of indication of where hell may actually be located at.
After reviewing all of the verses on hell, I believe the Bible is giving us major clues as to where hell may be located at. For those of you who are interested in this technical question, I thought I would draw up this article for all of you so you can see the specific verses from our Bible that are giving us these major clues.
As you look at these specific verses, notice that every time heaven is mentioned in the Bible, it is being referred to as being “up” from our earth.
And every time hell is being mentioned, it is being referred to as being “down” from our earth. Being down from our earth tells me that hell is literally underneath our earth, and possibly located right in the center of our earth.
Here are the verses that are giving us major clues that hell may literally be located right underneath our earth, and possibly right at or close to the center of it.
- “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment …” (2 Peter 2:4)
- “Let death seize them; let them go down alive into hell, for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.” (Psalm 55:15)
- “Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death.”(Proverbs 7:27)
- “They do not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who go down to hell with their weapons of war; they have laid their swords under their heads but their iniquities will be on their bones, because of the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.” (Ezekiel 32:27)
- “Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.” (Isaiah 5:14-15)
- “… then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living. ‘I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again,’ says the Lord God. (Ezekiel 26:20-21)
- “But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive in to the pit, then you will understand that these men rejected the Lord. Then it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up … So they and all those with them went down alive in the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the congregation.” (Numbers 16:30-33)
- “Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” (Isaiah 14:15)
- “For Sheol cannot thank You, death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.” (Isaiah 38:18)
- “… Deliver him from going down to the Pit … He will redeem his soul from going dow to the Pit, and his life shall see the light.” (Job 33:24,28)
- “Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit…” (Proverbs 1:12)
- “But those who seek my life, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.” (Psalm 63:9)
Notice how many times in these verses that people are literally being cast down into hell.
Once again, here are some of these key words put one right after another in a bolded bullet point format so you can see these major clues very clearly from these specific verses.
- cast them down to hell
- go down alive into hell
- descending to the chambers of death
- shall descend into it
- descend into the Pit
- those who go down to the pit
- they go down alive into the pit
- going down to the pit
- shall go into the lowest parts of the earth
The very last verse from Psalm 63:9 is a major one, as it is literally telling us that those who are going into hell are literally going into the “lowest parts of the earth.”
The verse from Numbers 16:30 tells us that the earth literally opened up and swallowed them up alive who were rejecting the Lord. And from there it tells us they literally went down alive into the Pit.
Just these two verses alone are telling us that hell is somewhere below the earth’s surface. And the rest of the verses are also saying the exact same thing, in that every time the Bible talks about hell, it is talking about people always being cast down into it.
In my opinion, when you put all of these verses together, one right next to the other, I think it is very plain and clear that there really is a hell and that it is literally located right underneath our earth, and possibly close to the center of it.
Conclusion
In the Bible Basics section of our site, we have a much more detailed and intense article on the reality of hell and what the living conditions may be like down there.
If you would like to see all of the main verses from our Bible on the existence of a real, live, living hell and why God has created it in the first place, here is the link to our main article on this topic:
We also have in this article the testimony of Bill Wiese who literally spent 23 minutes down in hell so God could have him bring back to us exactly what the living conditions are like down there.
As we have said in this article, hell and death are real and unless you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior in this very short life, you will spend the rest of your eternal existence down in this horrible place of torment.
What Bill Wiese saw and experienced down there is way beyond what our wildest nightmares could ever conjure up. Hollywood, with all of its fancy special effects technology, could never put on the big screen the real horrors that are going on down there 24/7 for all of the people who are now living down there.
Again, to all of you who have any unsaved loved ones, please pray for their eternal salvation to the day they literally die.
Pray that God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, make major power moves on each and every one of them before it is too late.
Once you die and cross over, that will be it. There will be no second chances once you enter into hell. There will be no appeals you will be able to make before the Lord.
Your fate will be forever and finally decided once you die and enter into this place of unimaginable horror.
We all only have one short window to get all of our loved ones saved before they die and cross over. Do not waste and squander this one short window we all now have with the Lord.
Your own personal, one-on-one prayers to the Lord could be instrumental in getting some of these people saved before they die and meet the Lord head for their own personal final judgment.
Your own prayers to the Lord for their own personal salvation may be the only thing that will end up keeping them from dropping into the most horrible place imaginable, where the Bible says that the smoke of their torment will ascend forever and ever.
Do not discount how powerful your own personal prayers to the Lord may be for each and every one of them. God hears and listens to your prayers.
And He may just mightily move to answer your own prayers, especially for the salvation of those who may be very close to you.
This is a good article with concise illustrations and references. I think it would be good to include scriptures that describe hell; the temperature, atmosphere, creatures living there, look and feel, readily visible substances etc. It would also be great to include scientific / geographical realities the explain this description.
Thank you.
I agree with the above conclusion because it is based upon scripture. Those of us who believe the Bible is truth because of its claim to be:
John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
People who argue with scripture will lose, BIG time.
