Translation choice · documented · Afterlife
What the source reads — Sheol — the grave, where all the dead go alike (Hebrew she'ol; here 'the wicked return to Sheol')
What this version reads — 'The wicked shall be turned into hell' — the grave becomes the destination of the damned
The cornerstone of 'sinners go to hell'. The Hebrew says the wicked return to Sheol — the grave that takes everyone; death, not damnation. Translated 'hell', the verse reads as a sentence to torment, and one of scripture's most-quoted warnings rests on the flattening. Here even Diodati follows with 'inferno' — where at Psalm 16:10 it had kept the honest 'sepolcro'.
Read this chapter side by side — Psalm 9:17 →