Hell is a terrifying reality that anyone with rational logical sense would want to avoid at all cost. Years ago I questioned the reality of hell’s existence because people from several cults had given me contrary arguments rejecting the actual existence of Hell. I asked God if such a place existed to please reveal it to me so that I could be persuaded about what real Christians had been trying to explain to me about Hell. God then allowed me to experience the dreadful fall that leads to the realm of Hell which is literally in the center of Earth and is on fire and smells of brimstone and sulphur. It was horrendous. Had it not been because of God’s Hand stopping my fall I would have landed in the fiery pit of Hell and would have been burning the rest of my eternal life. Yes, Hell is real and you make sure that you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior if you wish to escape the eternal flames of Hell. Hell was prepared for Satan and his rebel angels, not for mankind. If you reject Jesus you will be the one to sentence yourself to an eternity of fiery suffering.
There is no fire in hell the grave. read the scriptures again. Sheol means hell and it means grave. any person that dies and go into Sheol the grave they have entered into hell…. again If you go down to the grave that is considered Hell. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.” (Isaiah 38:18) This scripture that you used it says those who go down to the pit indicating that there is one of two or more persons. there is no separating for who goes there and who doesn’t anybody who experiences the pit goes into Sheol which is hell. God says he is the beginning and the ending the spirit in man which is the spirit of God goes back to God where it came from. If God is the beginning and He is the ending then where is hellfire? My end and everybody else end is in God!!!!
The exact center of earth is solid Bing Earth’s core around that the outer core is liquid iron at around 15000 F. It very well fits what Hell’s described like other sites say it’s there. Catholicism for Dummies says this is a misconception and fallen angels are pure spirits and don’t reside in a location. I guess the dead could reside there.
Hell is the grave plenty of verses where it says the wicked will perish or be destroyed and if you perish or destroyed you can not be existing. One verse John 3:16 Only the Father can give eternal life, it is a gift and any gift from the Father is good. The wicked can say I don’t believe in God but I will have eternal life which is a gift from the Father.the kind of eternal life the wicked is talking about is not good. The Fathers mercy for the wicked is eternal death. Some where in Revelation it mentions the second death after the wicked are judged.
Jesus Himself said, ” But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed—it would be better if he had never been born.” “It will be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for that city—“, ‘It would be better for a millstone be hung around his neck and he be drowned in the midst of the sea.” I think you are wrong, Israel. If a man returns to the same non-existing state that he was in before he was born, then his punishment would be over. You or anyone cannot punish what does not exist. I believe that hell is the place where God’s righteous wrath is vented forever, and these verses and others bear that out.
Explain Luke 16:19-31 then? There is an after life for both saved and not saved.
No other place in the bible best describes hell like Jesus Christ did in the gospel of Luke 16:19-31..
If you think well, you can reason that the event took place while Jesus was still in heaven. And just like I perceived it, the coming of Jesus christ was in gracious mercy, an answer to the prayer of that rich man in hell and for the fulfilment of the prophecies of old..
It is good you comprehend the message in the story and take the grieve of repentance it brings to heart ..an repent for your good.
Some people think hell is just death, well that can be true but where eternal punishment is reserved for the devil and his followers is HELL FIRE which burns with sulphur and brimstone. Rev 21:8
Thanks
If I get that scripture correctly, it speaks of the Lake of fire.. It didn’t say Hell fire..
Hell or Heaven are the 2 destinations for those who die in the flesh and are ‘left’ with their spirit being.Hell and Heaven are thus in the spirit world and not in the physical realm.So how can hell be below the earth if Earth is the physical realm and the spirit man after death, lives in the spirit world? Does the ‘below’ or ‘bottom’ maybe be a metaphor for a lost spirit doomed for hell and is lower than a free spirit going to heaven?
It’s interesting to think of the implications of the resurrection of the just and unjust (Acts 24:15). Everyone’s soul will be reunited with the body and since the body is physical, I imagine it will need to dwell somewhere physical. Whether that is in the core of the earth or somewhere else, I don’t know. But we are all destined to be soul and body as those of us who are alive currently are.
What about this option? The Bible also talks about death, hell, and the grave. Sometimes, the Hebrew word translated as hell is sheol, which actually means the grave. Isaiah 14:15, Psalm 86:13, and Job 11:8 to name a few places. One place of special note is Psalm 139:8. In that verse, David says that if he were to ascend into heaven, God would be there and if he were to make his bed in hell, God would be there as well. The idea is that there is no place that God could not find David. That raises then the question, isn’t God supposed to be in heaven, and not in hell? That word in Psalm 139:8 as hell in the Hebrew is also sheol, or, the grave.
It’s Greek equivalent word is Hades. Hades in the Greek language is described as the invisible realm in which all the dead reside. The present dwelling place of all the departed. In other words, this is the place where when we die, our spirits will go to Hades until the day of God’s judgments. Even this doesn’t sound like hell.
There is another word used in the New Testament that also gets translated as hell, but is clearly a different place. Here are a few places to look. Matthew 5:22, Matthew 23:33, Mark 9:47, and James 3:6. There are a few more places, but in each of these places, the Greek word translated as hell is geenna, or sometimes spelled Gehenna. A study of that word would reveal that it was a place outside of Jerusalem where people would throw out their trash and their waste and even slain criminals. This place was a valley and it was nearly almost always on fire to burn up the trash. It also refers to the lake of fire spoken about in Revelation 19:20, 21:14-15.
Then there’s that verse that says something about death and hades being destroyed. Revelation 20:14 says that death and hades will be cast into the lake of fire. Hell could not be cast into itself, could it? We tend to apply the same word “hell” to all things that have to do with death, hell, hades, or even the grave and the lake of fire. Yet the original Bible languages had a much better understanding than we do about the place. It’s not enough to just read the Scriptures, but sometimes, we have to dig a little deeper and find out what the original words meant so we can find the proper interpretation of the Scriptures.
I know this comment was longer than probably desired, but I just couldn’t leave this alone. It took me some years of not understanding clearly, but when I began to allow the Holy Spirit to teach me and give me understanding, (yes, Jesus said that the Spirit would do this), that I began to understand that what we used to teach about hell is not entirely correct. Just thought I’d pass on what I’ve learned and hope it helps.
It is quite clear to me that the Bible shows us that Hell or the pit or Sheol is located under the earth’s crust probably the center of the earth. This truth is clearly revealed in Numbers 16 the story of Korah’s rebellion against Moses. Other scriptures that show this same truth are:
Deut. 11:6 Psalms 30:9 63:9,11,15 Isaiah 14:9
Ezekiel 26:20 32:18,30 Phil. 2:10, 11 Ephesians 4:9
38:18
I Peter 3:19 4:6 Rev 9:1-2
Brilliant article!!! The wicked for sure went DOWN to Hell. But the righteous also went down to Hell, but it was the Paradise Side vs. Hades the wicked side, separated by a great chasm that neither could cross. But a host of Christians think Paradise was in Heaven and has always been. But what seals the deal for Michael’s case is Samuel ASCENDED from Paradise when the Witch of Endor conjured him up, that means it was impossible for Paradise to be in Heaven 1,056 B.C. Down means down and up means up! I have much more on this if Michael could respond, I will email it to you. WELL DONE THY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT!!!
What an interesting topic to research about?
It is interesting that there are some of issues that God kept them secrets (Deut.29:29) of which if we are hungry enough of Him, we had to go search them out from Him by His Spirit and the Word. Acts17:27
To answer this easy but rather difficult question, one must first understand the language of God.
Without delving into much and to go straight into the answer of the question, Hell is a spiritual place of perpetual torment which can be seen when one is on the third heaven.
In Luke 16: 31, the rich man who was in Hell could see Lazarus in Paradise. Hell and Paradise are separated by a chasm.
According to Enoch Hell, the spiritual place of torment is in the northern side of Paradise.
Heaven is a spiritual realm. When we die, we all go to Heaven, but are separated there by our own works.
Hopefully you are enriched
You get the book of heavenly encounters of Enoch, you will be thrilled to learn about all the heavens, that’s from the first heaven to the 10th Heaven.
But on the same note spiritually there are people who are filling the pinch of hell here on Earth as we are speaking right now. Those who rejected the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. They do not have eternal peace. Their lives are in darkness and are under torment because of sin.
With others life to them it’s paradise on earth.
Paradise is for the righteous and compassionate.
this information is extremely helpful, the scripture verses are right on point. thank you so much!!
The description of people being cast down alive into hell or to the pit is a contradiction of terms in a very real sense. A very popular usage of the story of the “Rich Man and Lazarus” is an allegorical depiction of people actually dying and one going to a place of torment called hell. It is so very interesting that both men actually died and were buried but yet were still alive. This concept is rooted in spiritualism even though Jesus was using this illustration to teach a very practical lesson to the people in his day who believed in immediate life after death. I would like to show to any and all who are interested that it is impossible for hell to exist today and certainly for it to be under the earth. It takes a tremendous amount of oxygen to keep fire burning on the surface of the earth. Just think of what it would take to keep fire burning within an enclosed ball of rocks and dense earth. It would be impossible! Hell in many places of the bible refers to the grave and I assure you that those who are buried there are not alive. Let the bible speak for itself. This business of eternal torment and a hell burning right now comes from the popular ministry of our day.
What I find especially odd about attempts to decide on a physical, geographical location for hell is the implication that if we were able to dig down that deep and withstand the pressure, we could visit there. Given that technology continues to advance, it seems likely that probes and people will one day be able to see into the Earth’s core. If there are somehow people existing in there, would we be able to take them out? Is the inverse of this idea true, by which I mean, would we be able to reach heaven if we built a good enough spaceship? Would we be able to ferry people from one place to the other? An insistence on heaven or hell as a physical place that can be located by mortals implies at least the potential for movement in and out of that place, which needlessly complicates a spiritual reality.